Last 5: 2004 Auburn / Tennessee 2003 LSU / Georgia 2002 Arkansas / Georgia 2001 LSU / Tennessee 2000 Auburn / Florida Go ahead and count Auburn out!
Q: Can Auburn remain king of the SEC West? A: We've won it four of the last five times. I wouldn't count us out quite yet. He should have said Champs or Co-Champs of the West. But showing who made the championship game is a little disingenuous. That is determined by a secondary set of rules. I know you guys are better informed than this. What is, any bias aside, is. http://www.secsports.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=2&url_subchannel_id=&url_article_id=6103&change_well_id=2 The Tigers are 86-24-2 (.779) in season openers, defeating UL-Monroe 31-0 last season to break a 2 year losing streak in openers. The Tigers return 52 lettermen and 14 starters from last year's undefeated squad. Auburn has won outright or tied for the SEC West title four times in the last five years under Tommy Tuberville (2000, '01, '02, '04). Auburn was the first SEC team since Tennessee in 1998 to post a perfect 8-0 record in Southeastern Conference action. The Tigers led the nation in dominance last season, leading the country in wins by more than 18 points with nine. Auburn had 11 players selected to the Coaches Pre-Season All-SEC team, including four 1st-team selections. Auburn junior Courtney Taylor has been named to the preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award, presented annually to the top receiver in the country.
Did LSU have rings made up in 2001? Did that make you feel better? Did LSU refuse to claim the Title for 2001 because they were Co-Champs of the West? Did they refuse the SEC Championship game because they were only Co-Champs? Why is it good enough for LSU, but Auburn is denigrated for using the exact same standard as LSU. Where is the logic in that? You are better than using hyperbole to prove a point.
We are not claiming any championships we did not win, we're playing by the rules. Head to head determines the champ in the event of a tie in record.
SEC Teams play for the right to represent their respective division in the SECCG. If you play in that game, you are that year's division champion. You can call it a secondary set of rules if you want to. Just like being undefeated doesn't make you national champion, having the same record as the SECCG rep doesn't make you champion. For Tubby to crow about having won the West 4 out of the last 5 means about as much as LSU claiming to have beaten Auburn because the refs screwed up. It's all about the final result. Auburn had one Western Division championship and that was last season. Like I often say, you can call a pig a horse, but it's still a pig.
