Auburn's next athletic year will be one of its most important ever.
The train wreck of football, baseball and basketball seasons put Auburn on the short list of the SEC's worst teams. Mix in firing coaches, Selena Roberts and Spice, the athletic department had a difficult few months, but this next sports year is make or break.
Every school has had a down year, but the ones that return to the top and do it immediately are consistently the best schools in every sport.
It's become obvious the athletic department knows it cannot repeat a year like last.
The athletic department's tenacity in hiring new coaches, and the amount of money Auburn is investing in them shows how important winning this year is. Sunny Galloway will be the second highest paid baseball coach in the SEC, and with the combined salaries of the football staff nearing $6 million, winning is the only option.
The hardest part of becoming a top tier athletic university is getting there.
Once at the top it becomes easier to consistently win. Schools such as Florida and Ohio State are ranked high in many sports every year. Recruits flock to their basketball teams because of their success, guaranteeing wins for years to come.
The same idea goes for schools at the bottom.
A university can fall into a losing cycle, something that takes years and years to escape from.
Luckily Auburn has the resources to make sure it doesn't fall into that cycle, but this next year will be extremely important for the University's image. Winning will show Auburn is back on track to be one of the most competitive schools in the country, but losing next year would once again make Auburn the joke of the SEC.
Even though in recent years the schools prone to losing in big SEC sports are becoming more competitive, they're still known as losing schools. Kentucky and Vanderbilt were always the bottom two universities in football rankings in the SEC.
Auburn's wins and prestige over the past 10 years will keep them out of this SEC grave-yard, but another losing season will put them on the bottom while Vanderbilt continues to improve.
The Tigers don't have time to rebuild.
Sure it will take a few years for Malzahn to make Auburn a top tier SEC school, but he must be able to at least compete this year. Going 0-8 in the conference in 2012 is embarrassing, and being nearly mercy ruled in most of them makes it even worse.
Winning on the football field also takes some of the pressure off basketball and baseball to be successful. After the 2012 season, fans just wanted to see one big sport win and were disappointed by the two teams. Losing in the first games of the SEC Tournament hurt Auburn's image, and after a year like this Auburn just needs to be competitive again.
Some big SEC wins this year in all of the sports will help people be one step closer to forgetting the embarrassment of last year. Auburn will rebound, and all will be good on the Plains once again. I'm not asking for an immediate national championship, just a competitive and relevant athletic school.
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