Posted: Wed November 27, 2013 4:01PM; Updated: Wed November 27,
2013 5:12PM Lars Anderson  The Iron Bowl: Alabama, Auburn and a
rivalry like no other  Decrease font Decrease font Enlarge font
Enlarge font Bear Bryant In 1966, Bear Bryant (in hat) and
Alabama beat Shug Jordan and Auburn 31-0 in the 31st Iron Bowl.
With an unlit cigar dangling from his lips, Mike Slive sat in
his spacious second-floor office in the SEC headquarters in
downtown Birmingham, Ala., last summer and recalled the moment
when he realized that college football fans in the South were
unlike fans anywhere else in the nation. A few weeks before he
agreed to become the SEC commissioner in July 2002, Slive, a
native of Utica, N.Y., who was then the commissioner of
Conference USA, phoned another conference commissioner who had
roots in the South and asked him about the job. "The difference
between being the commissioner of the SEC and what the rest of
us do is that in the SEC it's a 24/7, 365-day a year job," the
commissioner told Slive. "Th