In 2010, one of the single most impressive college football seasons of all time was happening. Cam Newton was dragging a bunch of non-NFL athletes to a title in a truly Herculean effort. It was almost all for naught because of one game.
Two games before Auburn was crowned the national champion by defeating Oregon, Newton and the Tigers faced an astonishing, uncommon deficit. They were down 24-0 to the Alabama Crimson Tide for a spot in the SEC Championship.
Newton dragged his team back and earned a hard-fought 28-27 win to get to the SEC championship and then the national championship, and that game was Sports Illustrated's 15th-best college game of all time.
"The Tigers’ national championship hopes in their one and only year with Cam Newton at quarterback were quickly on the ropes in Bryant-Denny Stadium as the Crimson Tide rolled to a 24–0 lead early in the second quarter," SI reporter Fat Forde said. It could've been worse, ecause Mark Ingram fumbled on his way to the end zone for a touchback. It would've been 28-0 at that point.
"What followed was 'The Camback,'" Forde added, "as Auburn scored 28 of the final 31 points in the game to pull out the victory. After routing South Carolina for the SEC title, the Tigers beat Oregon for the BCS championship."
Had they not been lifted out of that hole by Newton, just one of the impressive things he did en route to the Heisman and national title that year, the entire season changes, and things might've been very different for Newton, Auburn, and the Carolina Panthers, who drafted him after all this.