The battle is lost, so, win the war. That is LSU's Bowl Championship Series predicament after Auburn clinched the West on Saturday with a 49-31 victory over Georgia. Even if Alabama beats Auburn on Nov. 26 and LSU wins its remaining two SEC games to finish 7-1 in conference, Auburn would still win the West at 7-1 by virtue of its tie-breaking win over LSU. Auburn and first-time SEC East champion South Carolina (7-3, 5-3) play in the SEC title game in Atlanta on Dec. 4. The Tigers (9-1, 5-1 SEC), who defeated Louisiana-Monroe 51-0 Saturday night, remained No. 5 in the BCS Standings released Sunday night, however, and if the right teams lose and they get some luck, it is not inconceivable that LSU could make the Jan. 10 BCS title game in Glendale, Ariz. "It's conceivable, but not likely," BCS expert Brad Edwards of ESPN said. "The likelihood of a non-conference champion getting to the game is remote since the BCS formula was changed." Non-conference champions Nebraska and Oklahoma made the BCS title games in the 2001 and 2003 seasons, respectively, but since then the human vote has been made significant enough to guard against the computers blindly putting non-conference champion teams in the title game because of better or similar records. "But knowing how LSU got in back in 2007, if ever a team could do it, it would be LSU," Edwards said. The Tigers and their fans thought their hopes of a BCS championship appearance were even more remote three years ago after a regular-season finale loss at home to unranked Arkansas than they do now. But after BCS national championship game-bound West Virginia was upset by Pittsburgh on the night LSU won the 2007 SEC Championship Game, the 11-2 Tigers leapfrogged five teams to No. 2 in the BCS from No. 7 and went on to beat BCS No. 1 Ohio State for the national title.LSU's best chance this time might be for Auburn to lose to Alabama and to South Carolina while the Tigers win at home Saturday against Ole Miss (4-6, 1-5) and on Nov. 27 against Arkansas (8-2, 4-2) in Little Rock, Ark. That would likely make LSU the highest-ranked SEC team in the BCS at 11-1 with Auburn at 11-2 but on a two-game skid with a loss to BCS second-tier South Carolina. Then if enough other teams, such as TCU, Boise State and maybe the highest ranked Big 12 and Big Ten champions, lose, who knows? Maybe it could be LSU versus Oregon for everything.
Monday, November 15, 2010
LSU Tigers still have BCS title game hopes
The battle is lost, so, win the war. That is LSU's Bowl Championship Series predicament after Auburn clinched the West on Saturday with a 49-31 victory over Georgia. Even if Alabama beats Auburn on Nov. 26 and LSU wins its remaining two SEC games to finish 7-1 in conference, Auburn would still win the West at 7-1 by virtue of its tie-breaking win over LSU. Auburn and first-time SEC East champion South Carolina (7-3, 5-3) play in the SEC title game in Atlanta on Dec. 4. The Tigers (9-1, 5-1 SEC), who defeated Louisiana-Monroe 51-0 Saturday night, remained No. 5 in the BCS Standings released Sunday night, however, and if the right teams lose and they get some luck, it is not inconceivable that LSU could make the Jan. 10 BCS title game in Glendale, Ariz. "It's conceivable, but not likely," BCS expert Brad Edwards of ESPN said. "The likelihood of a non-conference champion getting to the game is remote since the BCS formula was changed." Non-conference champions Nebraska and Oklahoma made the BCS title games in the 2001 and 2003 seasons, respectively, but since then the human vote has been made significant enough to guard against the computers blindly putting non-conference champion teams in the title game because of better or similar records. "But knowing how LSU got in back in 2007, if ever a team could do it, it would be LSU," Edwards said. The Tigers and their fans thought their hopes of a BCS championship appearance were even more remote three years ago after a regular-season finale loss at home to unranked Arkansas than they do now. But after BCS national championship game-bound West Virginia was upset by Pittsburgh on the night LSU won the 2007 SEC Championship Game, the 11-2 Tigers leapfrogged five teams to No. 2 in the BCS from No. 7 and went on to beat BCS No. 1 Ohio State for the national title.LSU's best chance this time might be for Auburn to lose to Alabama and to South Carolina while the Tigers win at home Saturday against Ole Miss (4-6, 1-5) and on Nov. 27 against Arkansas (8-2, 4-2) in Little Rock, Ark. That would likely make LSU the highest-ranked SEC team in the BCS at 11-1 with Auburn at 11-2 but on a two-game skid with a loss to BCS second-tier South Carolina. Then if enough other teams, such as TCU, Boise State and maybe the highest ranked Big 12 and Big Ten champions, lose, who knows? Maybe it could be LSU versus Oregon for everything.
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