The Crimson Tide men’s basketball team won their season finale Saturday over Auburn. Clad in new grey unis, Alabama’s Tony Mitchell scored 16 points and Mikhail Torrance contributed 13 points and 12 rebounds to help Alabama close the regular season with a 73-61 victory over Auburn on Saturday.

But the story came at halftime when the Alabama football team accepted the Foy-ODK Sportsmanship Trophy. The trophy is given annually to the winner of the Iron Bowl.

Nick Saban accepted the trophy, thanked the fans and then got Auburn’s name wrong.

During a brief acceptance speech, Saban expressed his respect for “the University of Auburn” in addressing the crowd at Coleman Coliseum at halftime of Saturday’s Alabama-Auburn basketball game.

The mistake in front of the Coleman Coliseum capacity crowd drew chuckles from the Tide faithful and boos from Auburn fans in attendance.
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Was the gaffe an intentional dig at the school that’s made a living savoring intentional digs at its big brother, or merely a champion not acknowledging a middle of the pack SEC team correctly?

9 thoughts on “Was “the University of Auburn” a mistake?”

  1. likely a mistake and something he’s not giving a second thought about.

    a concept some on this blog would be wise to ponder.

  2. I was an Auburn fan who was there. The entire arena was booing when he said he has respect for the university of Auburn.
    And I’m not sure what you want us to answer in your question.

    Was the gaffe an intentional dig at the school that’s made a living savoring intentional digs at its big brother, or merely a champion not acknowledging a middle of the pack SEC team correctly?

    either way it makes Alabama University look good.

  3. I think it was unintentional just for the simple fact that if he wanted to insult them, he could’ve done a lot better and how is switching the name up an insult? It’s like somebody referring to me as my last name first and first name last.

    Last year he took a jab by saying “We’re looking forward to receiving this trophy, many more years to come.” That’s a subtle jab.

    There’s been more than enough people refer to Auburn as University of Auburn over the years, not to insult them, but simply because they don’t know. When I was younger I thought they were referred to as that (because of Alabama). And it wasn’t until I was in my late-teens that I learned I was wrong.

    Maybe he was sending a shot across the state, but from my perspective I think his problem is the main problem a lot of preachers have in this day and age: wordiness.

  4. When Pat Dye was holding his introductory press conference as head coach back in 80, he said he was proud to be at the University of Auburn

    Dye also said, at some point in his career,that hindsight was 50-50

  5. Has Hunter, funny comment!

    Is this the big news and not that Alabama basketball beat Auburn.

    I am sure that the whole arena was NOT booing.

  6. In what way would it possibly be considered an insult to refer to Auburn as the University of Auburn instead of Auburn University? That happens a lot, simply because most universities refer to themselves in that order. If Saban wants to take a shot at AU, he’s won’t be subtle. He’ll tell you exactly how much he hates those f&%#’n guys!!

  7. The ONLY time julia has ever been correct. Hating aubie is easy, everyone does.

    Pat Dye also made a comment that “this ain’t rocket surgery”.

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