Auburn crowns themselves ‘04 National Champs
In a post today on the Orlando Sentinel’s On Campus blog, Sentinel staffer Tom Stephens writes about national championship and bowl rings that can currently be purchased on Ebay, including Florida State’s 1999 national championship ring and ‘Bama’s last championship in 1992. A ring that caught my eye was one commemorating Auburn’s undefeated run in 2004.
Intrigued, I clicked on the external link to the ring’s eBay posting and imagine my surprise when I noticed that the front of the ring said “NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.” This struck me as odd because, well, I seem to recall that that was the year that USC destroyed Oklahoma 55-19. Sure the Tigers went undefeated that year and probably should have been invited to the title game but weren’t. Hence, they weren’t national champions in 2004.
Try telling that to the players, coaches, and staff at Auburn, all of whom, according to the listing, received these rings. So is that how it works? You can just make a ring and you’re national champions? In that case, I’m placing an order right now for 2007 Rose Bowl Champions for my Insight Bowl losing Indiana Hoosiers. Following the Auburn train of thought, if it’s set in a precious metal, that makes it true, right? You don’t even have to have played in the game to be the winners of said game. How great is that?
But, hey, this ring is a steal.
For just $3,500 and $50 in shipping, you too can own a completely delusional piece of SEC football history.
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I’m not an Auburn guy, but if an SEC team goes undefeated, they can pretty much declare whatever they want to.
Like it or not, the SEC is college football and we can declare anything.
Sure, the rest of the country will call us crass and lunatics, but it’s all in vain because we really don’t care what they think or say. So they got MNC rings made for their 2004 season. Do you realize how many teams over the past 100 years have claimed MNCs?
I’m going to get a ring made for my .720 batting average title in co-ed church softball this year.
USC would have handed them their ass that year. They would have handed anyone their ass. AU is better off having not played them.
Now that I think about it – I’ll give them this ring for the ‘07 year.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj154/Afitzgerald66/realring.jpg
@ 5
If anyone would know about better off not having played in a NC game it would be Eeyore fan. AU surely deserved the shot more than OU. True that USC was a juggernaut but I would’ve loved to see AU’s defense get a shot after a season of work.
Considering all the shit the BCS system gets, is it now the contention that if the BCS says your the NC you are? I’m not saying AU making these rings isn’t a questionable act, but I will argue that it is a money shot in the face at the BCS. So the BCS tells you you’re not NC material. So the AP poll tells you your not BCS material. You go undefeated in the toughest conference in college football and you don’t even get a shot?
04 auburn. one of the best teams of the last 10 years. better than 04 USC, goldarn it. And I mean it.
Would have beaten them most likely. Not a popular sentiment among CFB fans I know but, it coulda happened.
7 –
“If anyone would know about better off not having played in a NC game it would be Eeyore fan” – How was WV better off not playing in the NC game? Sure they won big, but are you saying that they couldn’t have beaten OSU they way they played?
“AU surely deserved the shot more than OU” Statistically – they didn’t.
Yeah 55-19, they got that match-up right (sarcasm)…
Keep “Choppin” away at it
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj154/Afitzgerald66/realring.jpg
People also forget that USC played at VT the first game of that year (24-13 W) which is not close to pwning the opponent. AU vs. VT (16-13 W). But we’ll just never know (I’m looking at you Good Lord)… and to the people (dick donahue) who want to give us crap for being shafted to only witness the worst BCS Championship BLOWOUT of the era, two words: FUCK YOU (and Vols, Bitch)!!!
What a (bad) joke.
The BCS got it WRONG. The year before USC got “crowned” national champs by the AP when they weren’t supposed to. They went undefeated in the SEC, beat 5 top ten teams, and had a comparable score against a good, common, out-of-conference opponent (VT). The game would’ve been within a touchdown either way.