Posted on 12/02/2013 8:34:12 AM PST by xzins
With one week to go before the BCS rankings leave us forever, an undefeated Big Ten power missing out on the national championship is somehow an actual worry. Meanwhile, Florida State's sitting pretty. Full standings below.
It doesn't matter that Ohio State went 12-0 last year. It doesn't matter that an unbeaten Auburn was shut out of the BCS National Championship in 2004. It doesn't matter that Ohio State has lost two national title games against SEC teams in recent years. It doesn't matter that the SEC has won seven straight championships.
Or at least it shouldn't.
What will matter, however, is whether the BCS polls and computers rank Ohio State or Auburn No. 2 next week, assuming the Buckeyes and (burnt orange and navy blue) Tigers win their respective conferences. We'd thought we were just about done with the season's series of debates over which team should rank No. 2 and which should rank No. 3, but we've only just now arrived at the biggest one yet.
For now, the updated BCS standings after Week 14's wild weekend:
A win by either the Spartans or the other Tigers would render all this moot (except for Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs suddenly becoming a huge Mizzou* fan, we trust).
* Though Missouri would have a better case for No. 2 than Auburn would, if you ask me, since the (black and gold) Tigers have spent most of the year smashing fools by exorbitant margins. But nobody's asking me. Mizzou's probably too far back to jump that far, barring insanity.
If our new Nos. 2 and 3 win their conferences, the polls would be where Florida State finds its Pasadena opponent. While many voters would fall back on the SEC's presumed strength of schedule and difficulty (and most strength of schedule numbers do rate Auburn's as tougher so far), others would sympathize with a 13-0 BCS conference champion that was ineligible last year. At the moment, the Buckeyes hold that advantage, and would any voters who were unconvinced by an Auburn win over Alabama really be swayed by one over Missouri?
The difference could be Urban Meyer, who's successfully stumped his team into a BCS National Championship before -- and that was an SEC team at the expense of a Big Ten team. But do voters still think of Meyer as they did then? Whether Meyer's national profile has changed since '06 due to various controversies would actually matter. Like, actually help determine the season's champion. That's insane and ridiculous, but it's the system.
We don't know whether Auburn or Ohio State would win the right to go play FSU if the two played on a neutral field. We don't have a playoff yet, not for 12 more months. We do know the Buckeyes have won all but two of their games by multiple scores, while Auburn's won by a single score six times (including the two luckiest, most improbable winning plays of the year). Auburn's also lost a game by 14 points. Gus Malzahn and Nick Marshall have led an immaculate rebuild, but let's not let that loss be a footnote.
So it begins. One more week. The only vital contributions to the debate going forward will be those made by the players on the field in the Big Ten and SEC championship games.
I think the kid is a good kid. I doubt the allegations until very solid proof shows otherwise.
Unless you’re OSU. Their #2 QB could start just about anywhere else.
Great job, Jemian! Love it!
We are still too excited to talk about it much. We get to stammering and laughing, etc.
Saban is clearly responsible here. The way he criticized his team, I bet he is leaving Bama. It just proves that even the best can be out coached!
Right that same system that has SEC inflated THIS year.
Oh how do people come up with such clever things!!
We were there!
In Jordan-Hare!!!
Oh my goodness, don’t you know it! I am still grinning and grinning and grinning. I may never recover.
I was at Legion Field in ‘72. This one ranks, or tops, that victory.
I did not write the poem. I wish I could have been there. I would love to see a replay of the game (for those who don’t know, I am in a foreign country. No TV).
The friends who sold us their tickets (face value too!) were out of the country too. No access to CBS. We heard from them via text yesterday.
They have been season ticket holders and scholarship donars for almost 30 years. While we were grateful to be there, we do feel badly that they missed it. All that time, money, and dedication they have given to Auburn football to miss that moment.
My daughter of course was in the student section and on the field afterwards. As a senior, she has sure seen the peaks and valley of this program. I had told her beforehand that there was no way anything could happen in the Iron Bowl that could top the ending of the GA game. HA!
BTW....Davis’ TD is getting lots of credit. Without the TD with 32 seconds left all else was moot. 2 TDs in 32 seconds...WAR EAGLE!
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But I’ll take your challenge and say OSU is better then the entire SEC this year.
Ha ha ha.
If OSU went to the SEC they’d be #1 hands down.
Hands down? You were up and down these boards talking smack last week. And now we see the true OSU...
Crack-smoking is frowned upon here at Free Republic.
Ohio State this year, as with Notre Dame last year, was over-inflated and over-hyped and over-rated due to sweeping an easy schedule.
Both teams choked when faced with their first serious opponent.
People who buy the hype, rather than do first-person analysis, are generally embarrassed by the results of teh big games.
Yeah, you can make it to Division or even National championship games by beating cupcakes.
No, you can’t win the big games, however, if you were only marginally better than the cupcakes (e.g. close wins against low teams...maybe even overtimes).
Playing the cupcakes does make the head coach look good for most of the year, though...and moderately more difficult to fire.
Who fires a 12-1 coach?!
As Inspector Clouseau would say, not any more.
You're catching it tonight, and you deserve every bit of it. You had absolutely no objectivity when evaluating your team, but that's what happens when you're a homer.
OSU would be an average team in the SEC. That's just a fact. FSU would have beaten them by more than 21. Now we get to see Auburn play FSU, which will prove to be a much closer contest.
Maybe next year OSU will find their secondary. They were MIA tonight. Maybe they'll also get a schedule with some real competition. Yeah, it's the cold weather that separates them from the SEC. Right.
What are you talking about. I said MSU was a very tough team...the best defense in the nation and way underrated in fact they’d beat FSU and Auburn. But as it stands I’ll be pulling for FSU but I would bet on auburn...FSU simply hasn’t played anyone tough this year.
Yep they lost to a team that would school any SEC team. SEC doesn’t even know what defense is...MSU has the best defense in the nation.
They are still better than SEC and so is MSU.
MSU had a cakewalk schedule. They lost to Notre Dame and gave up 28 points to friggin Indiana. Yeah, that's one stellar defense. The Big 10 is a cupcake conference this year in football, and they will take the beating they deserve in their bowl games. But you can always blame those losses on the warmer weather, or the refs, or injuries, or the wind, or sunspots....
Ha ha ha ha!
Again.
I know Alabama lost two in a row. The SEC sucks. They don’t play any team ranked above them and they still lose or barely win. ACC, Big10, and Big12 is where its at.
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