It’s challenging to write an opinion on most any issue in a week when the only opinion that matters in most Southern conversations is how (insert your favorite team here) will do this Saturday or this season.

In a state that’s enjoyed back-to-back national championships and Heisman trophy winners, football is big business, sure; but also consumes our lives for weeks on end.

So it should come as no surprise that the Capital Survey Research Center (CSRC) sought answers to a burning question: Alabama or Auburn?

Statewide surveys conducted here in 2004 and 2011 showed 38 percent are Alabama fans; 18 percent are Auburn fans; 20 percent support both teams; 21 percent support neither team; and 3 percent don’t know the schools exist. And those numbers didn’t change at all between 2004 and 2011.

The polls also measured church attendance and political alliances. In the years between the two polls, the number of UA fans who call themselves Republicans has increased (37 percent to 53 percent); while the number of AU fans who call themselves Democrats, Republicans, or Independents has decreased slightly.

It all means exactly nothing, except that we’re more true to our schools than our politics.