The 2023 college football season will come to an end on the eighth night of 2024.

The Michigan-Washington meeting Monday night will be the first CFP title game without an SEC team since the inaugural version in the 2014 season. Around here, the end won’t necessarily be lasting image of a college football season in transition.

No, the fall of 2023 was more of the journey than the destination. You know, about the friends made along the way. The last year of the SEC West was one of wild momentum swings from the Yellowhammer State’s two entries.

Before kickoff in Houston, let’s run down the moments we’ll remember from the season that was in the occasionally intersecting orbits of Alabama and Auburn.

Long before Labor Day weekend, the dawning Hugh Freeze era was proving to be an ecosystem shifter on the recruiting trail. The new Tiger head coach flipped 5-star Alabama commitment Perry Thompson of Foley on July 29.

That came days after another 5-star linebacker Demarcus Riddick committed to Auburn over Alabama and Georgia.

Another major flip came on Dec. 1 when 5-star Phenix City receiver Cam Coleman swapped Texas A&M for Auburn. As it stands now, Auburn has the No. 7 class in the 247Sports composite — behind Alabama at No. 2 — but well ahead of the previous two seasons (21st in 2022 and 19th in 2023).

It had been six long years since the oaks at the corner of College and Magnolia were fully dressed. The long recovery from Harvey Updyke’s poisoning and a 2016 fire led to the replacement of the trees in 2017.

Fans were asked not to roll them from that point through the opening football game of the 2023 football season. So there were some pent-up emotions when Auburn crushed UMass, 59-14 to open the season.

Freeze and athletics director John Cohen joined in as the Auburn newcomers joined the old tradition put on hold for a few years.

The second Saturday of the season brought a pair of non-conference meetings soaked in contrast. Texas was visiting Tuscaloosa for the first time any living human would witness in a showdown of bluebloods. Auburn, meanwhile, was flying to the Bay Area of San Francisco to face … Cal?

**How will you remember the 2023 season? Email your answer to .**

Both games ultimately splashed water on idealistic season-opening wins, offering a dose of the reality to come. Alabama, of course, took a 34-24 beating on a postcard-perfect day in Bryant-Denny Stadium that soured after sundown. It served notice Texas would be a force moving forward and into the SEC in 2024 while exposing some of the issues within a wobbling Alabama empire.

That one ended right around the time Auburn was kicking off in a considerably less-packed Memorial Stadium at 9:30 p.m. CT. The 14-10 win over the Bears was better than the alternative but was the first real hint this Tiger offense was going to be a liability.

A 10-point Alabama loss to Texas was bad. A 17-3 win the following Saturday at South Florida was possibly worse. The image of a soaked Saban walking to the locker room trailing 3-0 during a weather delay could be the lowest point of the season.

It would get better.

There wasn’t much Auburn wanted to remember from its 27-10 loss at Texas A&M on Sept. 23 but Jimbo Fisher left a lasting image on his way out the door.

Tiger linebacker Eugene Asante had just scooped an Aggie fumble and was beginning his 67-yard run to Auburn’s only touchdown when Fisher got stuck in traffic. Weeks from the end of his tenure and before the unholy buyout checks hit the account, Fisher got caught on the tracks with the train coming.

Auburn led No. 1 Georgia into the second half on Sept. 30 in an energy-infused Jordan-Hare Stadium after opening as a two-touchdown underdog. The Bulldog winning streak was in jeopardy trailing 17-10 late in the third quarter before outscoring the hosts 17-7 from that point on.

A 27-20 loss showed Auburn could still punch with a playoff-contender, a fact that would pop up again in November. And Georgia wasn’t as indestructible, a fact that would pop up again in December.

After seeing a multi-generational winning streak end the previous October in Knoxville, Alabama had the Tennessee visit circled, underlined, italicized and everything else. So the fact the Vols jumped on the rebounding Crimson Tide immediately was a bit of a downer for a blood-thirsty Bryant-Denny.

The hole was 20-7 at halftime before Alabama went nuts in the second half. Beginning with Isaiah Bond’s 46-yard touchdown catch on the second play of the second half, the Tide outscored their rivals 27-0. A blocked punt returned for a touchdown gave Alabama the final score, a 34-20 revenge victory that still smells like cigars.

A four-game losing streak had Auburn the dumps. Texas A&M, Georgia, LSU and Ole Miss pushed a 3-0 start to the season into the red. But wins against Mississippi State and Vanderbilt refired the momentum with the Tigers headed to Arkansas on Nov. 11. The 48-10 win that followed was easily the high-water mark for a 2023 season that was ultimately its last.

Keionte Scott’s 74-yard punt return made it 14-0 less than five minutes into a game Auburn would lead 48-3 after three quarters. The Tigers ran for 354 yards while holding Arkansas to 255 total. Things were headed in the right direction with two games left in the regular season.

Any kind of momentum Auburn carried out of Fayetteville went right in the dumper a week later. New Mexico State came into Jordan-Hare and flat-out dominated the Tigers. A 31-10 loss was an embarrassment of several levels as Freeze expressed in the days that followed.

The Aggies outscored Auburn 21-3 after leading at halftime in an effort that lacked heart and preparation for the home team seven days before hosting its biggest rival.

The most lasting memory of this season came when these two crossed paths on Thanksgiving weekend in Auburn. These were two ships going in different directions, Alabama one of the hottest teams in the nation and Auburn, well, it just lost by 21 to New Mexico State.

So of course the Iron Bowl gods had another plot twist in store. After taking a 21-21 lead with 6:36 left in the third quarter, Auburn’s late November voodoo was in full effect. Alabama was a mess, flailing around until the last possible moment. Just when it couldn’t look any worse — a fourth-and-goal from the 31-yard-line — the next iconic moment of this rivalry hit Jordan-Hare.

Jalen Milroe’s heave to the back corner of the end zone landed in Bond’s outstretched hands. The 27-24 survival story kept Alabama in the hunt but ultimately will be filed next to the Kick Six in Iron Bowl moments that almost saved a championship run.

Alabama was already headed to the SEC title game but the Iron Bowl heroics kept the stakes in place. Still, it had to beat Georgia riding the longest winning streak in SEC history playing in front of an Atlanta crowd roughly 75% in its favor.

What happened was a slugfest. Georgia punched first, Alabama responded. And responded. It turns out Auburn was onto something in September as Georgia wasn’t the same bully who’d won the previous two national titles. Alabama did just enough, got that crucial final first down and kneeled out the 27-24 win that made the CFP selection committee’s job an impossible task.

Of course the committee sent Alabama to the Rose Bowl semifinal instead of unbeaten ACC champion Florida State. The debate and anger raged for weeks.

Auburn, meanwhile, went to the Music City Bowl to determine if Year 1 with Hugh Freeze would end with a winning or losing record. A 31-13 dud in Nashville answered that question with a third straight loss and a 6-7 record — a long way from a TP-draped Labor Day on Toomer’s Corner.

A few days later, Alabama’s bid to crawl from the depths of September ended with a late-game slide in the Rose Bowl. A play away from sealing the win, the Tide saw Michigan march down the field to tie the game in regulation and win it in overtime.

The 27-20 loss will forever be remembered for what could have been.

Instead, Alabama players sit at home Monday night and watch the first SEC-free national title game since they were in elementary school on the final night of the 2023 season a week deep into 2024.

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Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.