Goodman: How the future favors Auburn after epic Iron Bowl

This is an opinion column.

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An important piece of news went unreported at the Iron Bowl amid the noise-quenching finish that was Fourth and 31.

The atmosphere inside Jordan-Hare Stadium before the final play was the best I’ve seen at a sporting event since the championship bout of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament. Team Daniel LaRusso got KO’d this time, but that doesn’t mean it was a total loss for Auburn. Wins and losses are an all-or-nothing deal, but that’s not how recruiting works.

Despite the loss, the Iron Bowl was a major recruiting victory for first-year coach Hugh Freeze and what he’s building on the Plains. Freeze is doing a good job and Auburn is pointed in the right direction. All things considered, this was a successful season for Freeze and Auburn football. The future favors the Tigers.

Alabama is enjoying historic success with coach Nick Saban, and with any more luck the Crimson Tide will knock off Georgia in the SEC championship on Saturday and make the College Football Playoff. Meanwhile, Freeze and his staff will be busy recruiting and momentum is building towards one of the best classes of commitments in school history.

Freeze is a great recruiter, but there’s something else about Auburn that’s attractive, too, and it’s undeniable. Here’s the true measure of Auburn’s unconquerable spirit and why it’s inevitable that the Tigers will very soon be back on top.

GOODMAN: Spoiler alert, there’s more chaos to come

Two weeks ago, people wanted to frame Auburn’s loss to New Mexico State as the worst in program history. I didn’t believe that at the time, and that game doesn’t even really matter now after this latest all-time Iron Bowl. Auburn started playing football in 1892, so I’m going to call recency bias on the claims of any game in 2023 being the worst in program history. Still, that perspective of this season doesn’t take away from the greater point that Auburn fans had every reason to be checked out emotionally after being embarrassed by New Mexico State.

That didn’t happen, and Auburn’s amazing fanbase delivered a legendary effort just one week later. Now that’s impressive.

I’m not sure that happens anywhere else in college football.

They didn’t get to roll the trees last Saturday, but don’t be fooled into thinking that Auburn’s improbable loss to Alabama in the Iron Bowl was a complete failure. The truth is far more positive for Freeze and the Tigers with early national signing day only a few weeks away.

Many of the nation’s top recruits were in attendance for the Iron Bowl and they left knowing that Auburn’s environment for home football games is second to none in the country. That’s an important selling point, and Auburn delivered on the biggest stage.

Freeze was smart to call an unscheduled news conference on Monday to emphasize the positives. His methodical approach to rebuilding the Tigers continues to impress neutral observers like me, but also the people who matter most.

“The recruits, I think see it,” Freeze said of the atmosphere for his first Iron Bowl in Jordan-Hare Stadium. “I mean the battles are never over when you’re talking about battling for the top guys in the country, but for them to have that as an experience, that’s certainly a positive for us.

“I don’t know that they’ve been to a game that was quite like that. I think it was a step in the right direction for us to hopefully get to the finish line with some of those guys. Again, a lot of credit goes to our fanbase.”

There’s more to it, though.

College football is evolving, and the new changes should favor Auburn’s efforts on the recruiting trail.

Nationally, the new 12-team playoff format coming in 2024 will give the Tigers a great chance of making the postseason more often than not. Imagine a home playoff game at Jordan-Hare Stadium. That’s not the stuff of fantasy anymore. Playoff teams seeded five through eight will host first-round games.

Good luck winning at Auburn.

Here’s the stat that continues to blow my mind. Alabama coach Nick Saban is only 5-4 in Iron Bowls at Jordan-Hare Stadium, and everyone knows that record could very easily be 3-6. No team in the country will have better home-field advantage in the playoffs than the Auburn Tigers.

Then there’s regional advantages for Auburn hidden inside the new-look SEC.

The two-division system in the SEC is now gone. Georgia doesn’t get to pad its schedule every season with Vanderbilt, and Auburn is renewing its rivalry with Florida. Auburn’s recruiting base is only getting larger thanks to the changes being made in college football.

The recruits can begin signing on Dec.20. Based on everything I’ve heard behind the scenes, major victories for Auburn are coming with Freeze’s first signing class. Auburn sells itself, and its best recruiting pitch of all was that deafening atmosphere in the Iron Bowl.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, wild times and rum.