It's that time of year again, people. You may say I'm a few weeks early to start a discussion that stirs up our state's favorite football rivalry, but in Alabama, it's always football season.

So this week, let's determine the truth behind some urban legends that circulate at Auburn University and the University of Alabama, including a couple that will fuel the rivalry into football season.

Urban legends from Auburn University:

Legend: There's an Auburn flag on the moon, put there by an astronaut who was an alumnus.

Determination: Possibly. But probably not.

If my count is correct, Auburn University has graduated more astronauts than any college in the state so the legend that one of them made it to space and planted an souvenir Auburn flag on the moon is more than plausible. However, the man thought to be behind the flag-planting, Ken Mattingly, never left Apollo 16 for a moon walk.

According to a 2011 story on the New York Times online, "A set of 10 small blue-and-orange flags accompanied the Auburn graduate Thomas (Kenneth) Mattingly, known as T.K., on Apollo 16 nearly 40 years ago. Duties kept him on board while two colleagues went on a crater-strewn walk. Auburn lore maintains that one of those colleagues — John W. Young and Charlie Duke — deposited a flag on the lunar surface ... But myth may have blended with fact, and the consensus is that all flags stayed confined to the capsule."

Legend: Jimmy Buffett flunked out of Auburn.

Determination: True.

According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, singer and author Jimmy Buffett enrolled at Auburn in 1965. While there, he pledged Sigma Pi fraternity. A fraternity brother, Johnny Youngblood, reportedly taught Buffett to play guitar, unwittingly spawning a successful career writing and recording island music hits such as "Margaritaville." Buffett hoped guitar-playing would help him attract the attention of girls. "Buffett was unable to balance his newfound interests in music and girls with his college classes and failed out of Auburn in April 1966," Charles Stephen Padgett wrote on EncylopediaofAlabama.org.

Read more here.

Legend: If a student steps on Auburn's seal, he will not graduate in four years and will not marry a fellow Auburn student.

Determination: False.

Auburn's official university seal was cast in bronze and set into the ground in front of Langdon Hall where students pass it each day. Soon after its installation, a legend soon began circulating that students should never step on the seal. Any student who does, the legend says, will not complete college within four years and won't marry a fellow Auburn student, which is considered the best possible mate. Of course, this is one of those fun myths college students tell and pass on to each incoming class.

Legend: Noise from the 2013 Iron Bowl registered on a seismic scale.

Determination: Unknown. But something made waves like an earthquake at the exact moment of Auburn's victory.

Jordan-Hare Stadium is known for its noise. Dozens of online rankings of loudest college stadiums list it in the Top 20, and in 2006, the SEC warned Auburn officials if administrators didn't lower the decibels at the stadium, the university would be fined for violating a noise ordinance, marking the only time such a warning was given until that time, according to The Decatur Daily.

In 2013, after Chris Davis returned a last-second, missed field goal 109 yards to beat Alabama in the Iron Bowl, Auburn was fined $5,000 because fans stormed the field against SEC regulations. But after Brian Williams pondered aloud on NBC Nightly News whether the noise from that once-in-a-lifetime play registered on the Richter scale, a Huntsville researcher decided to find out.

Steve Jones, a NASA engineer with a seismograph in his basement, checked the readings for the date of the game and discovered a "suspicious" seismic reading beginning at the time of Davis' play and lasting 45 minutes, according to the popular blog TheWarEagleReader.com.

"While Jones can't say for certain that the massive celebration that erupted as Sports Illustrated cover boy Chris Davis broke into the clear on his jaw-dropping end zone to end zone touchdown dash produced the signature, he says the time stamp could certainly suggest it," editor Jeremy Henderson wrote. "He also says the blip definitely 'looks man-made.'"

Urban legends from the University of Alabama

Legend: A student was assigned the cadaver of a relative to dissect in anatomy class.

Determination: True

Although this is a common legend at many medical schools, typically stating a student was given a parent's body to dissect, a real incident occurred in 1982 at the University of Alabama, according to snopes.com.

Snopes reports: "A student discovered that one of the nine cadavers presented to the class (but not the one she was assigned to dissect) was her great aunt. (Even more coincidentally, the student and her aunt had at one time discussed the merits of donating one's body to medical science.) A different cadaver was immediately substituted by the state anatomical board."

Legend: A massacre will occur on Halloween night at Tutwiler Hall.

Determination: False

According to legend, no woman is safe in Julia Tutwiler Hall on Halloween night. While the threat is often vague – example: the ghost of a former resident who jumped to her death haunts the halls – one tale goes back as far as Nostradamus, who allegedly predicted a massacre would occur on Oct. 31 sometime from the 1960s to 1990s.

Of course, in this version, Nostradamus didn't mention Tutwiler Hall by name. How could he have? The dorm was built in 1968, although the campus was home to an earlier dorm called Tutwiler, built in 1914.

An October 2009 story on examiner.com tells the story this way: "Every year around this time a story is perpetuated in the University of Alabama's Tutwiler residence hall. Supposedly, Nostradamus predicted that between 1960 and 1990 – or in the late 1990s according to another version – a massacre would occur on Halloween night. This would take place in a girl's dormitory close to a cemetery and a mental asylum."

Nostradamus scholars have found no evidence of such a claim.

Legend: Bear Bryant got his nickname by wrestling a bear.

Determination: True

"His nickname was Bear. Now imagine a guy that can carry the nickname Bear," former Alabama standout Joe Namath said of his former coach in ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series.

In this state, the name is legend. But is the legend of how Paul "Bear" Bryant got his nickname true?

Yes, according to ESPN.

Reporter Mike Puma wrote: "By 13, Paul already stood 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds. He earned the nickname that would stick with him for life by accepting a challenge to wrestle a bear at a carnival for $1. Although Bryant had his ear bitten, the carnival never paid him."

Legend: Former Alabama football great Joe Namath was hired as the host of the game show "Family Feud."

Determination: True.

When the game show "Family Feud" was rebooted in the late 1980s, executive producer Howard Felsher met with Namath and decided he would make a perfect replacement for Richard Dawson. Namath did some trials as host, according to Mark Kriegel's "Namath: A Biography." A deal was in place when producer Bill Goodson decided: "Family Feud should have a more erudite host," Kriegel wrote.

And a legend pertaining to both colleges that has long been a source of controversy:

Legend: Auburn students rolled Toomer's Corner in celebration when Bear Bryant died.

Determination: False.

Although this is an oft-repeated tale, and one quoted by Toomer's oak poisoner Harvey Updyke, there is no evidence that Auburn students ever celebrated the death of beloved coach Bear Bryant in 1983. In fact, the newspapers from the area, including the student publication The Plainsman and the Opelika-Auburn News, published stories honoring Alabama's "winningest coach."

The Opelika-Auburn News published a story with the headline: "Praise, tears come for Bear," and publisher Paul Cox wrote a column titled: "There'll never be another one like Bear Bryant."

In 2011, an AL.com story quoted long-time Auburn athletic director David Housel:

"There's an old saying – it certainly didn't originate with me – that 'lies and misconception go around the world three times before truth and perspective get their boots on.' I think that's what we're dealing with. Especially when you say something that people want to hear," Housel said.

"If Alabama people want to think that Auburn people are bad and terrible, you get this urban myth out there and they say, 'Uh huh, I told you so.' The myth's not true. The same thing's true if Auburn people want to think Alabama people are bad and terrible – some urban myth comes up about their fan base."

Kelly Kazek is following the trends and talking about Real Alabama. Call her at 256-701-0576, find her on Facebook, or use contacts at the top of this story.