Too bad there are no +1 games. Would have loved to see LSU play USC to settle the score once and for all.
At this point I'd say we need protection around Miami to keep both Oklahoma and Ohio State out of any title game. It became pretty obvious that Oklahoma had no business being on the field with USC that year, but I would to have loved to see that Auburn team in there.
Why do people always compare common opponents? Especially you? Have you not explained to us over and over that the USC team which played Stanford was different than the one we saw against Illinois? So why would you use the logic above? Va Tech was the same exact quality of team every game that season???? Then you would have us believe that USC beating Auburn in 2002 or 2003 would surely add up to USC beating Auburn in 2004? Auburn's team is of the same quality every year. Hmmmphhh..
Could it be because Auburn finished that season UN-RANKED? or does USC claim Auburn as being Top 10 in the country rather than wildly over-rated preseason darling they were that year?
USC deserved a spot in the NC in 04, and their schedule supported it. I think most of us contend that Auburn deserved to playing you guys, not an overhyped OU.
In terms of trying to understand which team Auburn should have replaced in the NC game, it was one of the few commonalities I could find. Plus I would think (yes, I know that's against policy) that 2 recent wins over a team that has at least some of the same players might be in the minds of voters. Certainly the quality of any given team changes year to year. But unless a team loses a significant number of players, we have nothing left but extrapolation. It's like folks thinking (rightly so) that Florida will be very good next year cause they return a lot of players.
