When will Alabama and Auburn football measure up to their basketball teams?

OK. Now it can be football season.

Now the Alabama and Auburn football teams can see if they're capable of competing for championships, too, individually or collectively. They have a lot to live up to.

As if 60 wins, two Elite Eight spots, another Final Four trip and the first 1 vs. 2 matchup in SEC history hadn't already stamped the just-completed hoops season as the greatest in the long history of the Iron Bowl of Basketball, the final AP poll added the cherry on top.

Auburn finished No. 4. Alabama came in at No. 6.

For the first time, the Tigers and Tide put together parallel top-10 seasons. For the first time, each team had a legitimate shot to win a national championship in the same season. The dream of the ultimate IBOB was only one Auburn win and two Alabama victories away.

That it didn't happen, that Alabama's road ended in the Elite Eight against Duke and Auburn's run expired in the Final Four against eventual champion Florida, doesn't diminish the rare air they breathed together.

This wasn't a bolt from the blue. It was the next logical step in the rivalry's unprecedented progression. Since 2018, Auburn has won five SEC championships and reached two Final Fours. Since 2020, Alabama has won four SEC titles and advanced, in the last three years, to the Sweet 16, the Final Four and the Elite Eight.

Maybe one day, Auburn and Alabama can both be as good in football as they are in basketball. ... Read Kevin's entire column in The Birmingham News.