Johnny Manziel, now you’re going to the NFL, thank you for the memories.

You drove defensive co-ordinators mad.

Nick Saban called you the (basically) the greatest thing to happen to college football since the dawn of time (nearly).

You electrified a fanbase that weren’t really expecting a BCS Bowl (or ‘Players’ Championship Bowl’) in 2013.

You beat Alabama on their own turf in 2012 in a performance from the Gods. And nearly beat ’em in 2013.

You won a Heisman. Gig ’em indeed.

You signed some autographs, got busted, got suspended meaninglessly, and in your comeback in the second half, you taunted in one of the greatest ways college football has ever seen. You’re right, they can’t have your autograph. And that was an awesome response.

You kept going for four quarters for Texas A&M in 2013, despite their goddawful defence. And performed miracles. You should have won the Heisman in 2013, but someone more ‘Famous’ won it. We couldn’t believe you weren’t even in the Top Three.

You screamed and yelled at ’em in Atlanta in your final game….you should have done that all season long. Mark Snyder should be going, not you. And had an incredible game.

You got yourself booted out of frat parties, tweeted angrily about parking tickets, partied with hotties, and you never seemed to toe the line. And you know what? That was a pretty great. You were better than the boring. It’s funny, because when we met some hotties from Texas who actually went to high school with you at the start of the season, they said that you were ‘pretty boring’. We find it hard to believe.

You wrote Texas A&M fans the nicest letter to thank them for all their support. But in true fact, Texas A&M should be thanking YOU. If it wasn’t for you, would they even have made a bowl game this year? Or last year?

Anyway Johnny, thanks for the memories. Keep being Johnny.

Despite the (Twitter) jokes we may have made in Auburn’s direction after ending the SEC’s BCS National Championship run, really we’re going to quote Jack Buck, when we say: “Excuse us while we stand up applaud”.

Auburn was a 10.5 point underdog with Vegas. No-one – apart from those bleeding blue and orange (and some members of the media) who believed in Destiny – really believed that the Tigers would have put up 31 points on Florida State, led the ‘Noles by double digits almost all the way through the game, and exhausted their giant, great defensive lines. But they did.

Auburn was a team that wasn’t even meant to succeed this season – let alone this well. Sure, we thought they’d beat Washington State, and maybe Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi State. But we didn’t visualise them beating Ole Miss. We certainly didn’t visualise beating Texas A&M and Johnny Football on the road. Or Georgia. Or Alabama and THAT MAN SABAN.

Auburn was a team who last year had a quarterback in Kiehl Frazier who was – as Clay Travis so beautifully put it – ranked below ‘Air’ in preseason QB rankings. And after his performances, that was a compliment. They got a quarterback who arrived in January after a personal set of issues (and yes, we know what they were, Georgia fans (and Brent Musberger, who couldn’t stop repeating the fact during the telecast)) in Nick Marshall, who took his team to The Promised Land.

Auburn was a team that we didn’t think that their defense would stand up with Florida State – and certainly not their secondary. But they did.

Auburn was a team who had a running back in Tre Mason that was probably ranked a long fourth in a world of Yeldon, Gurley and Hill, but blew all four of them out of the water.

And as a conference, let’s applaud ourselves. Let’s applaud how the SEC has dominated college football for years. Let’s applaud how we’ve won seven straight National Championships, via endings that have taken the breath (Auburn against Oregon), to total dominations (Florida against Ohio State, Alabama against Notre Dame) to somewhere in between. In this play-off, it could quite conceivable that we see SEC rematches in the final of the play-offs for years to come. Why? Because people, the SEC’s that freaking good.

Of course, there are things we shouldn’t applaud our conference about. There are still far too many kids ‘being kids’ (ie getting arrested). Some of our coaches make strange decisions when it comes to trying to keep a player on a team (we see you, Les Miles). We don’t even want to think about what happened in that Vanderbilt rape case. Our coaches are still oversigning, which we hate. Oh, and on the football side, we want to see the SEC schedule home-and-home non-conference games against BIG TEAMS, instead of the Opening Day Bowls in Texas and Atlanta, which are great in one respect, but let’s be honest, I’d take watching Alabama going to a crazy Oregon or Auburn going to Baylor (I’m taking the over!!!)  or vice-versa ANYTIME. I’m a little bored of North Texas. And we’d like to see Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee provide us with some wins and a little more depth in the conference, too.

But you can’t have it.

And back to Auburn: Auburn fans, go paper Toomer’s Corner. Show your appreciation for Auburn. Because they deserve it.

BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: FLORIDA STATE VS AUBURN 

WHY FLORIDA STATE WILL WIN 

We’ve got good buddy of ours in FSU fan Geoff Bowles who is very sure about his side winning The Big Game on Monday night. He’ll tell anyone who’s listening that Florida will hammer Auburn, winning by 2-3 touchdowns. It’s not because he doesn’t respect Auburn’s high-octane offence (you know, the one that caused perfectly good defences in Alabama and Missouri problems in back-to-back games), but Auburn’s defence, which he thinks is absolutely horrible.

And he’d be right. Auburn gives up 24 points per game, which is 38^th in the nation. And while they’ve made some key stops in their games in the last month of the season – mainly due to fantastic displays by young DE Carl Lawson, opponents still gave up 29 points per game against them.

The Tigers come up against a Florida State side which is ticking beautifully right now on both sides of the ball (1^st in the nation in points scored AND points given up). Quarterback Jameis Winston, who has had a season blessed by Football Jesus himself, has passed for 3,800 yards and 38 TDs. His wide receiver duo of Rashad Greene and Kelvin Benjamin – both who had 900 yard seasons – are going to pick on Auburn’s secondary, and Auburn – which is undersized in that department – is going to struggle.

Auburn fans will also have to watch out for running back Devonta Freeman- Auburn gave up 162.3 yards per game, good for 62^nd in the nation.

And the Florida State defence? It’s frightening. Defensive co-ordinator will have the ‘Noles ready for Auburn’s high-octane offence, and even if they struggle early on with the Tigers’ pace, they’ll make the adjustments to win out. 

WHY AUBURN WILL WIN

After the miracle wins against Georgia and Alabama, has Tigers coach Gus Malzahn’s done a deal with Satan himself to guarantee victory in Pasadena?

We don’t know, but it sure as hell seems like it. Auburn could quite easily have been a respectable 8-4 this season, not an outstanding 12-1. But after losing to LSU early on, Auburn got away with a horsecollar tackle on Johnny Manziel against Texas A&M as the Aggies were driving. Then, after blowing a big lead to Georgia, the home crowd went crazy as Georgia’s secondary failed out hold a relatively simple interception chance and Ricardo Lewis grabbed it to win the game, and the home crowd went even crazier as Chris Davis caught an Alabama game-winning field goal attempt and took it back 107 yards for an Auburn victory. And then, despite not having a great day in the secondary, the defence simply does enough to stop Missouri…and beat the Tigers in the SEC Championship Game 59-42.

Auburn’s going to win because this is the greatest turnaround season in college football history….and maybe sporting history. Last year they didn’t win a game in the SEC, and fired their coach Gene Chizik.

The man who replaced Chizik in Gus Malzahn brought in an explosive offence, starring quarterback Nick Marshall and running back Tre Mason, as well as a solid wide receiver in Sammy Coates. They are the 10^th-best offence in the nation in points scored (40.2 average), and Tre Mason’s brilliance helped Auburn to be the nation’s best rushing team, averaging 335.7 yards on the ground.

But where Auburn’s going to profit is that Florida State’s defence is going to tire in a shoot-out, which is exactly where Auburn want them. They won’t be able to deal with Auburn’s constant speed – however much they practice – and Auburn will bring home yet another SEC Crown. 

BOTTOM LINE: Auburn’s a 12/5 underdog while Florida State’s 1/3. FSU is an 8-1/2 point favourite, which is seemingly miles in college football terms. The ‘over’ for points is 67.5. We like Florida State to win outright in an incredibly entertaining game, although we’re keeping away from the 8.5 points. We’re not sure. But we’d advise a cheeky £1 on the points at 67.5….because both teams can put up plenty!