Auburn was fully confident that its men’s basketball team would reach the Final Four of March Madness. The Tigers lost in the First Round.
They look foolish.
Auburn Athletics posted to X about ‘A-Day Weekend’ on Jan. 18. It was a promotional post that reminded fans to save the date. Softball, tennis and baseball will have home games that weekend. Football will play its spring game at Jordan-Hare.
Although the initial post was harmless, it led to an unfathomably dumb follow-up. The Tigers threw superstition to the wind and set themselves up for embarrassment.
A fan who goes by ‘shaquille oatmeal’ responded to the post with a reminder about that specific weekend. Not only is it A-Day weekend, the Final Four of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will also take place on those dates.
Here is where the university(‘s social media team) made its big mistake. In response to Mr. Oatmeal, Auburn Athletics guaranteed that Bruce Pearl’s team will be one of the last four college basketball teams remaining in March Madness.
Whomever was behind the keyboard should not have said what he or she said on Jan. 20. There was absolutely nothing to gain from making such a bold declaration.
It was a blatant jinx and it would have been easier to simply not post the post! To make matters worse, Tigers star Johni Broome grabbed the microphone after winning the SEC Championship and proudly declared: “we’re not losing no more.”
And then Auburn, a No. 4 seed, lost to Yale, a No. 13 seed, in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.
Broome’s prophecy was not fulfilled. There will be no watch party for the “thousands of Auburn faithful” who cannot make the trip to Phoenix for the Final Four because their team is not going to play in the Final Four. It lost in its first game.