This is an opinion column.

Let history record that the Gettysburg of the 2024 IBOB War Between the State did not break out in Alabama’s Airplane Hangar or Auburn’s Jungle. Neither Mark “The Assassin” Sears nor ICBM, aka Intercontinental Chad Baker-Mazara, fired the shot that called both sides to arms while bystanders, some more innocent than others, caught one stray after another.

It came in a blink in the wake of UConn 86, Alabama 72. The defending champs had answered the biggest challenge in their quest for a repeat by staging a clinic of offensive execution and defensive suffocation down the stretch of their national semifinal. It was a dogfight for the longest until it wasn’t, thus ending the Crimson Tide’s longest and most unlikely NCAA Tournament ride.

Nate Oats and company could walk away with no shame in their game.

Not 10 minutes later, a mere 10 years after the somnambulant serenity of Anthony Grant vs. Tony Barbee, Alabama and Auburn fans – Alabama and Auburn basketball fans – went to social media battle stations over whose Final Four run was better.

Let me repeat for the FOGs and blockheads in the back. On the day Auburn played its spring football game, to close a week in which Roll Tide Willie became a VIP on the Alabama football practice field, Tide and Tiger supporters went all Duke and Carolina. They unleashed their most delicious and toxic vitriol in the service of roundball.