The Auburn Tigers football team represents Auburn University in college football as a member of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, competing in the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The current head coach, Tommy Tuberville, has led the Tigers since 1999. Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium has a capacity of 87,451, ranking as the ninth-largest on-campus stadium in the NCAA.
The Tigers played the first football game in the Deep South in 1892, with the program's first bowl appearance coming the 1936 season in the sixth Bacardi Bowl played in Havana, Cuba. As of 2007, AU Football has had 77 winning seasons, 34 bowl appearances, twenty-four 9+ win seasons, eleven undefeated seasons and ten conference championships. Auburn has played in the Southeastern Conference since its inception in 1933 and have won six SEC Conference Championships, and since the divisional realignment of the conference in 1992, six Western Division championships[1] and three trips to the SEC Championship game.
[edit] Historical ranking
The College Football Research Center lists Auburn as the 14th best college football program in history[2], with eight Auburn squads listed in Billingsley's Top 200 Teams of All Time (1869-2006).[3] The Associated Press poll statistics show Auburn with the 11th best national record of being ranked in the final AP Poll[4] and 13th overall (ranked 470 times out of 970 polls since the poll began in 1936), with an average ranking of 11.11.[5] Since the Coaches Poll first released a final poll in 1950, Auburn has 33 seasons where the team finished in the top 20 in both the AP and Coaches Polls.[6]
Auburn has the 13th most wins in D-1A college football.[7] In terms of winning percentage, Auburn ranks as the 8th most successful team in the past 25 years with a 71.7% win rate (214-83-5)[8] and 12th over the last 50 years with 68.4% (386-176-10).[9] Of the 93 current I-A football programs that been active since Auburn first fielded a team 116 years ago, Auburn ranks 14th in winning percentage over that period.[10]
National champion teams
There have been a total of seven Auburn teams that have been awarded some form of "National Champions" title. The NCAA's website states that "the NCAA does not conduct a national championship in Division I-A football and is not involved in the selection process", but goes on to state that "a number of polling organizations provide a final ranking of Division I-A football teams at the end of each season". The NCAA website then lists four Auburn squads that have been named National Champions by at least one organization.[11] Here is the complete list of the Auburn teams ranked No. 1 and some of the organizations that recognized them as National Champion:[12]
1913 undefeated 8-0 team (Billingsley, James Howell)
1914 undefeated 8-0-1 team (James Howell)
1957 undefeated 10-0 team (Associated Press, Billingsley, Fleming, Football Research, Helms, James
Howell, Massey Ratings, National Championship Foundation, Nutshell Sports, Poling, Sagarin, Sorensen, Williamson, David Wilson)
1958 undefeated 9-0-1 team (Montgomery Full Season Championship)
1983 11-1 team (ARGH, Billingsley, DKC, Eck, FACT, Fleming, Football Research, James Howell, Massey
Ratings, New York Times, Nutshell Sports, Sorensen, Sparks Achievement, David Wilson)
1993 undefeated 11-0 team (Harry Frye, National Championship Foundation, Nutshell Sports,
Sparks Achievement, David Wilson)
2004 undefeated 13-0 team (Darryl W. Perry, EFI, FansPoll, GBE, Hank Trexler, M
Cubed)
The AP Poll did not begin selecting a champion until 1936 nor the AFCA Coaches Poll until 1950, so many national champion titles previous to those date were awarded retroactively. However during the 1910's, it is difficult to dispute the legitimacy of the Auburn titles. The undefeated 1913 and 1914 teams coached by Mike Donahue were some of the best defenses in Auburn history. In fact, the 1914 squad allowed zero points all season, outscoring opponents 193-0. The 1983 team featuring Bo Jackson went 11-1 and finished the season by beating Michigan 9-7 in the Sugar Bowl. The undefeated 2004 squad (13-0) finished second in the AP and Coaches Top 25 polls, but the team was awarded the 2004 Fanspoll.com People's National Champion title.[13] Auburn University officially only claims the Associated Press (AP) National Championship of 1957[14] (although the school does acknowledge the 1913, 1983, 1993 and 2004 titles in their media guide).[15]
There have been 237 Auburn players drafted into the National Football League, with 15 earning 30 All-Pro honors, 27 making Pro Bowl appearances, and 23 playing in the Super Bowl.
The Dow Jones College-Football Success Index ranked Auburn as the eighth best program in the nation, with the second highest Draft Value which indicate "that a school's players perform better than NFL scouts seem to expect".[25] Auburn is tied (with Miami) for second most Top 5 NFL Draft picks this decade, and have The Plains have produced 25 first round draft picks overall.
Five more Tigers joined the NFL ranks in the 2008 NFL Draft: Quentin Groves and Patrick Lee were taken in the second round by the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Green Bay Packers, respectively; Pat Simms was taken in the third round by the Cinncinati Bengals, Jonathan Wilhite in the fourth round by the New England Patriots, and King Dunlap in the seventh round by the Philadelphia Eagles.
[edit] Runningback U
Auburn has a reputation of being one of the premier running back factories in the nation, with ten former Tigers currently playing that position on Sundays in the NFL (see below). They carry on a long legacy of top NFL backs from Auburn such as Tucker Frederickson, William Andrews, Joe Cribbs, James Brooks, Lionel James, Brent Fullwood, Tommie Agee and Bo Jackson. Over the last 20 years (1987-2007 Draft), there have been 15 Tiger running backs drafted into the NFL, with several more successfully signing as undrafted free-agents.
