Well since the Sugar required an SEC TITLE I'll have to go with that. Miami is certainly easier to get excited about beating though.
The argument here is not which bowl game is more presitgious. Of course an SEC championship and a BCS bowl clearly are. My point is that a beatdown over a perrenial national powerhouse is better for recruiting than a victory over West Virginia.
What do you think will be more talked about the next few years: Busting Miami in the mouth on Nat'l TV or Beating UGA and WVU? No one outside of LSU fan's are even going to remember what the title of the game was. They're just going to remember that game when LSU whipped The U's arse on the field and then did it in the tunnels.
You forgot to include beating UGA...a Top 10 team to win the SEC along with the Sugar Bowl. SEC Title + Sugar Bowl is much more pub and help towards recruits, imo.
Again...purely for the victory over a said opponent. Not what it means outside of that. The ONLY other team that I would have preferred beating would be USC. Then Penn State would have been a close 3rd to "tha U" since they have been hyped up this year too.
UGA at it's pinnacle doesn't have half the value or notoriety that U of Miami has. LSU did beat UGA in the SECCG and did so handily. It didn't get nearly the press that the Sugar Bowl did. Some casual LSU fans probably couldn't even tell you who LSU played in the SECCG that year. Beating UGA looks good when you lay out a list and line up your accomplishments. Beating the U of Miami like a drum looks good even if it was the first game of the season. There is no comparison, even if it does add a number to the loss column.
My point is that to the casual fan of a team (which recruits are) they wouldn't remember an SECCG victory if it were followed by a win over an overhyped team like West Virginia. I can see that your mind is pretty much made up no matter what the opposing argument is, so don't worry about it. We'll just agree to disagree.
Just one more thing Do you really believe what you said above with I am sure some regular LSU student or alumni may not be able to tell you who we beat but I haven't met any LSU football fan that doesn't remember that ass-kicking
