Mark Skiba was probably confident after Tre Mason rumbled into the end zone from 37 yards with 1:19 remaining in the BCS Championship Game. But at the same time, given how Auburn beat Alabama in the Iron Bowl, he was probably thinking there was too much time remaining for Florida State.
And there was. When Jameis Winston hit Kelvin Benjamin on a 2-yard touchdown pass with 13 seconds left, Skiba's $100 bet on Auburn wasn't going to pay off.
He put the $100 down on Auburn last January, after the Tigers suffered a disastrous 3-9 season. The wager was at 500/1 odds, meaning that his bet would have paid $50,000 had the Tigers won Monday night.
"I regret nothing," Skiba said after the game. "At the end of the day, I was playing with house money for the last two months. This was not supposed to happen in so many ways. It's the whole experience and the story. That's what I will remember.
"It was a bit of a life-changing experience just from the exposure standpoint and tonight it definitely peaked."
Skiba is an Auburn fan, so not only was he enjoying the ride of the 2013 Tigers, he literally had an investment riding on them as well. Pretty cool, though we have to wonder how many college football fans could handle that. And you have to give Skiba credit too -- he refused to hedge his bet against his Tigers.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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