Christmas Wish List: College and Magnolia Style

If Santa asked you for a purely Auburn Christmas list, what would you be asking for? As I sit around watching the Bahamas Bowl on this Christmas Eve, I figured I would put together some things.

1) A good performance in the bowl game. The seniors deserve to go out on a high note. Oh sure, you could say that of both teams, but Auburn's seniors have been through a LOT in their years on the Plains. Even if they don't win, I hope they go out playing hard like they did in the Iron Bowl. I want Nick Marshall to go all Zone Read Ninja Nick. I want CAP to outrush Melvin Gordon. I want Sammie to catch one beautiful deep pass.

2) Bruce Pearl's basketball Tigers to make some noise in the SEC and make a post-season  tournament. Sure, I would love it if they make the Big Dance, but I'm not holding my breath for that. I just want this team to continue improving and to make SOME form of post-season play. And I want them to be a force to  be reckoned with in the SEC. I want this to be a team that others dread playing, and I want Auburn Arena to be a scary place for opponents to play in.

3) Auburn to finish with a strong recruiting class - and all of them qualify. One good thing Auburn has been doing over the past few years is recruiting players who mostly all qualify academically right out of high school. Every player from last season's class qualified. I believe only two of them from the previous class did not, and one of those has returned as a JUCO signee.

4) Auburn baseballl to make at least an NCAA Regional. Last season's team showed some promise at times, and I hope they're capable of going into the post-season this year.

5) Auburn gymnastics to break the streak against Alabama. I can't remember what the number is at right now, but it's bad. I would love for this season's team to break that streak.

6) Auburn softball makes it to the CWS. This is one I think is a very real possibility. Coach Myers is going to have this team competing for it all sooner rather than later.

7) No injuries for the football team in spring practice. Last season saw Carl Lawson get hurt. We didn't think much of it at first, but then word started leaking out over the summer that our worst fears were confirmed: that surgery was a likely season-ending ACL surgery. I want this team to come out healthy and ready to bring it in the fall.

8) A Top 25 defense next season. I think this one is possible, too. It might even be possible to be better than that. We'll see, though. If this defense is Top 25 or better, I truly believe we'll be in the College Football Playoff next season.

9) Swimming and Diving return to the top of the SEC. We got spoiled in that long streak of consecutive SEC titles. I want to get back to that.

10) Aubie wins the Capital One Mascot Challenge. We'll find out next Wednesday night during the Orange Bowl. It really is a shame that Aubie has never won this event. The best mascot in the nation deserves it.

So what's your list, Tiger fans?