My impression of the Auburn / Alabama rivarly is the same. I think we could just as easily have picked a different anecdote, and make the case that it's AU look

My impression of the Auburn / Alabama rivarly is the same. I think we could just as easily have picked a different anecdote, and make the case that it's AU looking down at AL as lower class: It's a relatively common joke to ask Alabama fans if anyone in their family actually went to college, much less to Alabama. Tommy Tuberville, while AU's coach, said that Alabama seemed to have a lot of "walk-on fans" who never went to college. I think the author went off the rails trying to tie in class warfare (it is the Slate). Narcissism of minor differences really hits it on the head. The most intense rivalries seem to come where there's more overlap in the constituents, and the differences between them really are petty.