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We're excited to announce that there's a new outlet dedicated to covering Auburn Olympic sports — and a new contributor at The Observer.

Since starting The Auburn Observer, I have been pretty transparent about the fact that we’re here to cover Auburn football and men’s basketball in our unique way.

We don’t break news, and we prioritize more analysis over traditional beat coverage. It’s why we try to have our friends across the Auburn beat on our podcasts and cite them in our newsletters — especially the ones who do the things we don’t touch much, like recruiting or the sports outside of our main two.

I love that the Auburn beat is much closer and much friendlier than most places across college sports. We’re all in this together, and I don’t view a single one of my colleagues as “competition.” We all have our strengths and can help each other out.

With that in mind, I’m excited to share today that there is a brand-new outlet covering Auburn in a much different way than The Observer from one of our site’s oldest and closest friends.

The Auburn Torch, which is also here on Substack, will feature Justin Lee and his coverage of the Tigers’ Olympic sports — including gymnastics, tennis, golf, swimming and diving, track and field and more. During his time at the Opelika-Auburn News, I saw firsthand how much Lee has a passion for covering the sports that don’t get regular media attention here, and I’m thrilled that he’s going to do it full-time now.

As The Torch’s about page on its newly launched site reads, “this is the outlet that covers everything else at the Everything School.”

Right now, you can head over to The Auburn Torch and read stories about the Tigers’ upcoming gymnastics season, a women’s tennis star and — my personal favorite — gym icon Derrian Gobourne and the early days of her professional wrestling career.

What is it like for a mom to watch her daughter get hit and slammed in a WWE ring? The mother of Auburn’s Derrian Gobourne explains

I encourage any Auburn fan reading this that would like to go deeper in their knowledge of the exciting Olympic sports on the Plains to subscribe to The Torch and help get an exciting new outlet rolling in what should be a busy spring semester.

Annual subscriptions to The Auburn Torch are just $48, which comes down to $4 per month. If you want to go month-to-month, you can subscribe for a little more at $5. And, if you want to go even further to help launch the site, you can become a Torchbearer for $60 or more per year and get some free stuff sent your way.

That means that, for less than $10 per month, you can get coverage of Auburn football, men’s basketball and a wide variety of Olympic sports via subscriptions to The Observer and The Torch. Like The Observer, all Torch stories will go straight into your inbox when you subscribe. He’s also planning a regular video series, too.

Part of the reason I’m excited to tell people about The Auburn Torch is because I’m excited to see a new independent outlet here, because I truly believe it’s the best way to do this kind of work.

The rest is because, starting now, Lee’s columns on Auburn football and men’s basketball — like the ones he wrote at the O-A News — will now be at The Observer. It’s going to be even more bang for your subscription buck.

And his first column. is dropping… well, right now. Enjoy.

LEE: The new era of college football may not be for you. But the new era of Auburn football needs you

It’s easy to say these days that there’s too much money involved now, and that you just don’t care like you used to.

It’s easy to wonder if there’s still passion in the game, or if it’s just all about money.

It’s easy to ask if there’s any loyalty left, or any love left.

It’s easy to wave a hand and say it’s changed, it’s pro, and you’re out of it.

Easy to say — that is, until that ball is in the air again, and that AU is on those helmets and it’s gameday again.

It’s easy to say all that now, until they’re holding on tight to a four-point lead over LSU and you find yourself holding your fist even tighter.

It’s easy to say now, until it’s the Georgia game, and you’ve lived north of Atlanta for the last 10 years, and you’ve had to hear it from all of them at the office over and over and, man, it’d be nice if Auburn would clock them this one time.

You tell yourself you need to move on from this passion. But what you really need is a big turnover right here.

Such is the state of college football as the Earth spins in 2026 and Auburn spins toward a new football season with Alex Golesh as head coach and, probably, Byrum Brown at quarterback.

They’re the new faces of Auburn football, and the faces of Auburn football as it enters this different and distinct era. And with how easily negativity surfaces in the portal era — NIL era, revenue share era, professional era — it’s worth trusting one thing: That shaker with the chewed-up handle has not received its last nervous bite mark.

And it’s worth remembering that college football has moved through different eras before: In the 1950s, the NCAA tried to block TV broadcasts of games for fear it would decrease attendance, which seems crazy now. Now college football is trying to squeeze out every penny it can from TV revenue.

Things change. We’re asking now, ‘What happened to the love of the game? What happened to the humanity?’ — and there were people asking those same questions back when the popularity of college football started to boom in the 80s, harkening back to before it was a spectacle, back before there was this divide from the front row of the bleachers and the sideline, back before Howard Cosell and all of that. Things have changed from era to era in college football.

The different eras of Auburn football, specifically, are easily defined:

• Fearless Pat Dye redrawing the battle lines

• Terry Bowden and Auburn flying by the seat of their pants, much like all America was flying by the seat of its pants in the 90s

• Tommy Tuberville’s teams going up against the world, staking a claim to more respect in the polls and more time talked about on ESPN

• Gene Chizik and Cam Newton were a brilliant flash in the pan, a lightning strike

• Gus Malzahn kept Auburn believing, even stuck between a rock and hard place

The next era, coming out of Auburn’s five-year dark age, will be characterized certainly in part by transfers and transactions — but beyond that, the cultural touchstone has yet to be found. The definition is up in the air.

None of this is to say that no one is allowed to complain, or to say that change is easy: But, realistically, this giant wheel is going to keep churning, and the good news is that none of those previous Auburn eras were defined entirely by the rules around Auburn or what was going on in the world around Auburn.

In part, yes: You think that of that 90s wave when you think of Bowden’s AttitUde, and Tuberville’s teams fit in a 2000s national shift, just as Auburn shifted to Under Armour and shifted to HD.

But for the most part, Auburn sets that definition for itself. Auburn gets a say. The Auburn people get a say, too.

It’s worth keeping your voice, always — and worth resisting the urge toward apathy. Yes, it’s a new era, with new headaches, new arguments, new annoyances — but with a new slate, too.

You’ll be drawn in, eventually. You might as well make your mark.