Former Auburn quarterback Bo Nix is playing his way into the conversation for the Heisman Trophy.

I mean that sincerely, and without malice, but I know how it’s going to land as college football enters Week 9 of the season. Any mention of Nix, for a lot of people, is going to feel like a fist to the mouth. And by people, I mean Auburn fans in denial about the decline of Auburn football without No.10.

At this point, Nix’s name should probably come with a trigger warning. They’re like fighting words. That I’d like to see Nix win the Heisman is a controversial statement these days in Alabama. Thanks to Nix, though, Oregon (6-1, 4-0) is ranked No.8 in the country leading into the Ducks’ away game on Saturday against Cal. With Nix, OU is the best team in the Pac-12. Without Nix, Auburn (3-4, 1-3) is the worst team in the SEC West, and is an underdog at home on Saturday against Arkansas (4-3, 1-2).

What’s the common denominator? I’ll give you one hint. It’s not Pac-12 defenses.

I get it. People are refusing to face the truth, but the Nix slander doesn’t sit well with me. Did he abandon Auburn? No, he did not, and neither has anyone else leaving Auburn these days. Nix was just one of the first in the program to hold Auburn accountable for the employment of Bryan Harsin. At least someone is.

Nix, Auburn Man, is not having a good season at Oregon because he’s playing in the Pac-12. Some would like to cocoon themselves in that belief, but it’s just an exercise in denialism to avoid getting slapped in the face by the truth every single day of this season. Nix is having a great time in Oregon because he’s a great quarterback.

And he might even be a dark horse for the Heisman.

Think about it this way, all you Bo Nix truthers out there living in the world and walking into glass doors. If Nix is playing with Pac-12 players, then shouldn’t that make him worse?

These days, with the right eyes, Oregon looks like an old Auburn team, and Auburn, well, Auburn looks like a team from the Mountain West Conference playing in the SEC.

Why did Nix leave Auburn for Oregon? It’s not a trick question, and the reason isn’t some half-baked conspiracy on the internet. Nix has better receivers at Oregon than he would have had at Auburn. On top of that, he’s finally reaching his potential because his current offensive line is giving him time to operate.

There are other factors to consider, too. Nix has an offensive coordinator in Kenny Dillingham who coached him at Auburn his freshman season. As a sophomore at Auburn, Nix’s offensive coordinator was Chad Morris. As a junior, it was Mike Bobo. Good grief. After writing that, I want to call DHR. For his senior season, Nix had seen enough to know things weren’t improving for the Tigers under new coach Bryan Harsin.

Honestly, how can anyone blame Nix for leaving? Save me all those hollow words about loyalty.

Who loves Auburn more than Nix? It’s a short list. Like, maybe Aubie. That’s pretty much it. Nix will always be more Auburn than Harsin ever was.

Yeah, it stings watching Nix play so well for the Ducks, but that doesn’t mean I’m not happy for the guy. Smart people remove themselves from toxic relationships. Auburn cuts off its nose, and then refuses to smell what Harsin is shoveling.

Successful people evolve, improve and get better. Young people mature. Isn’t that the entire point of college? That’s the Bo Nix story for me. A lot of people process their sports with binary brains. Alabama is three plays away from three losses, they say, but the calculus of that is all wrong. If Alabama lost to Texas in Week 2, then maybe the Crimson Tide is a different team by Week 7 and doesn’t lose at Tennessee.

Trading for a high draft pick is always better than going with a former undrafted free agent who has worked for years to master a position. Wrong. Any general manager will tell you that’s not always the case. Plug in a player with potential here, and this team should win all of its games. It’s not that simple or easy, though. That’s the fantasy-league way of thinking, but that’s not reality.

In a binary world, there’s no way a former defensive coordinator at Georgia would want a former Auburn quarterback, right? Well, Nix didn’t end up in Oregon by accident or mistake.

Oregon first-year coach Dan Lanning was the defensive coordinator at Georgia for the entire time that Nix was the quarterback for Auburn. Georgia went 3-0 against Auburn with Nix under center. The games were blowouts. When Lanning accepted the job at Oregon, there wasn’t a coach in college football more familiar with Nix’s potential and ability.

Guess Lanning could see what Auburn and Harsin refused to either acknowledge or understand — that Nix is a great quarterback. The old idea of college coaches being more valuable than a team’s players is on its way out. Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl gets it, and that’s why he’s so successful.

Oregon was blown out by Georgia to begin the season, but if you watched that game then you know the loss wasn’t on Nix. It was his first game with a new team under a first-year head coach. Alabama quarterback Bryce Young struggled against Georgia in his most recent game of football against the Bulldogs, too. Is it because Young was suddenly garbage, or is it because Alabama was without receivers John Metchie and Jameson Williams in the third and fourth quarters of the national championship game?

Since Week 2 of the season, Nix has thrown 17 touchdowns to one interception and has completed 74.6 percent of his passes. Nix is a great quarterback at this point in his career for the same reasons that Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker is a great quarterback. They have experience. They’re on good teams. They have good coaches. They’ve seen things.

As a freshman, Nix knocked off Alabama with Mac Jones at quarterback, and Oregon with Justin Herbert. Nix went 2-1 against LSU as a Plainsman. Oh, and there’s this. Auburn never lost to Ole Miss or Arkansas with Nix at quarterback, 6-0. Now, with Harsin ruining the program, you have to wonder if Ole Miss and Arkansas have already passed Auburn in the pecking order of the SEC West.

If you didn’t know all along that this was how the season was going to play out for Auburn and for Nix, then you’re probably among the people who believed the message-board websites when they reported Gus Malzahn was going to take a reduced buyout. More players announced their intentions to leave Auburn this week, but the biggest indictment against Harsin remains the fact that he had Nix as his quarterback, and now Nix is playing on the other side of the country.

Auburn is a mess, Harsin is awful, and Nix is putting together a strong case that Oregon should be in the conversation for the College Football Playoffs despite that loss to a good team in the SEC East.

Sounds a lot like Alabama to me.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.