Georgia is SEC champion, but Auburn is SEC's best

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AL.com

Georgia is SEC champion, but Auburn is SEC's best

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Georgia is a very good football team. So is LSU.

Georgia has enjoyed a very good season. So has LSU.

Georgia played a very good game Saturday in the SEC Championship Game. LSU, um, watched Georgia play a very good game.

The Georgia players overwhelmed the LSU players. The Georgia fans, stronger in numbers, did the same to the LSU supporters.

All the home-away-from-home folks in the Georgia Dome deserved to bark like rabid poodles after Georgia 34, LSU 14.

Their bite was every bit as good as their bark.

But in the middle of all that woofing, it was easy to lose sight of something. When commissioner Mike Slive presented the Bulldogs with the SEC championship trophy, all he did was throw them a bone.

Because the best football team in the Southeastern Conference didn't play in the SEC Championship Game.

The best team in the league hasn't played since the Iron Bowl and won't play again till the Capital One Bowl.

The best team in the league is Auburn. For the second year in a row.

Before you Georgia fans out there start foaming at the mouth, remember that this is just an opinion. And, after all, isn't that what college football is all about in the age of the BCS?

My opinion vs. your opinion.

David Housel's opinion vs. Gene Bartow's opinion.

Tommy Tuberville's opinion vs. the opinion of everyone employed and programmed by ESPN.

A wise guy once said you should never let facts get in the way of a good opinion. It may have been Lou Holtz. A wise guy should never be confused with a wise man, but consider some facts that suggest the 2005 SEC champion is not the best team in the league.

Auburn is the only SEC team that's lost just one conference game this season. Georgia is now 7-2 in SEC games, the same as LSU. Auburn is 7-1.

Oh, and then there's this: Auburn 31, Georgia 30. When it's hard to separate two teams in your mind, it's always best to let the scoreboard do it.

It's not just that Auburn beat Georgia in a thriller on Georgia's home field in mid-November. Auburn is the only team this season to beat the real Georgia team, the one with D.J. Shockley at quarterback.

How good is Shockley? He was named MVP of the SEC Championship Game. He might deserve that same honor for the regular season.

As good as Shockley is, he and the Bulldogs didn't have to play LSU in Baton Rouge. They didn't have to play Alabama, the best defense in the league, anywhere. They didn't have to play in the league's better half, a division in which the top three teams finished the regular season 10-1, 9-2 and 9-2.

Only one SEC East team reached that level. Georgia.

If Auburn could beat Georgia in Athens, with championship dreams on the line for both teams, it's a good bet that Auburn would have beaten Georgia here in Atlanta, with an actual trophy at stake.

Don't forget. Auburn knows how to make itself at home in the Georgia Dome, too.

The Tigers did it last season in the 2004 SEC Championship Game. Don't be surprised when they come back and do it again next year.

Kevin Scarbinsky's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Write him at kscarbinsky@bhamnews.com.

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