I didn't see this happen after the humiliating loss, so my theory was wrong. However, think back to the end of the third quarter of the Iron Bowl. Alabama had the game in hand and could basically run out the clock with conservative playcalling at this point, but that didn't happen. Nick Saban screams at his players, “Don't you know how much I hate these guys!?!” and proceeded with down field shots and elaborate screen passes (well, given our offensive woes at the time, their 'completed' screen passes seemed elaborate).

You've seen something close to this scenario play out in movies before. The bad guy finally catches the good guy. Instead of shooting the good guy and getting on with the main goal of taking over the world or whatever, the bad guy must tell the good guy of his evil plot.. but wait! As the final plot twist, the good guy was secretly recording the whole thing! The DA, or army general or whatever, now has the evidence or information needed to take down the bad guy.

During Auburn's domination of Alabama for six years, you heard “people” say that Auburn fans cared more about beating Alabama than winning championships. Whether true or not, we now have empirical proof that Alabama's head coach would rather humiliate Auburn than increase his odds of winning a national championship. Alabama, the #1 ranked team in the country, completely unleashed their entire playbook onto Auburn's worst team of the decade.

Was Nick Saban aware that CBS was recording the entire game and broadcasting to places like Florida and Utah? Maybe he was, but maybe he didn't care. Maybe Saban thought it really was more important to humiliate Auburn than to go conservative and hold back on the playbook. After all, look at what Alabama did to Florida in 2005. Sure, there was some collateral damage in terms of injuries, but it got them a Sports Illustrated cover! Bama was forever back, and Florida's program has been forever ruined since that game in 2005.