AURainman 6 Posted November 24, 2004 Share Posted November 24, 2004 Birmingham News Tigers paying for weak non-conference schedule Wednesday, November 24, 2004 CHARLES GOLDBERG News staff writer AUBURN - The news barely was a blip on college football's radar. Bowling Green bought its way out of its contract with Auburn, signed on to play Oklahoma instead and the Tigers added The Citadel to fill the void. Bowling Green? The Citadel? What's the non-conference difference? Seems there's a lot. The decision by Bowling Green to get out of a contract with an easy escape clause has benefited Oklahoma, has hurt Auburn and is having a direct impact on the Bowl Championship Series standings. No. 2 Oklahoma has gained points in the BCS computers because Bowling Green is 8-2 and is in the Top 25. No. 3 Auburn has been hurt because The Citadel is a Division I-AA school, and not a very good one at that. Bowling Green's decision to play Oklahoma instead of Auburn could cost the Tigers a shot at playing for the national title, while helping the Sooners' cause. But don't just blame The Citadel. Auburn is getting little help from its two other non-conference opponents - Louisiana Tech and Louisiana-Monroe - and is being hurt by the most unlikely of sources. The SEC. The once-mighty Southeastern Conference is down this year, and is considered only the fifth best conference in the Anderson and Hester computer poll. It is rated sixth by another. For every Georgia, there's a Kentucky and Ole Miss, and that hasn't helped Auburn. Other arguments to consider: Auburn shouldn't have let Bowling Green out of the contract. Fact is, Auburn had no choice. The contract was signed more than 10 years ago when Mike Lude was Auburn's athletics director when he was signing all sorts of Mid-American Conference teams. He set non-conference buyouts at a standard $25,000. It was set low, the reasoning went, because it was unlikely a team like Bowling Green would opt out of a half-million-dollar-or-so payday, and it gave Auburn wiggle room if a more attractive game came along. But everything changed 10 years later. By 2003, the $25,000 buyout was the smallest on Bowling Green's schedule. With little to lose, Bowling Green Athletics Director Paul Krebs, a former Oklahoma ticket manager, saw an opportunity to play his old school and dumped Auburn. Auburn offered to match whatever Oklahoma was willing to pay, but Krebs said no. "He just wanted to play Oklahoma," said Auburn Athletics Director David Housel. That forced Auburn to find a last-minute replacement, which turned out to be The Citadel. Auburn changed its non-conference buyout policy after Housel took over, making the buyout generally the same as the guarantee, usually in the $400,000-$750,000 range. But the Bowling Green contract had long since been signed and was not affected by the change. Auburn has added and dropped several non-conference teams over the last 10 years with little fanfare. The Tigers are facing another difficult decision next season with another non-conference school. Southern Miss has a conflict with its Conference USA schedule and has asked not to play Auburn next season, forcing the Tigers to look for a new opponent once more. The argument goes Auburn shouldn't have added The Citadel. But everybody signed off on the easy replacement, especially when it fell between difficult games against LSU and Tennessee. "It was a great move then," Housel said, "but if everybody had 20-20 hindsight, we wouldn't have done it." The Bowling Green game had appeared and disappeared on various schedules the last 10 years when one school, then the other, asked for a delay. Forget The Citadel. Auburn can point to quality wins over LSU, Georgia and Tennessee. All three were in the Top 10 when those games were played. Neither USC nor Oklahoma played three teams like that. But the strength-of-schedule computers look at it this way: Southern Cal, Oklahoma and Auburn have each beaten four teams considered among the Top 40 in the country. Auburn's other SEC wins, save for Alabama, have been of little help. E-mail: cgoldberg@bhamnews.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarTim 3,457 Posted November 24, 2004 Share Posted November 24, 2004 LOL How does he "figure" that uat was of any help? uat ...Easy to spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quietfan 233 Posted November 24, 2004 Share Posted November 24, 2004 At the risk of sounding like a broken record (Is that cliche still appropriate in these CD/MP3/non-vinyl album days?): One Game At a Time... We won't GET a Sugar Bowl bid if we don't beat Tennessee. The season isn't over and Tennessee, while probably weaker than when we played them the first time, is still ranked and stronger on paper than Bama--who gave us all we could want. Let's not assume that the SECCG is a mere automatic formality! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AURainman 6 Posted November 24, 2004 Author Share Posted November 24, 2004 Okay then...... IF we get a Sugar Bowl bid....... Insert <Previous Post> here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quietfan 233 Posted November 24, 2004 Share Posted November 24, 2004 Okay then......IF we get a Sugar Bowl bid....... Insert <Previous Post> here. 126087[/snapback] That's cool, Rainman. I wasn't so much jumping on your case as reflecting my own basic paranoia.. It was a good article to read! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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