Auburn's going to lose, either on the field or in the courtroom. Cam Newton might not survive the media firestorm and allegations of recruiting impropriety and classroom cheating, and even if he does, the Tigers are not likely to get past Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Nick Saban will employ the man-to-man and spy, the flop, and heavy doses of Mark Ingram to get the win and a trip to the Cotton Bowl. Oregon had a narrow escape on Saturday but Auburn's had five of them. In the Tide, they face a team with enough offensive punch to score on their defense, and the athletes to pressure and frustrate Newton, who's had his way with most of the SEC.
Even if they get past Alabama, South Carolina awaits in the SEC title game, and the ol' ball coach will give Auburn a large dose of a healthy Marcus Lattimore this time, win the time of possession trophy and swarm tackle Newton, provided the NCAA hasn't already swarmed him.
TCU is almost done playing, and their remaining game against New Mexico adds nothing to their resume. Boise State will probably slip by them if they defeat Fresno State and Nevada.
The only question is how the human voters evaluate the one-loss teams, particularly LSU, Wisconsin, and potentially Auburn. If Auburn loses to Alabama and then dominates South Carolina, where do the human polls put them? Hard to say. Is the country really ready for a non-AQ in the national championship?
Here's a fun scenario that probably won't happen but it tickles me to contemplate: suppose Auburn loses to Alabama, Boise State stumbles at Nevada, and TCU's marquee wins, Oregon State and Baylor, each absorb at least one more loss (the Beavers might suffer three). Say The Hat mismanages the clock one more time against Ole Miss or Arkansas.
#5 Stanford vaults to the best one-loss team, and maybe the BCS is a rematch of Oregon-Stanford.
But that could never happen. Could it?
Just a personal opinion, but I think the BCS (that's Bowl Championship Sec conference) will see to it Auburn or LSU is in the title game.
ReplyDeleteI think a team has to win their conference in order to participate in the national championship game, therefore Oregon could not play Stanford, and LSU has no shot either.
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