Auburn fan Mark Skiba has no regrets after missing out on $50,000

Imagine being thisclose to $50,000, only to see it slip through your fingertips. Auburn fan Mark Skiba knows that feeling.

Before college football season started, Skiba bet $100 on his school, Auburn, to win the national championship, at 500-1 odds. With the Tigers coming off a 3-9 season, it seemed like a sucker bet. Then the improbable happened: Auburn made it to the BCS title game.

The Tigers even took a lead late in the game, only to see it vanish, along with Skiba’s $50,000 payoff, when Florida State scored in the final seconds for a 34-31 victory.

“I regret nothing,” Skiba told ESPN 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.”

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