So I’m driving through the piney hills of North Alabama earlier this week listening to the immensely popular Paul Finebaum Show on the radio.

Finebaum is talking about Bobby from Homewood, an Auburn fan who is a regular caller. Except not anymore. You see, Bobby has been banned from the show after he called last week and reveled the fact that another regular caller — Alabama fan Shane from Centerpoint — was recently diagnosed with lung cancer.

Bobby, according to a producer on Finebaum’s station, claimed Shane had contracted lung cancer because of cosmic karma created from his anti-Auburn rants of the past. Bobby also let it be known that he hoped the last thing Shane thought about before he died was that Auburn was the defending national champions.

Welcome to Alabama-Auburn, where the rivalry sometimes really is more important than life and death.

In what other rivalry could you have a deranged Alabama fan arrested for poisoning the majestic and hallowed oak trees at Auburn’s Toomer’s Corner and then calling a radio show and bragging about it before signing off with “Roll damn Tide!” In what other rivalry could you have a wacko Auburn fan rejoicing in the knowledge that an Alabama fan has cancer?

It’s no wonder both Auburn coach Gene Chizik and Alabama coach Nick Saban were preaching tolerance, civility and class to their respective fan bases at SEC Media Days this week.

For once, the coaches at Alabama and Auburn actually agreed on something. And they were both absolutely right. Auburn-Alabama is the best rivalry in college football, but, regrettably, it has been hijacked by a small minority of morons.

We see it in Florida on a much smaller scale with some of the fans at Florida and Florida State, but, honestly, Gators-Seminoles is like a powderpuff pillow fight when compared to the rivalry between Auburn fans and Alabama fans.

“There’s nothing else in this state that people identify with like college football,” says former Auburn coach Terry Bowden, who is now coaching the University of North Alabama. “We don’t have a lot people moving south to retire here; they go a little further to Florida. We don’t have a bunch of outsiders; we have a lot of people who have lived here their entire lives.

“College football has been our equalizer ever since Bear Bryant. Because of college football, we weren’t just the state that people made fun of because of rednecks and racism and dog riots and all the other negatives that people suggest. In college football, we were equal to or above the rest of the country. It’s been something our state can hang its hat on.”

And now more than ever with Alabama and Auburn owning the last two BCS Championships

It’s not just a state rivalry anymore; it’s gone national.

The poisoning of the Toomer’s Corner trees made the seedy side of the rivalry an international spectacle. But, in the end, maybe those sick trees have made both sides more intolerant of sick minds. A group of Alabama fans — “Tide for Toomer’s” — has raised money to save the trees in Auburn. Likewise, a group of Auburn fans — “Toomer’s for Tuscaloosa” — have helped raise money for the victims of the devastating tornadoes not far from the University of Alabama.

At the Wynfrey Hotel on Friday on the final day of SEC Media Days, a huge crowd of Alabama fans waited to catch a glimpse of Tide coach Nick Saban as he walked through the lobby. One of those fans — Eric Blackerby — wore a T-shirt that said, “I Hate Auburn.”

“It’s all in fun,” Blackerby said. “It’s not real hate; it’s just good-natured sports hate.”

Sadly, among the good people of Alabama, it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference.