IRON BOWL

[WDG 109]

By

Andrew Beaton and

Ben Cohen

Nov. 23, 2017 9:22 a.m. ET

22 COMMENTS

 

We’d like to express our sincere apologies to any fans of Michigan and Ohio State, Florida and Florida State, Ole Miss and Mississippi State, Oklahoma and Texas, Washington and Washington State and the dozens of other schools that claim ownership of the best rivalry in college football.

But it’s time to acknowledge what the last decade has made clear. There is no longer any debate. The most important, most insane and most just-about-everything rivalry is Alabama versus Auburn.

Here’s a brief list of the insanity surrounding recent Iron Bowls: There was the 2009 game when Alabama needed a wild fourth-quarter drive to stay undefeated en route to its first national title under Nick Saban. There was the 2010 game when Auburn had an even wilder second-half comeback on the road to its own national championship behind a phenom named Cam Newton. There was the 2013 game that ended on the single wildest play in the sport’s history. All that happened in between was the statewide ruckus that resulted from an Alabama fan calling into a local radio show and bragging about poisoning trees on a hallowed part of Auburn’s campus that fans toilet-paper in celebration of big wins.

[WDG 109]

per CBS 

More people watched the Iron Bowl than any other college football game so far this season.

No. 6 Auburn's 26-14 win over No. 1 Alabama drew an average overnight rating of 7.8 and 17 share, the highest for any college football game on any TV network this season, according to CBS. Those figures are up 66 percent from last year (4.7/10).

The Iron Bowl was CBS's highest-rated regular-season college football game (excludes SEC Championship Games) since the 2013 Iron Bowl, which earned an 8.6/18 rating and share, according to Nielsen.

Saturday's game peaked at 10.7/21 from 5:30-6:00 p.m. CT, per CBS

[WDG 109]

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