Colonial BancGroup, the bank founded and for most of its history run by (in)famous Auburn booster Bobby Lowder, was closed by the FDIC this weekend and sold in fire sale conditions to BB&T. Colonial's board of directors had included former Auburn football coach Pat Dye and Jimmy "Yella Fella" Rane.

This is a sad time for anyone who works for Colonial, as their jobs are immediately up in the air, and who had stock in the company (although that ship had been sinking for quite some time). I live in Charlotte, headquarters of Bank of America and Wachovia, so I've seen what this recession has done to banking up close and personal. Just remember that at these banks, there were thousands and thousands of good, hard workers who had nothing to do with making bad loans and blowing up the economy.

Colonial is the largest bank to fail in 2009 and the largest since Washington Mutual. BB&T is headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.