The best night of college football

"Who is writing this stuff?!"
--Ian Darke, May 13th 2012, as Manchester City won the EPL title at the last second

Tonight ranks among the best sport nights of my entire life. I do not say this lightly. The last time I have felt this way was when Chelsea won the Champions League in May 2012. This is different, and yet the strength of the emotion is very similar.

Rather than my team winning a major trophy, tonight was a convergence of some amazing games, topped off by what is certainly the single best game finish in college football history. I am still far too swept by emotion to recount it in as much detail as it deserved. Suffice it to say that within the span of a few hours, Ohio State and Michigan battled it out in one of their best rivalry games to date; Virginia Tech beat Virginia for the tenth straight year; and Auburn defeated top-ranked Alabama in a glorious apotheosis thanks to an unbelievable sequence of plays in the last few seconds.

When Chris Davis returned the missed field goal, I could not believe my eyes. I kept thinking, "surely he can't expect to go far... I mean... wait... there must be a flag... oh god... oh please... NO FUCKING WAY!"

And then, just as when Chelsea won the UCL, I screamed and ran across the room like a man possessed. In the last few years of slowly becoming educated in the ways of American college football, I've hated no team more than Alabama, for the sole reason that they have been winning easy, far, and wide for as long as I have been into this sport -- and winners suck. And as I also often root for the underdog, supporting Auburn in this Iron Bowl was a no-brainer. I had been bragging all day that the Tigers would win, but I didn't really believe it. Not until that very last second. And even now it feels weird. I can only imagine what's going on right now, both in Auburn and in Tuscaloosa.

I don't have it in me yet to describe the game exactly, so I will just post a video of the final play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t9nNiH8g4A

But there is much more to say, of course. Another time.