Advocate column addresses the "Auburn is best SEC-W team" crapola

Nice read!!

*edited to add link to article*
http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/112705/lsu_carlcol001.shtml



Auburn's good, but LSU has proven better

By CARL DUBOIS
[email protected]
Advocate sports writer
Thanksgiving night, ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit called Auburn the best football team in the Southeastern Conference. Herbstreit said Auburn would be in the SEC Championship Game had it not been 1-for-6 on field goals in a 20-17 loss to LSU.
Former coaches working for ESPN said the same not long ago, and the theme is gaining popularity in Alabama, the SEC and around the horn nationally.
Note to Kirk, Lee Corso, Jim Donnan, Lou Holtz and the boys: Do you suppose if Auburn were really the best team in the SEC, it would have scored more points against LSU? Do you not remember LSU missing two field goals and dropping two passes in the end zone in the same game?
Do you know you can't cherry-pick your what-ifs to build a case based upon what-if?
LSU defeated Auburn 20-17 in overtime Oct. 22 in Baton Rouge. Kirk, if you missed it, I'm sure you can find a copy of the videotape. The game was on ESPN

On a windy night in Tiger Stadium, Auburn's John Vaughn missed five field goals, four in regulation. His 39-yarder that hit the left upright in overtime could have tied the score, forcing another overtime, but it fell back into the end zone.
LSU's Chris Jackson missed a 38-yard field goal. Teammate Colt David missed a 28-yarder. A wide-open Dwayne Bowe dropped a fourth-quarter pass in the end zone. Early Doucet dropped one in the end zone before Jackson's game-winning 30-yard field goal.
Let's play the increasingly popular game of what-if. What if nobody missed a kick or dropped an uncontested pass in the end zone?
Auburn left 12 points on the field during regulation: Vaughn's four missed field goals.
LSU left 13 points on the field during regulation: Jackson's and David's missed field goals, Bowe's dropped touchdown pass and the ensuing PAT.
If you don't assume LSU would have made its PAT, let's call it a tie. We go to overtime.
LSU's Doucet let a touchdown pass bounce off his hands. Vaughn missed a field goal.
Give each guy the best possible outcome and LSU still wins by three points.
Auburn is one of the best football teams in the country. You can make a strong case for Auburn being the best team in the SEC at this moment.
Just don't make half a case, guys, picking and choosing the facts that best suit your case.
If Auburn were the best team against LSU, why did Auburn have to settle for field-goal attempts of 41, 26, 54, 37, 49 and 39 yards instead of scoring touchdowns? Maybe it's because only three teams in the country are harder to score against than LSU, based on today's NCAA statistical rankings.
Last year Auburn defeated LSU 10-9 on a do-over PAT by Vaughn after he missed the first try. He got a second chance because of a penalty that wasn't called again all season.
LSU's Ryan Gaudet missed a PAT in that game. Not only do I not recall an ESPN analyst or a columnist calling Auburn lucky to be undefeated last season, I remember ESPN talking heads saying Auburn didn't play a close game all season.
LSU will play Saturday against Georgia for a third SEC championship in five seasons. A what-if you won't hear elsewhere: Take away a last-minute one-point loss to Arkansas in 2002 and the one-point loss to Auburn last season and LSU would be playing in its fifth consecutive SEC Championship Game and, perhaps, for five titles in five years.
Honestly, it's tiring to hear LSU fans complain about a lack of respect from the national media, but it's hard to argue with them about an LSU-was-lucky-to-beat-Auburn campaign that's based on selective memory and woulda, shoulda, coulda a la carte.
The apparent premise of the campaign: Auburn's mistakes were bad luck; LSU's mistakes showed why it's not as good as Auburn, which "outplayed" LSU.
This type of half-baked take reveals why opinion poisons college football when opinions are major part of a formula that decides who plays for the national championship.
The experts say LSU's 30-27 overtime loss to Tennessee is the worst defeat of the one-loss teams because Tennessee finished with a losing record. Some of those same experts ranked Tennessee among the top three teams in the nation before the season.
If that disparity doesn't illustrate the fallacy of opinions and why championships should be settled on the field, I don't know what would.
What I do know is there is at least one SEC coach who would agree with me.
Last month an Alabama newspaper wrote that he "spoke out sharply against ESPN and the influence it wields on the college game. He said the opinions ESPN hosts and analysts put out on the airwaves each week tend to shape the opinions of fans and media people around the country."
The coach was Tommy Tuberville, coach of the Auburn Tigers.

 

**** Auburn, let em go make some rings then.

 

Again...very funny how they FORGET that we also missed a slew of fieldgoals against Auburn. Plus, how many sure touchdown passes did we drop? That game should've never went into overtime. We beat them well before.

 

Bottom line; LSU is going to ATL, not Auburnt! Because LSU beat them on the field & on the score board!

 

How can I give Carl Dubois rep points?:thumb:

 

Being here between Auburn and Alabama fans, I have not heard one ill word from the AU side about how they should be in ATL playing for the SECC. I hear it on ESPN but not locally. Interesting.

 

I wish a Tiger fan would E-mail this to Kirk the Jerk.

 

Meh... let them talk since they're just looking for something to fill up time. The bigger an "issue" or "debate" they can make over it, the more time they can fill. The only reason they're doing this is becuase they don't have a BSC controversy to babble on about this year...

 

Some of you seem to be blaming Auburn for this article. "They" is not Auburn, it's the author of the article (who is the Advocate anyhow?) and the ESPN guys. Even TT has criticized the ESPN guys. I haven't heard one Auburn fan or beat writer say anything negative about LSU being the SEC West Champ.

The SEC of all people will show Auburn and LSU as co-champs but in my mind (and Tubbs said it too) LSU won the West because you won the head-to-head game. Focus on Georgia now, not Auburn.

 

it's really funny how herbie, and holtz fails to bring up that valid point. I am getting a little sick and tired of holtz blasting lsu on how they do not deserve to be in the seccg, but notre dame who looked horrible in the mich state and stanford games deserves to be in a bcs game b/c they are finding ways to win.