This is an opinion column.

Neville Arena wasn’t itself early Saturday afternoon.

Chunks of unoccupied orange seats witnessed the final few minutes of a top-10 SEC showdown.

It was quiet, at least by Neville’s standards.

Stunned into submission by No. 6 Florida, the best environment in the conference was reduced to booing Gator players relishing the moment.

Florida 90, Auburn 81 wasn’t some fluky game that could’ve gone either way.

No, the No. 1 team in the nation took a healthy beating on a home court that isn’t supposed to be conquered. This was an Auburn team that had just one loss all season, 14 straight wins and was starting to look like a team that would require perfection to topple.

The Gators flirted with that at times Saturday while delivering a few crucial lessons.

1. Nobody’s unbeatable.
2. The marathon of a college season is going to have days like these.
3. The SEC is an absolute monster.
4. Take anything for granted an 1-3 will produce what happened Saturday in Neville Arena.

Because it felt like Auburn hit cruise control on this one instead of mashing the gas.

And there’s no room for 80% effort against anyone, let alone the No. 6 team in the nation entering with a 19-3 record.

Florida led this one by as many as 21 — the largest deficit Auburn’s faced all season. From 3-point range, it made 13 shots. That’s four more than the Tigers allowed all season.

And the 90 points? Six more than Duke scored in the previous high and the only loss on the scorecard before Florida went wild in Neville.

This ended a 12-game home winning streak for an Auburn team that’s 101-8 on this floor since 2017.

It was that efficiency that made Saturday’s loss so stunning.

Especially considering it won its last outing here by 28, but maybe that was a factor.

Auburn led 15-5 early and it felt like a sense of comfort settled over this place. It would be understandable if the Tigers were beginning to feel untouchable.

Turns out, they’re not.

Florida couldn’t do much offensively in the opening few minutes, starting the game making just 2-of-9 shots.

The guests then made 20 of the next 30.

Ball game.

It met Auburn’s physical play in the paint and, didn’t just back down, but doubled down.

The Tigers made just 13-of-28 layups as national player of the year candidate Johni Broome didn’t look like himself. He finished with 18 points on 8-for-19 shooting after making just three of his first 10.

There were moments where Auburn flashed its No. 1 pedigree but once the lead hit 21, the Tigers never got closer than nine.

This, keep in mind, from a Florida team that took a 20-point beating last week at Tennessee. The same group that scored just 44 points in Knoxville put 48 on Auburn in the first half.

A brutal reward for Auburn students who camped out a few nights outside the arena for the best seats.

But it’s the wake up reminder a team like this needs in early February to avoid a repeat in March.

This program’s been in a similar place before, but there’s reason to believe the 2025 outcome will differ from the 2022 version. That Auburn team rose to No. 1 for the first time on the back of a 19-game winning streak.

Coincidentally, that heater also ended on Feb. 8 when Arkansas pulled the emergency brake on the storybook season.

The Tigers then limped home with a 6-5 final chapter and a second-round NCAA tournament loss.

That drained much of the February optimism from that team’s legacy.

But that was a team built on young talent and recent transfers.

Three years later, this Tiger roster is constructed for this journey’s mental and physical strain. A veteran core is seasoned by young stars, not the other way around. They’ve been through the mood swings of a season when pressure builds as temperatures rise.

They’ve proved what they can do when the momentum is pumping, so now the test is responding when it’s reversed.

This would appear to be just a momentary glitch. The fact this loss came at home is the most surprising part of the equation but it’s not like they laid an egg against a turkey.

The SEC is fully stocked this season — much deeper than it was three years ago — so this day was coming.

It officially ended any hope of a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown with Alabama next Saturday.

Though it’s hard to imagine Auburn going through the motions a week from now in Tuscaloosa, flushing this kind of performance before that mutual Super Bowl is healthier than anyone in Neville Arena would care to admit.

Auburn got beat straight up in the magic funhouse that’s been a graveyard for outsiders as the program entered the national elite.

There’s also no reason to panic for those who beat the traffic late Saturday afternoon in Auburn.

They’re not untouchable when focus slips but this team is built to sustain body blows like this better than its last poll-topper.

Right?

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