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It’s become commonplace for writers and fans to opine that this-bowl and that-bowl don’t matter simply because they aren’t a part of the College Football Playoff.
Nevermind that, pre-CFP, the same statement could have been made as often about all bowls outside of the BCS National Championship Game — but it wasn’t.
I don’t really understand why it’s now the go-to phrase of bowl season, but it isn’t true for many teams in many bowls, much less one as prestigious as the Sugar Bowl — a bowl that has long mattered and long been in the uppermost of echelons as the pre-BCS landing place of the SEC Champion.
For Auburn, with its disappointing 8-4 record — it should have been 9-3 or even 10-2 at worst — it’s easy to fall into that same mistaken bowl belief.
No, the outcome of the Sugar Bowl won’t affect the on-field results of next season, when Auburn’s offense will almost certainly be guided by ultra-talented Jarrett Stidham.
But it isn’t about that.
With the loss to Georgia that only occurred because of the worst coaching performance at Auburn since the 2015 clash with the Bulldogs, as well as the equally given-away-by-coaching season-opener against Clemson, the Tigers — and especially head coach Gus Malzahn — are in desperate need of a marquee victory.
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So while it won’t impact 2017’s success, program momentum is at stake in the Sugar Bowl — and that isn’t meaningless.
Lose to Big 12 Champion Oklahoma — no matter how close — and it will tie a truly bitter bow on what was absolutely a botched 2016 from a coaching perspective.
Beat the Sooners in the Sugar Bowl, right on the heels of signing Stidham, and — from the fan perspective — much of the hard feelings and disappointment will be soothed away, re-loading the Gus Bus full of optimistic, positive passengers yet again for another launch next year.
And a united — truly united — Auburn fanbase is a powerful thing.
Victories over Arkansas and Ole Miss shouldn’t feel as though they are to be celebrated as high-spots for the Auburn Football program.
That’s a sign of a lowered bar, and, truly, it’s been long enough.
It’s time for Malzahn to raise it — starting in New Orleans.
