ATLANTA – Auburn’s football players delivered a message Saturday afternoon, one of the more powerful messages in Southeastern Conference history.

Phillip Marshall, Senior Editor, AuburnUndercover.com

They are 13-0. They are Southeastern Conference champions, the best team in the league by a considerable distance. Their 56-17 victory over South Carolina on Saturday at the Georgia Dome was the most lopsided in SEC history. They will play Oregon on Jan. 10 for the national championship. And if their detractors don’t like it, they don’t care.

Against a South Carolina team picked by many to pull a championship game upset, the Tigers were so dominant that, by the middle of the third quarter, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier was calling running plays in an effort to make the clock run.

At Jordan-Hare Stadium on Sept. 25, South Carolina had reason to believe it could have done better than lose 35-27. On Saturday, it could have been even worse than it was had Auburn coach Gene Chizik chosen to make it that way.

Auburn won the physical battle on both sides of the ball and it won the coaching matchup on the sideline. Neither was close.

In the second half, the Tigers did what they’ve done in second halves all season, beat the Gamecocks almost senseless. But this time, the Tigers found that elusive four-quarter game. They weren’t perfect. Things were a bit hairy late in the second quarter, until a spectacular touchdown on the final play of the first half. But it was obvious from the start who was the best team in the building.

The second half was a butt-kicking, pure and simple.

In the biggest game of the season, the Tigers did what championship teams do. They lifted their level of play. South Carolina had no answer. No answer at all.

Newton showed that he is, without any question, the best college football player on the planet. Auburn’s defense played, by far, its best game of the season.

Sunday evening it will be official that Auburn will play Oregon in the BCS Championship Game. Next Saturday, it will be official that Newton has won the Heisman Trophy.

Despite all the distractions, all the venom from places far away, that’s the kind of season it’s been for the Auburn Tigers, champions of the SEC.