The Auburn football program is currently gearing up for the 2025 college football season, when head coach Hugh Freeze will look for his first real success as a member of the Tigers. It's been a rough stretch for Auburn fans, who have seen their team flounder to the bottom of the SEC picture over the last few seasons.
With all of the ineptitude currently surrounding the program, Auburn fans would be forgiven for looking back at their team's better days of yesteryear, and on Tuesday, it was revealed that the Auburn brass was attempting to quite literally alter the team's history by claiming additional championships that were not recognized to belong to them nationally.
“For too long, Auburn has chosen a humble approach to our program’s storied history – choosing to recognize only Associated Press National Championships. Starting this fall, we have made the decision to honor the accomplishments of our deserving student-athletes, coaches, and teams from Auburn’s proud history,” athletic director John Cohen said, per Justin Hokanson of On3 Sports. “Our visible National Championship recognitions now align with the well-established standard used by the NCAA’s official record book and our peers across the nation.”
The new championships the Tigers are attempting to claim include the 1910, 1914, 1958, and 2004 seasons.
In 2004, Auburn went 13-0 and won both the SEC title and Sugar Bowl but still didn't get an invite to the National Championship Game. The winner that year, USC, ultimately had that title vacated, leaving no winner for that year.
It's an audacious move for a Tigers program that is looking for ways to appease their fanbase amid one of the worst stretches in recent program history.
Auburn football has reportedly been considering retroactively claiming national championships for over a decade now, and it remains to be seen what the fanbase's reaction will be to the news.
Hokanson also noted that “New signage for updated national and conference titles will start going up inside and around the stadium on Tuesday.”
In any case, Auburn will look to begin their quest to add a championship that's not up for debate when they kick off their 2025 season against Baylor.
