‘Bama ready for showdown

Associated Press

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.

No. 9 Alabama can just relax and play ball.

No national championship shot potentially hangs in the balance, no Heisman Trophy chances are on the line. It’s No. 2 Auburn’s turn to feel the heat in Friday’s Iron Bowl.

“Those guys are undefeated and going to the SEC championship game,” Crimson Tide tailback Mark Ingram said. “If they win out, they’re going to play for the national championship. All the pressure is on them. It’s like reversed roles.”

Alabama (9-2, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) entered the last two meetings unbeaten and in national championship contention, winning both times. Now, Cam Newton and the Tigers (11-0, 7-0) are the surprising SEC West champions and two wins from playing for it all.

And once again, this feverishly intense, 365-day-a-year bragfest can captivate much of the college football nation — not just the state. For all its statewide glory, the Iron Bowl hasn’t pitted two top 10 teams against each other since 1994.

For added measure, it also features last year’s Heisman Trophy winner Ingram and this season’s leading contender in Newton, the electrifying Auburn quarterback who injects even more pizazz into the rivalry.

He has spent the last three weeks under the spotlight for questions about his status amid allegations his father solicited a six-figure payday from Mississippi State when that school was recruiting Newton.

It hasn’t kept him off the field, or slowed him down so far.

Assuming his status hasn’t changed, that’s one of those “external factors” Tide coach Nick Saban refers to as potential distractions.