The Most Important Iron Bowl Ever?

The answer to that question would be a big fat Yes if you are an Auburn fans. This one isn't about winning the first ever game at Jordan-Hare, or setting an all-time win streak vs. Alabama, but this would is going to decide if Auburn plays for it's first national title since 1958.

If the Tigers lose to Bama you'd think strength of schedule would count for something, but thanks to a Yankee Media crush on Boise State and an SEC hangover by the national media (not to mention the chance Auburn might have a title stripped from them at some point in the future) it's pretty safe to say Auburn needs to be 13-0 after these next 2 games. Is that fair? Fuck no. LSU was gifted a trip to the title game when they lost to Arkansas at this point in the season. Oklahoma got to play for the title after losing their fucking conference championship! (Not to mention the overall sketchiness of them getting in over Texas a few seasons back). But hey, we are Auburn, nothing ever comes to us easy. So just keep winning Tigers and everyone else can kiss your ass.

some sports writer dudes might just give the 2004 Auburn team the title anyways

let's hope they don't. i for one don't want USC's sloppy seconds. i've said that the only fair thing if they were gonna retroactively award the National title to anyone for 2004 would be if the AP named Auburn the 2004 Champs and the BCS named Oklahoma the champ.

click and read, if you care.

Still talking about 2004 (like an asshole)

Forfeit. What an ugly word.

So the hammer is finally coming for USC and at least the possibility exists that they may be stripped of wins during the 2004 season...a season that some team you may or may not have ever heard from some town in Alabama got royally screwed. This is going to of course rile up a fanbase that has been hanging on to this feeling of being cheated for the last 5 years to the point that it's starting to be like Auburn is that dude who won't shut the fuck up abput that ex girlfriend who cheated on him and married some other dude. Noone cares anymore but you dude. And you were just starting to get over it AND then suddenly that bitch is getting a divorce and all those old scars are rearing their ugly head........and so what does this now mean regarding the 2004 season? Should Auburn be retroactively awarded the BCS championship despite the fact they didn't play in the game? Technically shouldn't it fall to Oklahoma? Oklahoma did get crushed on national tv in the most one sided beatdown in a title game of the last decade and Auburn DID go undefeated. What about Utah? this is making my head hurt.

Auburn fans be a crazy (some would say whiny, overly sensitive, borderline insane) group and they are gonna want a piece of that 2004 title no matter what. My solution for what should become of the 2004 title would be an old fashioned split. Auburn could be retroactively awarded the 2004 AP National Title by the sportswriters who I think would all agree were a better team than the Sooners and Oklahoma would be the default BCS champs since they will have technically had the title game forfeited to them. Some Auburn fans will cry "fuck that bullshit!" but I think it is the most logical way to resolve an issue that really doesn't even fucking matter anymore. I mean it was 6 years ago. All the players and coaches are gone now anyways. But yeah, I'm just sayin' it's probably not the worst idea in the world. Besides getting an AP title kinda feels like the more respectable of the two anyways.

But honestly I say fuck it. Noone needs a goddamn trophy or AP poll to tell Auburn fans that the 2004 Tigers were awesome. It's time to let go of the past.

As far as that Heisman goes in 2005....send that shit to Vince Young now! He deserved it more back then anyways.

Do Not Fuck With Boise

so much for TCU being more deserving of a shot at Alabama than Texas.

Boise State owns the fucking Fiesta Bowl and it owns your Mountain West and Pac 10 champs as well. any doubt in your mind that they'd beat Cincinnati or Ga Tech too if they got a shot at either of them? i think Florida will likely end the season ranked number 2, but if Boise isn't number 3 then it's a bunch of bullshit. way to go Smurfs!

so a quick question: who is the non-BCS school of the decade, Boise State or Utah? my vote is for the Smurfs.

BCS BOWL matchups, best guesses.

BCS Title

Florida vs. Texas

Sugar Bowl

Alabama vs. TCU

Fiesta Bowl

Penn State vs. Boise State

Orange Bowl

Cincinnati vs. Georgia Tech

Rose Bowl

Oregon vs. Ohio State

that's a lot of matchups i could care less about other than Texas and Florida.

matchups i'd rather see with the exact same teams.

Alabama vs. Penn State for obvious reasons.

Oregon vs. Georgia Tech for the scoring orgy.

Cincinnati vs. Ohio State for the chance to see Cinci destroy the Buckeyes and claim the title as best team in Ohio.

TCU vs. Boise State in the rematch of last year's bowl game and for the pride of the Little Conference teams. also the winning team's conference gets an automatic BCS bowl bid. that would be fun.

So Does The BIG EAST still get to keep it's Auto-BCS bid this year?

when i posted the pre-season top 25 last week i totally forgot to note the fact that NOT ONE SINGLE TEAM from the Big East was in the top 25. NOT ONE!!!! Cinci, Pitt, West Virginia, Rutgers, & South Florida all received around the same amount of votes from the Coaches meaning that nobody knows anything about any of those fucking teams. The Bearcats won the Big East last year but they lost a number of their best defensive players. Rutgers lost their QB, Pitt their star running back, West Virginia their greatest player in school history, and South Florida is South Florida....meaning they'll start out hot and then hit the late season fade just like every other year. so yeah what makes them worthy of an automatic BCS bowl bid this season? the Mountain West has 3 teams in the pre-season top 25 and the WAC has Boise State (as per usual). i really think it's time that the powers that be took that bid away and ended that stupid rule that says no more than 2 teams from a conference can go to a BCS bowl.

Sympathy For The Mountain West

Dr. Saturday is all over the Mountain West's push to get invited to the BCS dance...which is like, totally gonna fail and stuff. i personally think that the Mountain West is just as worthy of a BCS at large as post-Miami Big East is, both of them have defeated heavily favored SEC teams in the Sugar Bowl this decade, but the Big East seems to be in decline after the Pat White/Rich Rod West Virginia era has come to a close and Louisville has fallen off the map entirely, while Utah has had 2 undefeated seasons this decade and BYU and TCU are annually in the top 25. but yeah, it's not gonna happen. no way, now how. the Big Boys and Notre Dame don't wanna share any more of the money than they have to. and losing another at large bid that could be going to a 2nd Pac 10 or Big 10 team means that those conferences will do what they can to kill playoff talk and BCS expansion.

three thoughts i had about the issue.

1. Expand the Mountain West. hell the league is only in it's 10th year... having formed in 1999 when Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah, and Wyoming all decided that the WAC had gotten WAY OUT OF FUCKING CONTROL back in the 1990s when it had expanded into a 16 Team behemoth that had schools traveling all over the United States (i mean seriously, WHY are Hawaii and Louisiana Tech in the same football conference?) so those 8 schools said fuck it! and formed the Mountain West. now they could always see the era of their ways and rejoin the WAC, but really the WAC is about as weak as the MAC is as far as quality football teams. the best bet would be for the Mountain West to pull an ACC and pillage a 2 quality teams from the WAC (Boise State & Fresno State) and then get Houston from Conference USA. that would give the Mountain West 12 teams 4 of them being annual lower tier powers (BYU, Utah, TCU, & Boise State) & some schools with fertile recruiting grounds (Houston, San Diego State, Fresno State). the Mountain West would instantly become more respectable just by having another team with BCS experience and a winning tradition in Boise State and then by adding more schools they'd be able to expand the Mountain West network to more cable providers and get more exposure and more $$$!!! also it wouldn't be a bad idea to strike up a deal with ESPN and become Thursday night darlings like the Big East has done...if the WWL was interested, that is. more exposure and more money = more power and influence and a better chance to kicking your way through the front door and into the party. or at least that's what i think would happen...i am probably totally wrong about this though.

2. if you are Utah and looking out for your own ass you might go talk to your Mormon brothers BYU and convince them to jump ship with you. both Utah schools could make a push to become the 11th and 12th members of the Pac 10 (there's no evidence that the Pac 10 wants to expand but adding two schools from the same state would make sense as far as adding two strong programs who are rivals and have had success in the past vs. lower tier Pac 10 schools). hell Utah and BYU joining the Pac 10 would make the conference stronger considering both of those schools are doing a lot better than either of the Washington teams. it might also bring a little more competitive balance to the Pac 10 by splitting into into two divisions. a South division that would feature USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Arizona, & Arizona State and a North division with Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, BYU, and Utah. but Utah and BYU jumping ship doesn't really solve the Mountain West's problem...but then again without either of those schools the issue doesn't even exist anymore.

3. add another BCS game. the Cotton Bowl (which with the new Cowboys stadium seems like the best bet) and the Delicious Chicken Bowl are both making a push to become members of the BCS in 2011. why not go ahead and add 1 of them to the BCS party, therby giving us 12 bids to BCS bowl games. 1 of them could be an automatic bid for the Mountain West champion and the other 1 becomes an at large bid that could go to another worthy team from 1 of the Big Conferences or a non-BCS school.

just some thoughts. not that i think they are particularly good ones...but they existed in my brain and i decided to share.

hey look, an actual post about college football!

Trophy!? I Don't Want Your Stinking Trophy!

i read an interesting post on one of my favorite Auburn blogs, Trackemtigers.com, about the possibility of USC being stripped of their 2004 National Title and the prospect of Auburn sliding in to take their place. and although i see some of the logic in this thinking i for one have a HUGE problem with such a move.

i for one don’t want anything to do with the 2004 national title regardless of the NCAA’s ruling on Reggie Bush being paid while he was a Trojan. cheating or otherwise, USC won that fucking title and stripping them doesn't rewrite reality. if the BCS wants to retroactively award Auburn the National Title trophy then the Tigers can accept it, but for us to start hanging up banners and claiming titles for championships we didn’t actually win is a short path down a road that Auburn fans love to make fun of their Bama cousins for. the entire ordeal would be a mockery of college football (something full of shit to mock already) and it would be something for rivals to point and laugh at us about forever.

i believe the term kissing your sister would apply to a hand me down trophy. and i don't care how hot your sister is. you gotta find love somewhere else. if Auburn ever wins a national title in my lifetime i want to see it happen in a championship game against another team. win it on the field or don't win it at all.

but in all honesty i’m just sick of listening to people talk about 2004. yes, we got screwed. but that's life. you get screwed. it’s time to move on and quit dwelling on that season. nothing can take away the memories of an incredible year like 04. we were undefeated. we won the SEC (something that’s actual and tangible...not like a Mythical National Championship) let’s just leave it at that and quit worrying about the past. 13-0 is forever, the rest of this is just bullshit anyways.

i'm sure my opinion of the situation is unpopular among Auburn fans...but then again i always liked being contrary anyways.

there's a special place in hell for those who came up with the BCS

so the BCS is ten and every body's jacking off about how much better things are, flawed system or not, blah fucking blah. i love how all the writers at ESPN have been screaming for a playoff and then write these glowing pieces on how much better thing are since the BSC has arrived...granted i guess it's better that we have a match up of fictional number one vs. number twos than a bunch of random bowl match ups and then leave it up to the sportswriters (we all know how fair and objective they can be)...but still in the ten years since the BCS was invented how many times have they actually gotten in right? as far as i can tell just twice. in 2005 with Texas and USC and in 2002 with Ohio State and Miami. other than that it's been clusterfuck after glorious clusterfuck. 2004 Auburn being shutout and Oklahoma being beaten like a red headed step child by USC. Nebraska getting into the title game after getting blown out by Colorado and not winning the Big 12 and then getting murdered by Miami. Oklahoma getting blown out by Kansas State in the Big 12 title game and still getting into the BCS championship game which resulted in the number 1 team in the country, USC, being shut out of the title game?!?! fail. fail. fail. fail. and let's not even get into the poor bowl matchups we've gotten the last few years (which really is more about the Bowls picking bad games instead of the BCS screwing things up). all in all 10 years is enough time for us all to know that this shit is broke and you can't use the greatest college football game of all time (USC vs. Texas in the Rose Bowl) as your argument for keeping such a horribly flawed and fucked up system that rewards preseason poll position and soft schedules (hello Ohio State) instead of matching up the best teams in college football. whatever, fuck it. shit is never gonna change. might as well stop bitching about it.