Auburn Tigers cornerback Chris Davis (11) gets by Alabama Crimson Tide punter Cody Mandell (29) and returns a missed field goal for a 100-yard touchdown during the fourth quarter. Auburn won 34-28. USA Today Sports

AUBURN, Ala.—Jordan-Hare Stadium throbbed as the last minute of the fourth quarter ticked away Saturday, the orange pompoms waved by Auburn fans animating the 87,500-seat bowl into a great, crazed sea creature. The Tigers would have been lucky to eke out a winning record this season, what with last year's 3-9 disaster and sacking of the previous coach. But here they were, somehow 10-1 and tied with their intrastate overlords and reigning all-everythings, Alabama, in the fourth quarter.

Thirty-two seconds remained. The unbeaten and top-ranked Crimson Tide sat perhaps an overtime away from continuing their course to a third consecutive national championship, their fourth title in five years. A diehard Auburn fan could be forgiven for thinking, This might be as good as it gets.

What unfolded next turned a game that already ranked among the best in the Iron Bowl, the Alabama-Auburn series, into perhaps the most memorable finish in college football history that did not involve a trombone player.

Alabama pushed to the Auburn 38-yard line and called on replacement kicker Adam Griffith—the Tide's starter had missed two attempts and had one blocked—to try a 57-yard field goal. One second remained. As both teams clustered near scrimmage, a lone Auburn player trotted to a spot beneath the goalpost. Chris Davis had been summoned by Gus Malzahn, the Auburn offensive coordinator from the Tigers' 2010 national-title season who as first-year head coach had engineered the team's turnaround, an 0-8 to 6-1 improvement unprecedented in Southeastern Conference history. The Tigers were 10.5-point underdogs Saturday.

Griffith booted the ball, which sagged low and to the right of the goalpost. Davis caught it behind the word TIGERS in the end zone. He feinted right, then took off running to the left. At the 20-yard line he slipped past a tackler. At the 35, he nearly teetered out of bounds. At the 45, he shrugged past another defender.

When Davis reached Alabama territory he veered right, bursting through a line of blockers like an airplane piercing the clouds. With the world exploding around him, Davis glided into the end zone. Final score: 34-28, Auburn.

It was only the fourth time in NCAA football history that a team had returned a missed field goal 100 yards. The Tigers had never practiced the play.

Fans leapt onto their aluminum bleacher seats, stomping and screaming. They spilled onto the field as if stepping through a movie screen and into myth.

Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver Amari Cooper catches a 99-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter at Jordan Hare Stadium. USA Today Sports

Alabama coach Nick Saban pursed his lips and walked onto the field to seal the misery with a handshake. The mastermind of the Tide's meticulous offense and precision defense, the man who obsessed over a coaching method he calls "The Process" had succumbed to a play that didn't exist.

Alabama's national-title hopes were all but smashed, its SEC West Division title grabbed by Auburn in that one tiny second on the clock. It was Saban who had bellowed for officials to restore that second. They agreed. Back went the second, in went the kicker, off went Davis.

It was the most spectacular finish in the sport's fiercest rivalry, and it came at that rivalry's apex, with the teams' No. 1 and No. 4 records rankings their collective highest in the history of the matchup.

The plays that preceded that conclusion were so spectacular that they stood like a stack of Olympic gold medals, each one's value hard to appreciate.

Trailing 21-14 early in the second half, Auburn marched 69 yards on nine plays—three of them passing, including Nick Marshall's 13-yard strike to C.J. Uzomah for the game-tying touchdown. The Tigers had trailed by as many as two touchdowns, and finished with a meager 97 passing yards for the game (compared with 296 rushing yards). The Tigers kept Alabama's top-ranked scoring defense off-balance by faking handoffs and sending players in motion.

With the game tied 21-21 early in the fourth quarter, on the first play from scrimmage at the Alabama 1-yard line, Tide quarterback AJ McCarron dropped back and heaved a pass to Amari Cooper. The receiver caught it and ran the length of the right sideline for the go-ahead touchdown, 28-21. Thus a one-play, game-tying, 99-yard scoring drive was reduced to a footnote.

On the game's penultimate drive, Auburn's Marshall passed on the run to Sammie Coates, who veered into the end zone for a 39-yard touchdown to tie the game 28-28 with 32 seconds to go.

Auburn will play SEC East Division champion Missouri in Saturday's SEC championship game in Atlanta.

If current Nos. 2 and 3 Florida State and Ohio State win their respective conference championship games next Saturday, they probably will meet in the Bowl Championship Series title game Jan. 6 in Pasadena, Calif. Or if mayhem occurs—as it seems to around this Auburn teams—then the Tigers could find themselves in one of the unlikeliest title berths ever.

After the game Auburn defensive end Dee Ford talked of blocking for Davis on that final play. At the 50-yard line, Ford had swiveled his head as he scanned the field for tacklers that never arrived—until Davis' own teammates toppled onto him.

"I was just so shocked, just the way the game unfolded," Ford said. "What can you say, honestly?"

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