The day we lost our Chamionship hopes

[AURainman 6]

I did some snooping on Google and found this.

Our SOS is bad?

The Tigers have been winning more decisively, by an average of 25 points. The Sooners average margin is 16.8, but so far they've played a tougher schedule.

The Tigers' nonconference slate served up three cupcakes _ Louisiana-Monroe, The Citadel and Louisiana Tech _ making their push for the top spot difficult.

"Everybody's talking about catching Oklahoma," Tuberville said Sunday. "I don't understand how USC's gotten so far ahead of everybody else."

Oklahoma's nonconference schedule at least offered a couple of solid teams in Bowling Green and Oregon to go along with pushover Houston.

Decatur Daily

The Citadel coming

Auburn has added The Citadel to its 2004 football schedule to replace Bowling Green.

The Citadel, a Division I-AA school, will receive a $450,000 guarantee from Auburn to visit Jordan-Hare Stadium on Sept. 25, 2004.

Bowling Green was to play at Auburn that day, but canceled to play at Oklahoma for a $500,000 payout. The decision left Auburn scrambling to schedule a seventh home game.

The Citadel played at LSU last year and lost 35-10. NCAA rules allow a Division I-A team once every four years to count a win over a Division I-AA team toward the minimum six wins needed for bowl eligibility.

With about $50 million in planned capital projects and stadium renovations, Auburn has decided it must play seven home games each year, rather than six, Housel said. The seventh home game adds about $1.7 million in revenue.

The Falcons must pay Auburn a $25,000 buyout for canceling, but they are slated to receive about $150,000 more from Oklahoma than they would have from Auburn.

If we are left out because Oklahoma was willing to pay more money for their non-conference games, this will be rediculous. We keep getting out-bid for decent non-conference foes. Someone NEEDS to raise a stink about this to the likes of ESPN.

[AURainman 6]

Huntsville Times

Looks like Huntsville is barking up the same tree.

Citadel may cost AU

Division I-AA victory doesn't count in rankings

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

By PHILLIP MARSHALL

Times Sports Staff pmarsh9485@msn.com

AUBURN - When Bowling Green officials called asking out of a scheduled game for this season, no one at Auburn saw it as a major issue.

Bowling Green, a Mid-American Conference power, had an opportunity to play Oklahoma in a more regionally attractive matchup. Auburn agreed and filled the spot with a game against The Citadel, a Division I-AA team. It could potentially prove to be a costly move.

With Auburn and Oklahoma in a tight race for the No. 2 spot in the Bowl Championship Series standings, Oklahoma's 40-24 victory over Bowling Green, 8-2 and ranked No. 25, provides a boost in the computer rankings. Auburn's 33-3 victory over The Citadel is of no value.

Auburn surged in the polls after last Saturday's 24-6 win over Georgia, moving into a tie with Oklahoma for No. 2 in the Associated Press poll and trailing the Sooners by just two points in the coaches' poll. Southern California is No. 1 in both polls and in the BCS standings. Oklahoma is No. 1 in the computer rankings, followed by USC and Auburn. The Tigers remained third Monday in the BCS standings but halved their deficit with the Sooners. Should Auburn and Oklahoma remain close in the polls, the computer rankings could make the difference. The polls count 2/3 and the computer rankings 1/3 in the BCS formula.

The top two teams in the BCS standings play in the Orange Bowl for the national championship.

...........

[AuNuma1 1]

Wow...very interesting indeed. So $50k might be the difference between us and OU??? Just wow!

Nice find dude.

[AURainman 6]

Exactly!! Orange Bowl vs. Sugar Bowl may be based off of a $50,000 bid back in the spring.

[johnwegl 11]

thanks for posting that. i have been trying to find that article all day to shut the atlanta sports radio talking heads up.

[EllisHugh 0]

This is the same situation that LSU had to deal with last year and is the reason why SOS was supposed to be a lesser part of the equation this year. I call it the "Help USC and their sorry-ass conference rule."

[AuNuma1 1]

I guess we could also fault GT or the city of Atlanta for backing out on us this year too...I'm pretty sure a win over GT would be better than a win over LaTech or LaMon.

Does anyone know exactly why we couldn't play GT this year? I heard that it had something to do with the GA dome and GT couldn't play it there or something...anyone know for sure?

[AURainman 6]

I guess we could also fault GT or the city of Atlanta for backing out on us this year too...I'm pretty sure a win over GT would be better than a win over LaTech or LaMon.

Does anyone know exactly why we couldn't play GT this year?  I heard that it had something to do with the GA dome and GT couldn't play it there or something...anyone know for sure?

122487[/snapback]

I believe that decision rests purely on the shoulders of the AU administration.

1. We were scheduled for a 3 game series. Game 1--Georgia Dome. Game 2--Bobby Dodd Stadium Game 3--Jordan-Hare Stadium

2. Both teams agreed to pull the GA Dome game and play a home and away the way it is now.

3. Shortly after the "agreement" AU officials began pulling out of games with VA Tech and Clemson, siting "WE NEED TO MAINTAIN SEVEN HOME GAMES A YEAR TO PAY FOR STADIUM EXPANSION"

4. Lost between the cracks was the fact that indeed AUBURN was the one who wanted out of the GT game so that we could get an extra home game this year.

5. We scheduled a replacement of Bowling Green.

6. Just like the swap of Ball State for Western KY last year, we were forced to pay a D1AA team to come play when Bowling Green backed out.

[AuNuma1 1]

Oh, I thought the GT series was supposed to be (for us) away, GA Dome, then home. I thought the dome game had outside factors involved that cancelled it...

[WaReAgLe83 0]

I've known about this ever since it happened. After all the MAC non-conf. upsets last year, I was excited about seeing Bowling Green on the schedule. Then they backed out to play Oklahoma. So, essentially, they cast their vote at that point as to who has a better football program - us or the Sooners.

I guess it comes down to bigger, better J-H vs. respectable SOS. The second one counts a lot more toward winning a national championship. If we do get left out of Miami, I hope we'll have seen the end of playing I-AA teams.

[AuNuma1 1]

Ah, scratch that $50k difference. It's actually a $25k difference because Bowling Green had to pay Auburn $25k to back out...just think, if everyone at the game on Saturday contributed like 30 cents, that would've been enough to satisfy Bowling Green. :huh: