Go ahead and get ready. This will be the most anticipated Iron Bowl that we've seen in 20 years.
After Auburn's unbelievable 43-38 win against Georgia on Saturday, the Tigers will still miraculously control their destiny when Alabama visits the Plains on Nov. 30.
Everybody who predicted that in August, raise your hands. For those two or three true believers, wow, congratulations. Your team is set to play in the most impactful meeting between the nation's most heated rivals since 1994. (I was there at Legion Field that night, and if you try to convince me Frank Sanders was short on that fourth down, I'll fight you.)
Sure, 2010 was huge -- and with the way that game evolved, with Cam Newton's Auburn team rallying for a 28-27 win, it lived up to every bit of the pregame hype. But Auburn and Alabama haven't entered this game with one or no losses since that crazy matchup I mentioned in Birmingham. And I expect every bit of the same buildup and mayhem that preceded that game, in the heyday of what has been an extremely cyclical rivalry ever since.
Back then, this was a fairly common occurrence. The Iron Bowl regularly had mutual national-championship implications in the late 1980s and early '90s. But this rivalry hasn't been in that position in some time, and here we are.
Auburn is off next week. And Alabama might as well be, with FCS opponent Chattanooga visiting Tuscaloosa next weekend. The outcome is incidental, as AJ McCarron and C.J. Mosley will be on the sidelines early in the third quarter, while the reserves complete a sure blowout and only add to the buildup for a winner-take-all showdown in Auburn the following Saturday.
When they meet at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Nov. 30, the implications are simple. Win and play for the SEC (and maybe the BCS) title. The loser ... well who cares where they go bowling? You win or you lose in this one, and that's all anyone in Atmore and Gordo and Sylacauga will discuss for the next 364 days -- and for a long while after that. Although I haven't lived in Alabama in the past 14 years, I can tell you who won the Iron Bowl every single year that I've been alive.
Comparatively, it flew under the radar, but we also gained a bit of clarity on who might face the Auburn-Alabama winner in the SEC championship game. With its heartbreaking loss, in which safeties Tray Matthews and Josh Harvey-Clemons failed to break up Auburn's game-winning Hail Mary touchdown pass, Georgia is out of the running in the SEC East. Meanwhile, South Carolina's 19-14 win over Florida ensured that the Gamecocks are still alive and well in the division race.
We could discover next weekend whether South Carolina or Missouri will face the Iron Bowl winner. But the West will go right down to the wire -- and it will see its two most heated rivals determine the division championship.
We haven't seen it come down to that most bitter rivalry for a while, but that's what is now approaching over the next two weeks. Buckle up. It's a trip straight into this league's past.