The Auburn University Marching Band has this thing called the R.A.T. Program.

“R.A.T. stands for Rookie Auburn Tigers,” said Acelynn Arballo, a R.A.T. program leader for the '23-'24 school year . “We kind of know the tale. It was like the freshmen got off the train and you could hear them scurrying around campus and so they just called them rats. I think that’s where it came from. We’ve definitely heard the story.”

But probably not the whole story.