LSU Tigers (8-1) Except for a hiccup against Florida, the LSU Tigers have looked as strong as any team in the country outside of Oklahoma this season. But even though LSU has been as impressive as USC on the scoreboard, the Tigers have done it against a much weaker schedule than the Trojans. That's why LSU has almost no chance of getting past USC or Florida State in the BCS if those teams don't lose. Even a victory in the SEC title game wouldn't give the Tigers enough of a schedule boost to help them overcome that poll deficit. And if USC and FSU both lose, it's still conceivable that the BCS computers could vault Miami or Ohio State ahead of LSU in the Standings. Suffice to say, the Tigers need a lot of help to get that short bowl trip to New Orleans. Their position would be considerably better, however, if the BCS had not eliminated margin of victory from the computers a couple of years ago.
I don't like it much, but there are some good points here. LSU will need some help to reach the Sugar Bowl. With the Florida loss, our strength of schedule may very well keep us out of the top two. FSU, Miami, Ohio State, and USC must lose another game and LSU must win the rest. We need our past and future opponents to win out the rest of their games . . . except for losing to LSU, of course, to improve our schedule strength. And Marshall can kiss my ass for sticking us with a I-AA team.
I don't think that USC necessarily has a tougher schedule than LSU. USC: No. 6 Auburn (6-3) W 23-0 BYU (4-6) W 35-18 Hawaii (6-3) W 61-32 California (5-5) L 34-31 Arizona State (4-5) W 37-17 Stanford (3-4) W 44-21 Notre Dame (2-6) W 45-14 Washington (5-4) W 43-23 No. 6 Washington State (7-2) W 43-16 Arizona (1-8) UCLA (6-3) Oregon State (6-3) LSU: Louisiana Monroe (1-8) W 49-7 Arizona (1-8) W 59-13 Western Illinois (6-3) W 35-7 No. 7 Georgia (7-2) W 17-10 Mississippi St. (2-6) W 41-6 Florida (6-3) L 19-7 South Carolina (5-4) W 33-7 No. 21 Auburn (6-3) W 31-7 Louisiana Tech (4-5) W 49-10 Alabama (3-6) Mississippi (7-2) Arkansas (5-3) USC's opponents records are 55-52 and LSU's is 53-53. We both beat Auburn. USC beat #6 Wash St., LSU beat #7 UGA. USC's 1 loss is from a non-top 25 team. LSU's 1 loss is to a top 25 team. LSU still has a ranked opponent to play - Ole' Miss and perhaps another ranked opponent in the SECCG. USC has no ranked opponents left.
a good point about marshall that has had me thinking the past few days....I would like to know how much of a difference a victory over Marshall would have made rather then the one against W.Illinois. Perhaps it would be the difference b/w a possible BCS #3 and what could have been a #2. If this is the case, there should be alot of noise made on the national level about people backing out of LSU games on such short notice. And, yes, even a year should be considered short notice. If beating Marshall would have gotten us the extra SOS we needed to contend, then I will personally......oh i dont know, i guess just be very mad...
Updated AP rankings look like this: USC: Auburn (6-3) W 23-0 BYU (4-6) W 35-18 Hawaii (6-3) W 61-32 California (5-5) L 34-31 Arizona State (4-5) W 37-17 Stanford (3-4) W 44-21 Notre Dame (2-6) W 45-14 Washington (5-4) W 43-23 No. 12 Washington State (7-2) W 43-16 Arizona (1-8) UCLA (6-3) Oregon State (6-3) LSU: Louisiana Monroe (1-8) W 49-7 Arizona (1-8) W 59-13 Western Illinois (6-3) W 35-7 No. 9 Georgia (7-2) W 17-10 Mississippi St. (2-6) W 41-6 No. 17 Florida (6-3) L 19-7 South Carolina (5-4) W 33-7 Auburn (6-3) W 31-7 Louisiana Tech (4-5) W 49-10 Alabama (3-6) No. 20 Mississippi (7-2) Arkansas (5-3) 3 ranked teams + an SECCG victory vs. 1 ranked team It's Western Illinois that's really killing us
There are numerous ways to prevent these teams from backing out of a game. We could reserve the rigtht to veto the backout unless we could schedule a team satisfactory to us. Then we would be assured of not settling for a lower rated opponent. Also, we could let tv networks schedule all of our nonconference games for us and then a team backing out would be breaching a commitment to a tv network. I guess no athletic director wants a contract with teeth in it because they might want to back out themselves one day.
I love our tigers, but if they had listened to their coach and taken care of business (UF), we would not be discussing all this, we would be talking about being the #2 ranked team in the nation LSU.
Well I think the UF game was another case of the Baton Rouge media talking about how great we were and how bad UF was playing at the time, and it got into the heads of the players and the fans. I believe this because it always seems to happen to us. Whether you believe it or not the players read the papers and get to caught up into the hype. I watch the Saban conference after the Auburn game and he even pointed it out. He was saying when the walks down the road to the stadium on gameday during the Georgia and Auburn game is was electric, but UF it was flat. I just believe the feelings around campus directly reflects what happens during the game.
