The Southeastern Conference is known for its historic accomplishments on the football field. It has claimed a college football national championship 14 out of the past 18 years, with Auburn claiming one for themselves in 2010.
Lately, the SEC has also had an explosion of dominant basketball, with Auburn being national champion favorites. Jay Bilas has called this year’s SEC the best conference in men’s college basketball history. However, the love these sports have commanded has made it easy to overlook other sports at Auburn, the likes of which may not have as much national fanfare, but have athletes just as dedicated to their crafts and worthy of recognition.
Olivia Bradley, riding Shrek, competes in the reining event against UT Martin on Feb. 8, 2025 at the Auburn University Equestrian Center.
A sport that is often overlooked is women’s soccer. Last season, the team had a long list of achievements, including being ranked consistently, making it to the second round of the NCAA tournament and going undefeated at home. However, this sport was easily ignored because its season happens to be at the same time as football.
Another team that our student body seems to neglect is softball. Coming off a 29-21-1 record last year, the team was able to start this season 11-0 and was ranked No. 17 team in the nation. This drastic improvement comes after the hiring of co-head coaches Chris and Kate Malveaux. Despite the turn-around, there doesn’t seem to be much excitement around campus for them.
Even historic dominance hasn’t been enough to spur interest in less popular sports. The last Women’s Golf Coach’s Association poll of the 23-24 season ranked the Auburn women’s golf team as the seventh best in the nation, and the men’s golf team won the national championship last season. Both programs are still going strong with impressive starts to their spring seasons. Today, the women’s golf team sits at No. 20 in national rankings and the men’s team is ranked as the second-best team in the country.
Auburn is dominating in equestrian, but students only seem to care about more popular sports.
While football and basketball may be fun to cheer on, it is important that we as a student body slow down to recognize the exemplary play that other teams are putting out.
Recognizing this not only serves our student-athletes, but also serves to bolster Auburn’s reputation as an elite athletic institution for all sports.
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