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Auburn schedule might hurt them.


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Auburn's schedule so far:

A very bad LOUISIANA-MONROE WON 31-0

A very bad Mississippi State WON 43-14

A not nearly as good as last year LSU WON 10-9

A very bad THE CITADEL WON 33-3

A quality Tennessee WON 34-10 (However may not end the season in the top 20)

A very bad LOUISIANA TECH WON 52-7

A not so good ARKANSAS WON 38-20

A very bad KENTUCKY WON 42-10

A not so good Mississippi WON 35-14

I think most would agree Auburn's schedule until this point has been very favorable. In fact only 2 out of the 9 opponents have winning records. Every SEC team AU has played so far is not as good as last year. Particularly LSU, AR, KY and Ole Miss. One exception may be TN. Of course, with the exception of the extremely weak non-conference schedule, it's no fault of Auburn most of the SEC is down this year.

After 9 games into the season I don't buy the argument that says Auburn is in the SEC so they play a tougher schedule than Oklahoma and USC. IMO Auburn has had a very weak schedule in historical SEC terms. No big back to back games as GA had against LSU and then TN. Only one away game against a team with a winning record.

If Auburn wins against GA, wins against Bama and wins the Sugar bowl IMO it's not enough to conclusively say they should go to the Orange Bowl. (If OK and USC are also undefeated.) I'm not saying they wouldn't deserve the Orange Bowl. I'm saying that OK and USC would deserve to go as well. If Auburn wins out that may mean another loss for TN. One more loss for TN might take them out of the top 20. That would mean AU only defeated two top 20 teams for the season. That's no better than USC and OK because the rest of Auburn's schedule was very weak.

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Yeah, its been a strange year in the SEC. However, you need to look at the big picture. Schedules are carved out WELL in advance.

There were various reasons why we dropped Georgia Tech from this year's schedule.

Also, Bowling Green (OH) was scheduled to make a trip to the plains, but bought out of their contract leaving us with the Citadel.

That's 2 somewhat decent OOC opponents we had scheduled that never made it to the Plains. So our OOC was bad. LaTech has a reputation as being a perrenial 'thorn in the paw' for many top D-1 opponents, so I can't fault the administration for scheduling them. Basically, we were counting on the SEC alone to carry us for strength of schedule. Obviously, the SEC has let us down a bit this year. (You don't count on a schedule filled with LSU, UGA, Bama, Arkansas, UT, and hate-filled Ole Miss to be an easy road for us.)

All that said, how do you fault a team for winning all of their games. We are FAR from undefeated right now, but, should we run the table, how can ANYONE justify leaving us out of a title game. If ANY team from a BCS conference (Big East excluded) wins ALL of their games, they ought to get a shot at the National Championship. Regardless of OOC scheduling.

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i've asked it before and i'll ask again is there a lot of difference between a 5-4 oregon and a 3-5 arkansas? seriously, arkansas took texas to the 8 yard line before another of their bonehead plays (i mean this is the school that sponsored ut's national title brought to you by clint steorner) lost the ball. if jones just takes a sack, they are 4-4 with a win over the second best team in the big 12. i don't really see the difference, but apparently everyone else sees a big one.

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It didn't hurt LSU last year. Their Non-Conference schedule was WEAK to say the least

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It didn't but in 2003 LSU played and beat a much better Ole Miss and a better Arkansas team than Auburn beat this year. And of course LSU beat a very good GA team twice, a team I believe ended up # 6. LSU also beat a pretty good Auburn team. That's 5 quality SEC wins. (6 if you include Bama) Even if Auburn wins out do you honestly think Auburns SEC schedule strength is on par with last years LSU SEC schedule?

A win over a struggling TN team without a decent QB may not bolster Auburn's chances as much as it did when LSU beat a much stronger GA team last year in the championship game.

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All that said, how do you fault a team for winning all of their games.  We are FAR from undefeated right now, but, should we run the table, how can ANYONE justify leaving us out of a title game.  If ANY team from a BCS conference (Big East excluded) wins ALL of their games, they ought to get a shot at the National Championship.  Regardless of OOC scheduling.

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I agree you cannot fault Auburn. Any other year, with the same schedule, you're looking at a very difficult schedule. Like I said in my earlier post. If Auburn wins out they deserve to be in the championship game. However, the same applies to USC and OK. You just can't make a good case this year that the SEC is the strongest conference and since Auburn is undefeated they should get the nod over all other undefeated teams.

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Damn it. We're going undefeated the wrong year. Let's lose to GA tomorrow, win out, win the Sugar bowl and wait to go undefeated another year.

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