You're just still mentally damaged from struggling to get over the hump that was Bama and they are in your brain. Malzahn was pretty much dead even with Saban in the series and Hugh Freeze was giving them fits before he hit the door. Florida came super close to beating them in 2020 in the championship game and with a little more depth probably does.
Not everyone is Tennessee, LSU and Georgia who have extreme trouble beating them so no the divide isn't insurmountable and the SEC doesn't live on Bama's coattails.
LOL ... you talking to me about getting over the Bama hump. One of us won a natty last year, checks notes, over Bama. The other blew a lead against Bama, allowed a 95-yard, 1-minute drive; tried to kneecap their coach in the off-season; and went 6-7 last year. Don't lecture me about Bama.
I've tried to be nice, but you keep talking like your team is relevant - "yeah, the SEC is so great (it is) ... it has all these great teams like Bama, and UGA and LSU and Auburn." There's an SAT question for you ... which of these teams doesn't belong? Perhaps you will be back one day, but today Auburn is totally irrelevant in football and is a middling SEC team, at best. I don't see you reversing that any time soon. Winning a NC 11 years ago doesn't change that. You puffing your chest here and putting UGA down is really laughable considering the following:
- Since your NC you have had the following losses per season: 5, 9, 2, 5, 6, 5, 4, 4, 5, 7. That's an average of 5.5 losses per year. Why exactly are you talking like your team is relevant and contributes to the SEC's greatness? Oh, yeah, Vegas has your O/U wins at 6.5 this year. That's 5.5 losses, exactly your average. Talk about a conference bandwagoner ... lose 5.5 games per year but talk about how great your conference is (it is but not because of Auburn).
- You've been unranked 6 of 11 seasons since winning the NC, and when ranked you were 2, 22, 24, 10, and 14. That's an average ranking of 15 in the 5 of 11 years you were actually ranked.
- You just had a UTjr level coaching debacle, and it's highly likely you fire your current coach after his second year.
- You are currently ranked 63 in recruiting, comfortably bracketed by Mizzou and Central Michigan. Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, and Illinois have better classes than you. In the 2021 Team Composite you are 6th in the SEC, and 14th nationally. Your recruiting numbers for the last 2 years of 19 and 21, plus this year where you will likely end up around 15th, means you will drop further in the talent composite. With Texas and OU coming into the league you will be in the bottom half of the SEC.
- In the last 3 years you have had 11 players drafted ... we had 15 in last year's draft. Since your last natty, you had 39 players drafted in 11 years. We have had that many in the last 4 years.
- You are 5-16 against UGA in the last 2 decades, including a beatdown in the SECCG. That's bordering on "UF spanking UGA in the 80s and 90s" levels. I know how that feels, and it isn't great.
You brought the heat, so there it is. Football is cyclical. You may come back around in the next few decades. But until then you are riding the coattails of others in the SEC. It's not a good look.