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Tommy Tuberville 'disappointed' Auburn won't recognize his 2004 team as national champions

Kevin Scarbinsky

July 01, 2015 at 12:56 PM, updated July 01, 2015 at 1:00 PM

Seven years after his services were no longer required at Auburn, Tommy Tuberville has a pretty good relationship with his old employer.

His son Tucker is a backup quarterback trying to soak up all the knowledge he can from Gus Malzahn to help give him an edge in his future career as a coach.

Tuberville himself, the football coach at the University of Cincinnati, made a special trip to Auburn two years ago to watch one of the most memorable Iron Bowls in history, the Kick Six, and he's been back since.

But there's still at least one sore spot between Tuberville and Auburn that won't go away. It's the school's decision not to recognize his undefeated 2004 team as national champions.

An Auburn committee studied whether to recognize several of its past teams - 1910, 1913, 1914, 1958, 1983, 1993 and 2004 - as national champions, but AD Jay Jacobs said in May that the school decided it would continue to claim national titles for only its 1957 and 2010 teams.

"Obviously, I wasn't on that committee," Tuberville said on my radio show on WNSP in Mobile.

The 2004 Auburn team finished 13-0 and ranked second behind USC, which destroyed Oklahoma in the BCS Championship Game. The Trojans were later stripped of the BCS title - although they retained others like the AP title - after they were hit with on NCAA probation for rules violations involving Reggie Bush, their star running back on that 2004 team.

"I don't know why that (2004 Auburn) team wouldn't be recognized," Tuberville said. "USC beat Oklahoma handily. We finished undefeated and they caught USC with their hand in the cookie jar and took the (BCS) title away from them. I never could understand why they just vacated it instead of saying, 'We're going to name another champion.'

"It doesn't make anybody any money. That's the reason they didn't do it. It doesn't make any money for TV or anybody out there so they just said, 'Ah, we'll just vacate it and we won't have a champion for 2004.'

"Little disappointed with some of the administration there at Auburn that didn't help us with that. They could've stepped up and said, 'Hey, since that happened, we're going to recognize the 2004 team as national champions.' A lot of people would've done that because we did all we could do. We took care of business.

"But it is what it is and that team will be recognized, no matter how they phrase it, whether it's as national champions or not, as one of the best (teams) to ever play at Auburn."

There's no disagreement on that point.

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We can't claim that title because we didn't win it on the field. We didn't play in the game. Should we have been? I believe so. But we weren't. I don't care that they took it away from USC. We didn't win it. Life ain't fair.

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This is by Tommy Tuberville's own words and thoughts not mine. For a long time, a lot of thought of you thought and said the same thing is Tommy is saying. Tommy is RIGHT. Jay Jacobs is WRONG.

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This is by Tommy Tuberville's own words and thoughts not mine. For a long time, a lot of thought of you thought and said the same thing is Tommy is saying. Tommy is RIGHT. Jay Jacobs is WRONG.

That's just an opinion and one that we've hashed and rehashed for years. Auburn wasn't even in the title game that year and thus, IMO, the claim of that title is a huge reach and not applicable.

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This is by Tommy Tuberville's own words and thoughts not mine. For a long time, a lot of thought of you thought and said the same thing is Tommy is saying. Tommy is RIGHT. Jay Jacobs is WRONG.

That's just an opinion and one that we've hashed and rehashed for years. Auburn wasn't even in the title game that year and thus, IMO, the claim of that title is a huge reach and not applicable.

Disputes like these are part of what has made college football great. (Well, I mean disputes about undecidable issues, not repeating the same 'claims' over and over again.)

I actually wonder whether this particular dispute will serve to end a lot of future disputes. I think most of us would agree (and it's pretty arguable, even for non-AU fans) that our 2004 team contributed greatly to the momentum of the CFB Playoff discussion. Not saying Auburn is the only reason the Playoff was instituted, of cour$e. But we played a pivotal role. The interesting question to me is whether it's actually good for CFB in the long run. I suspect it will only be good if we continue to have similar disputes. That's one argument for keeping the finals at 4 teams.

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I still like Tubbs!! Not afraid to say what he feels. He makes some valid points. Would LOVE to have him as our AD!!

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TT coached the team so naturally he would believe that. To claim a title when you weren't even a participant in the game makes no sense. Would you claim a title in any other sport where you didn't play in the championship game? It's all very subjective. Its long past two me to put this argument to bed and move ahead. The decision has been made and it isn't getting reversed.

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I'm a big fan of Coach Tubs and yeah - AU played more ranked teams than both OU and USC and deserved in the NC game in 2004 over both of them based on the schedule alone. It's like '83, best team with the hardest schedule and no respect.

Excuse me - I have to go beat a dead horse now.

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I'm a big fan of Coach Tubs and yeah - AU played more ranked teams than both OU and USC and deserved in the NC game in 2004 over both of them based on the schedule alone. It's like '83, best team with the hardest schedule and no respect.

Excuse me - I have to go beat a dead horse now.

Welcome to AUFamily, Wenfl!

If you don't mind my asking, are you in North Florida or in the NFL?

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As far as I am concerned I know Auburn was the best team in the country in 1983, 1993 and 2004, and I really don't care what someone else's opinion is or was. All of the polls are based subjective opinion and that is my subjective opinion. When a team plays the toughest schedule in the country and comes out with the best record I just don't see how it could be any different. One could make a case for a AU/USC co-championship in 2004 but they had a player who was a key part of their team that year who was declared ineligible. This is much different than than Auburn's situation in 1993. No one on that team was ever declared ineligible the probation that year was based on the Eric Ramsey lies from prior seasons.

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I agree with Tubbs- once the title was vacated, AU should have lobbied for recognition. AU "won it on the field" more than anyone else that was eligible.

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If we're going to claim one national championship that we haven't before now 1983 should be it. That team was truly robbed of the championship they earned on the field under the system in place at the time. If you don't believe that...go look at the schedule they played.

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If we're going to claim one national championship that we haven't before now 1983 should be it. That team was truly robbed of the championship they earned on the field under the system in place at the time. If you don't believe that...go look at the schedule they played.

That one I could see. 04 not so much
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If we're going to claim one national championship that we haven't before now 1983 should be it. That team was truly robbed of the championship they earned on the field under the system in place at the time. If you don't believe that...go look at the schedule they played.

That one I could see. 04 not so much

Honestly, I could see both, as well as others. But the point seems to be moot. We've decided not to claim any of them, at least for now.

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If we're going to claim one national championship that we haven't before now 1983 should be it. That team was truly robbed of the championship they earned on the field under the system in place at the time. If you don't believe that...go look at the schedule they played.

That one I could see. 04 not so much

Honestly, I could see both, as well as others. But the point seems to be moot. We've decided not to claim any of them, at least for now.

The system in 04, as flawed as it was, didn't put Auburn in the title game. If you don't play in the title game you don't get to lay claim to the title if it is vacated. Never been a fan of claiming championship years after the fact. It's too bammerish.
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If we're going to claim one national championship that we haven't before now 1983 should be it. That team was truly robbed of the championship they earned on the field under the system in place at the time. If you don't believe that...go look at the schedule they played.

That one I could see. 04 not so much

Honestly, I could see both, as well as others. But the point seems to be moot. We've decided not to claim any of them, at least for now.

The system in 04, as flawed as it was, didn't put Auburn in the title game. If you don't play in the title game you don't get to lay claim to the title if it is vacated. Never been a fan of claiming championship years after the fact. It's too bammerish.

This ^^^ :thumbsup:

Now that the NC has become somewhat more credible (less "mythical"), let's just focus on the future.

More specifically, let's put our focus on the SEC championship and let the NC fall out from that.

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Since pre BCS titles were just opinion poll titles anyway, I love the argument that fans both here, and especially insecure fans of some rivals, will try to make. Namely, that a specific opinion poll is somehow better than any other opinion poll. It's not and that is why they are called mythical national titles.

Auburn teams in 1913, 1983, 1993 and 2004 were national champions. They were all awarded the title by specific polls and should have been claimed by AU a long time ago. The latest decision by the AU administration graphically demonstrates why other specific polls weren't awarded to Auburn in the first place.

So the decision has been made, for now, but I honestly don't think this will be definitive. In the meantime, we move on in the playoff era to win championships in the future.

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I'm a big fan of Coach Tubs and yeah - AU played more ranked teams than both OU and USC and deserved in the NC game in 2004 over both of them based on the schedule alone. It's like '83, best team with the hardest schedule and no respect.

Excuse me - I have to go beat a dead horse now.

Welcome to AUFamily, Wenfl!

If you don't mind my asking, are you in North Florida or in the NFL?

Thanks for the welcome. =)

I'm living in the South Florida melting pot and all of my neighbors are over the top gator fans (I guess that's still better than tide neighbors)

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I agree with Tubbs- once the title was vacated, AU should have lobbied for recognition. AU "won it on the field" more than anyone else that was eligible.

^This^
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Since pre BCS titles were just opinion poll titles anyway, I love the argument that fans both here and especially insecure fans of some rivals, will try to make. That a specific opinion poll is somehow better than any other opinion poll. It's not and that is why they are called mythical national titles.

Auburn teams in 1913, 1983, 1993 and 2004 were national champions. They were all awarded the title by specific polls and should have been claimed a long time ago. The latest decision by the AU administration also graphically demonstrates why other specific polls weren't awarded to Auburn in the first place.

The decision has been made, for now, but I honestly don't think this will be definitive. In the meantime we move on to win championships in the future.

^And this^
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