Here's your top 10....

[Big Muddy]

1. Fla. State
2. Ohio State
3. Auburn
4. Alabama
5. Missouri
6. Okla. State
7. Stanford
8. South Carolina
9. Baylor
10. Mich. State

[Big Muddy]

Auburn's new angel:


2202

[BarryBobPosthole]

I guess I'm the only one that thinks Mizzou will will the SEC Championship. That likely means Sugar for the SEC winner this year and Orange for the runner up, who because of the SEC championship game, can't be anybody but Bama. I'd sure like to see Florida State and Mizzou square off in the BCS. Anybody but an Urban Meyer coached team who has scheduled their way into an undefeated season. Michigan should have exposed them for what they are.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

I'm sure hoping the Spartans can put tOSU in its place this weekend. I'm no Auburn fan either, but I'll take them over more of Bama any day of the week. I'd also like to see Mizzou jump up if possible. They're only an OT loss away (when their QB was out) from being undefeated.

[LJ3]

I guess I'm the only one that thinks Mizzou will will the SEC Championship. That likely means Sugar for the SEC winner this year and Orange for the runner up, who because of the SEC championship game, can't be anybody but Bama. I'd sure like to see Florida State and Mizzou square off in the BCS. Anybody but an Urban Meyer coached team who has scheduled their way into an undefeated season. Michigan should have exposed them for what they are.

BKB

What are they?!?!?!

[BarryBobPosthole]

Lollygaggers.

BKB

[DeputyDog]

Isn't this only Meyer's second year at OSU? I thought that the schedules were done farther out than that. Who should they have scheduled outside of the Big 10 which they are required to play in? Should they have said, "We think we are going to be pretty good this year, so in order for no one to claim that it's just becuase of a weak schedule, we need to skip our conference schedule and just play top ranked teams this year."?

[BarryBobPosthole]

I know they are trying to schedule a home and home with us. And they used to play at least one top ten opponent in the out of conference schedule. But for some reason, since Meyer got there, about the toughest school on their non conf schedule is Toledo. Maybe that's a coincidence. Florida had the same reputation for scheduling cupcakes when Meyer was there. Meyer is second only to Joe Paterno for stocking stuffing when it comes to scheduling walkovers. the patheticness of the Big Ten these days only shines a spotlight on tOSU. there ain't no love here for 'em.

BKB

[DeputyDog]

I was just jerking your chain. I'm not a OSU fan by any means.

[Big Muddy]

Earlier in the year, I thought Mizzou might be the sleeper team to watch, but their schedule just wasn't that tough.

Yeah, they beat TAM, but not impressively....only other tough wins for them were GA. and Ole Missery....other than South Carolina, the rest of their schedule was lollipops.

I'd still love to see them whoop Auburn like a red-headed step-child, next weekend....however, I just don't see that happening.

[BarryBobPosthole]

They played pretty much the same schedule the rest of the SEC East did, which I agree isn't nearly as tough as the West Division. They went 11-1 with their backup QB is one of the things that impressed me.

BKB

[Big Muddy]

They played pretty much the same schedule the rest of the SEC East did, which I agree isn't nearly as tough as the West Division. They went 11-1 with their backup QB is one of the things that impressed me.

BKB


Sorta like MS State....we did LOTS better with our 2nd and even 3rd string QB's....hate to say it about him, but it was sure to happen anyway because he's such a pussy, but when Tyler Russell got knocked silly, my Dawgs sorta got enthusiastic towards the end of the season. ;)

[BarryBobPosthole]

They sure as heck did! I think Mizzou even made the old ball coach throw his visor on the ground even though they lost to them. The SEC Championship game will be interesting.
BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

I'd love to see a former Big 12 team walk away with the SEC championship, too.

[Big Muddy]

Me, too, Niner, but I gots my doubts....they call the Georgia Dome a "neutral site" for the game, but anyone with a lick of sense knows that it just as well be called home field advantage for Auburn....100 mile drive.


Oh yeah, don't forgot tonite's MNF game....Saints(9-2) vs Seahawks(10-1)....Seattle is favored - 5 1/2 point spread.

[BarryBobPosthole]

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/64326148/

The BCS standings -- a major news item in the world of sport every week but of particular import this time of year -- came out last night, and ESPN was on it. The rankings, according to the frothy stew of digits brewed by the mysterious, perhaps theoretical, soon-to-be extinct BCS formula, as relayed by the Bristol giant:

"1. Florida St

2. Ohio St

3. Auburn

4. Alabama

5. Mizzouri"

Suffice it to say, it's difficult to imagine any other national championship contender -- one representing an actual U.S. state, one of the 50 -- having their name misspelled by the four-letter mothership of sports. The Tigers are having one of the best years in their history -- one of the most remarkable seasons, really, in recent memory -- and no one is really noticing, and no one seems to care. That's OK, though: Missouri is used to this. And Mizzou's fans surely know that more pain is surely coming.

***

Pat Forde, an excellent college sports writer for Yahoo Sports, is a Missouri graduate. (Lots of people who bake your sports journalism pie went to Missouri, including Wright Thompson, Michael Kim, John Anderson and Matt Winer.) Thusly, he knows his Missouri football, and he always knows what's coming. In October, with Mizzou off to a 7-0 start, stunning the college football world, Forde sketched out the landscape: "Missouri alums know that the critical error or fluke disaster is lurking out there somewhere, waiting to reintroduce itself at precisely the wrong time."

Two days after that column went up, Missouri lost to South Carolina in just about the worst fashion imaginable. The Tigers dominated the first three quarters, taking a 17-0 lead into the fourth in front of a rabid home crowd. (Albeit one that might have been occasionally checking the score of Game 3 of the World Series on their phones.) Behind Connor Shaw, the Gamecocks rallied late, but they still should have lost. Then the Mizzou gods, who hate Mizzou, brought forth :

* An SC touchdown in the final minute to tie;

* An SC fourth-down conversion in overtime to tie again;

* A Missouri doinked chip-shot field goal in double overtime that would have tied it again.

It was a total implosion. It was totally Missouri.

The most famous play in Missouri football history, of course, was the fifth-down play against Colorado. But that one ended up affecting college football more than it did Missouri. After all, that Missouri team ended the season 4-7; it was Colorado, who ended up winning the "mythical" national championship that year (despite a tie against Nebraska and a loss to Illinois), that made that horrible call end up counting. (There's also the crazy "flea kicker" game.) For my money, of all the painful moments in Missouri football history, all of which Forde does a great job chronicling, the most recent worst was 2007, when Missouri was ranked No. 1 all the way into December before losing the Big 12 Championship Game and ultimately being left out of the BCS all together while Kansas, the rival they'd already beaten, got an invitation. Even when Missouri breaks through, something goes wrong.

This year, that South Carolina game aside, not that much has gone wrong. Missouri has taken advantage of a tumultuous year in the SEC East to mostly blitz through the league, smashing Georgia in Athens and blasting Florida and Tennessee. Two of their tougher games were supposed to be their final two weeks, at Mississippi and home against Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M, but they breezed through both. And now they're in the SEC Championship game. Missouri.

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This has been a particular affront to the denizens of SEC Nation, who haven't quite accepted this Midwestern school into its ranks. Texas A&M, the other SEC addition, made a little more sense, but Missouri? They were only here because the Big Ten never had the right fit, you needed an even number of teams and there was a brief delusion that cable television in St. Louis and Kansas City somehow mattered. Missouri's struggles in its first season in the SEC -- when the Tigers went 2-6 and weren't particularly competitive -- didn't help either. This team that had competed for the national title fairly recently and had been a legitimate force in the Big 12 looked outmatched in the SEC, and was mocked for it. Even culturally, there was confusion; when Georgia and Alabama visited Columbia last year, I had several friends in Missouri tell me how overwhelmed the city was when the wild SEC tailgaters arrived. That's not something Midwesterners could possibly be prepared for.

That led to the general sense that that Missouri didn't belong, and was not to be taken seriously. Even after the Georgia win -- which is probably the first real look out moment -- the Tigers' talent level was questioned … they were the interloper catching a few lucky breaks. After the brutal South Carolina loss, they were essentially forgotten. And now here they are, one game away from winning the conference whose members have been mocking them since they arrived in the league.

Which means something terrible is going to happen, this being Missouri and all. Every Missouri fan knows the pain is coming. So the only real question is how. Which scenario is worse?

Missouri finally makes it to the big stage, with everyone watching … and Auburn wipes them out. No, even more painful: Auburn does what it has done all season, keep a game close until something magical happens in the final seconds that makes Charles Barkley do tequila shots for a week and breaks every Mizzou fan heart again.

That one's bad, but here's the most fitting one, I think:

Missouri beats Auburn, somewhat convincingly even. (This could very well happen: Take away the Auburn pixie dust, and a strong argument can be made Missouri is deeper and more talented.) Missouri wins the SEC! They have fought back the Southern guffaws and claimed their place atop the toughest league in the country. And then … Ohio State and Florida State both win, and Missouri ends up shut out of the championship game. It would be the last time an SEC team would ever be left out of a playoff, with the new system coming next year. Missouri would make it to the mountaintop … but not quite.

That would be the Missouri way: To win the SEC the one year winning the SEC doesn't get you a shot at a championship. That's sort of how it has to go down, doesn't it? It may be torture, but hey, at the very least, it'll move Missouri a step closer to getting ESPN to spell its state's name correctly.

***

[Buckrub]

Our 4th string QB was our starter.

We never had a first, second, or third.

[Big Muddy]

Yeah, Bucky, but the Hogs dang near sent Les and his rogues home with tails tucked.
That woulda been dang near as big an upset as Auburn, imho.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I watched the end of that game and they just couldn't quite hang on. that's usually the sign of a young team on their way up. They'll get there if they'll stick with a plan. I think this coach, regardless of how many Hog fans are calling for his head, might be a good long term prospect for Arkansas. They need some stability.

BKB