Auburn is a football program that is difficult to like

Cam Newton was kicked out of Florida. Was it cheating or stealing; who knows?

Was Gene Chizik's best
 attribute to look the other way
as Auburn did what it took
to win? 

Newton surfaced at Auburn, where a the Tigers had just hired a coach from a losing program.

Later a claim was revealed that Cam Newton's services were being offered to the highest, or most-attractive, bidder. But for some reason those revelations never seemed to catch up to Newton or Auburn.

The losing coach at Auburn rode Newton to a national championship. Not long after Auburn's Head Coach was fired. Newton switched over to getting paid by the NFL, and Gene Chizik was found to be a one-trick pony. And was his trick to look the other way so Auburn could use a gifted- yet scandal-marred - player to ascend to the top?

In 2013, Auburn was not supposed to be very good. Instead the Tigers dodged bullets, found a couple miracles, and ended up in the National Championship again.

There are programs that labor for years, building, doing things honestly and the right way. Yet Auburn through a couple of flukes, gets a shortcut. That is not something that is good for college football.

Sadly, the fluke that won the Alabama game for Auburn, and Tennessee upsetting South Carolina, gave Auburn an easy SEC-Title game versus Missouri.

The result was not having the SEC's best team playing Florida State for the 2013 national title.

Unfortunately, that's how the system is set up. In 2014, with a playoff, Auburn would not sniff the title game. Lucky for Auburn there was no extra level of earning your slot.

As it ended up, Auburn lost to the Seminoles, a team Bama would have beaten by double-digits.

When Auburn's luck finally ran out, versus FSU, the Tigers had relinquished the SEC's hold on national titles to the ACC, of all conferences.

There are many reasons not to like Auburn. It is a program that seems to have a lot of off-field incidents, AFTER football season, but not a lot of attention from NCAA investigators.

It is a university that is off the beaten path that seems to keep a low profile where ethics are concerned, but get bolted into the limelight by good fortune, not merit.

At the end of today, expect Auburn to demolish South Carolina. But maybe the Gamecocks can muster some “luck” and Auburn can begin to pay back some of the karma the Tigers deserve from college football.