I spent last weekend in Alabama, where football is the force that fuels state pride and stokes partisan passions. In the Heart of Dixie, it’s not a question of whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican; it’s a question of whether you’re for Auburn or for Alabama.

On that Saturday, Alabama was playing Georgia Southern, a powerhouse in the second-tier Southern Conference, but no threat to the class of the dreaded Southeastern Conference.

The game was a warm-up for the Iron Bowl, the annual clash between the Auburn Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide. But, more important, it offered the third-ranked Tide an opportunity to display its strength for the benefit of the sports pundits and computers who decide who makes it to the national championship game in January.

At the home where we were guests, the TV was tuned to a national network that was telecasting the game between the University of Georgia and the University of Kentucky. If Georgia won, it became the champion of the Eastern Division of the SEC. If it lost, the title went to the South Carolina Gamecocks, who defeated Georgia earlier in the season.

I reluctantly switched the game off and drove across Mobile to join a group of friends who were watching a $35-per-view cablecast of the Crimson Tide vs. the Eagles from the South Georgia town of Statesboro.

Since the University of Georgia gave me my grounding in journalism, I’ve remained a Bulldog fan over the years. But when you’re in Alabama, you don’t snub the Tide, even when they’re playing a team from a second-tier conference. This would be Alabama’s chance to burnish its credentials for the January national championship face-off against No. 1 Louisiana State University or, if LSU stumbles, maybe the Arkansas Razorbacks. The more of a hurtin’ ‘Bama could put on the Eagles, the better its chances of moving up to No. 2 in the national rankings and a shot at the championship.

When you’re in a room full of Tide fans, you have to watch your language. You must be careful not to say anything remotely complimentary of the Auburn Tigers, who were impertinent enough to defeat the Tide last year in a come-from-behind victory that boosted Auburn toward a national championship.

Friendships have been known to go flying like a 15-yard field goal splitting the uprights when Auburn and Alabama fans watch the Iron Bowl Game together. One of the gentlest ladies I knew when I wrote for the Mobile Press-Register told me she would never watch an Auburn-Alabama game with friends who were not Alabama fans, because their friendship might not survive the contest. Other rivalries are bitter, but the Auburn-Alabama rivalry is lethal. Homicides have taken place during disputes over the Iron Bowl.

The University of Alabama has no monopoly on gridiron grudges. Once, while waiting for my plane in Denver, Colo., I fell into conversation with a fellow wearing an Auburn cap. He told me: “If I was in a blizzard on the frozen tundra, and the only thing I had to keep me warm was an Alabama jacket, I wouldn’t wear it.”

I knew better than to let any sympathy for the underdog creep into my comments as we gathered around the large-screen TV in a spacious room looking out on a yard bordered with lush green foliage on this Gulf Coast afternoon.

I was expecting a massacre as the Tide’s top-ranked defense arrayed itself against the Eagles’ triple-option offense, led by quarterback Jaybo Shaw. But Shaw seemed to be unaware that his team was a 44-point underdog. He began moving the ball confidently against the Tide.

“They’re not intimidated,” I remarked, to glares from the Alabama crowd. I quickly shut up, realizing that anyone who hailed from east of the Chattahoochee was going to be under intense scrutiny in this room.

For a while, it looked as though the Tide was going to unleash the anticipated tsunami. Ten minutes into the game, ‘Bama blocked an Eagles field-goal attempt that would have tied the game at 3-3. An Alabama player grabbed the ball and ran the other way for a touchdown.

But the Eagles kept coming back. I had to stifle cheers as Dominique Swope from Buford, Ga., ran 82 yards into the Tide end zone. Again, I choked on a cheer as Laron Scott returned a third-quarter kickoff with a 95-yard touchdown run. For most of the game, the little college from Statesboro stayed within 10 points of the colossus from Tuscaloosa.

Finally, the Alabama offense proved too much for the visiting Georgians, and as the fourth quarter drew to a close, ‘Bama had a comfortable, though not overwhelming, 38-21 lead. With the clock running out, ‘Bama threw into the end zone for a touchdown, thus padding its margin.

“They shouldn’t have done that,” said a sportsmanlike Tide fan who doesn’t like to see his team run up the score unnecessarily.

But the Tide needed to pad its lead to impress the gurus and the computers. On the strength of that victory, it rose to No. 2 in the national rankings.

Next week, Auburn will see what it can do about that.

I’ll watch with mild interest. For me, the real contest will be in Atlanta, where the Bulldogs will attempt to extend their dominance over the Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech.

And of course, there’s that minor contest in Columbia, where my neighbors, the Clemson Tigers, who have fallen out of the top 10, will take on the No. 13 Gamecocks, who would like to blast their way into the top echelon.

It looks as though Georgia will tangle with LSU in the Georgia Dome Dec. 3 for the championship of the nation’s most powerful college football conference. It looks like another mismatch, but when the formidable Bengals from the Bayou take the field against the less-imposing Dawgs, I’ll remember the Eagles and hope.

Readers may write Gene Owens at 104 Belspring Lane, Anderson SC 29621 or email him at WadesDixieco@AOL.com.