TAMPA — During the Southeastern Conference’s halcyon days, when it was capturing 13 football national championships between 2006 and ’22, Auburn and Florida were full partners in the title-winning operation. The Tigers won it all in 2010 and played for the championship in ’13. The Gators claimed titles in ’06 and ’08, and arguably had the second-best team in the nation in ’09.
As the SEC now tries to recover from three years of forced humility administered by the Big Ten, Auburn and Florida have to take their share of responsibility for the current state of affairs. They’ve crashed. They need to get up. They’re both starting over again, in hopes of getting the latest iterations of their programs back to respectability.
