BCS Rankings Week 12: Why Auburn Is Better Than LSU
The BCS Rankings for Week 12 of the college football season are just a few days old, and the SEC West is well represented at the top with Auburn at No. 2 and LSU at No. 5.
Both Tiger teams are coming off big wins this past weekend, with Auburn beating Georgia at home 49-31 and LSU beating LA Monroe at home 51-0.
On paper, and their win over Alabama has a lot to do with this, LSU is the best one-loss team in the country. But Auburn, on the other hand, is undefeated.
So which is truly the better team?
Their one and only head-to-head matchup left us with Auburn as the victor, but there are plenty of other reasons why the Auburn Tigers are better than the LSU Tigers.
Here are 10 of them.
10. Auburn Beat LSU Head-To-Head
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This is the most obvious reason why Auburn is better than LSU, so let's get it out of the way right off the bat.
Yes, the Tigers of Auburn beat the Tigers of LSU 24-17 in late October.
That was the game that saw Cam Newton rush for over 200 yards for the first and only time in his career, and he also scored two touchdowns.
LSU gained just 243 yards in that game, and Auburn forced them to have two quarterbacks share time.
It obviously was not Auburn's most convincing win, given the fact they only won by a touchdown. But LSU still remains the highest ranked opponent they've beaten this year.
9. SEC West Champs
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Auburn wrapped up a spot in the SEC Championship game by clinching the SEC West with their win over Georgia, and the sports world already sees them as heavy favorites over South Carolina.
Auburn is therefore in an admirable position for the time being, as they are clearly the best team in the country's most powerful conference. That makes them arguably better than any team out there, not just LSU.
True story.
8. Already Beaten SEC East Champs
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Auburn has, in effect, already taken all the drama out of their date with South Carolina in the SEC Championship game thanks to their win over the Gamecocks earlier this season.
Sure, it was one of Auburn's closer wins on the season, as they won by a mere eight points at 35-27, but I think you could also argue that South Carolina was playing better then than they are now.
Besides, with more losses than four teams in the West, it's pretty obvious that South Carolina just wouldn't be much of a favorite against any team from the West.
In other words, I wouldn't be too quick to doubt Auburn's chances to win and head to the BCS Championship game, a goal that LSU needs a lot of help with in order to achieve it.
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7. LSU Has Only Beaten Two Currently-Ranked Team
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If you were to take a quick gander at LSU's 2010 schedule to this point, you will invariably see that they have wins over four ranked opponents.
But in my estimation, it's a better idea to see where those defeated teams rank right now as opposed to where they were on their day of doom.
If so, then LSU has only two wins over teams that are currently ranked: Mississippi State and Alabama.
You'll find out why this is a big deal in the next slide.
6. Auburn Has Beaten Four Currently-Ranked Teams
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By the same token with which we just judged LSU, the 11-0 Auburn Tigers have three wins over ranked teams under their belt.
But Mississippi State has since cracked the top 25, and South Carolina, Arkansas, and LSU are all there as well.
They have therefore doubled up LSU's win total over currently-ranked teams to four. That should not be seen as an insignificant little tidbit, friends.
No, it's a bona fide ball-buster, and a big reason why Auburn is the No. 2 team in all the land.
5. Fear Factor
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Now that we've gotten all that schedule nonsense out of the way, we can talk about the teams themselves.
You can talk all you want about how unforgivably dirty the hits were that Auburn's Nick Fairly delivered on Georgia's Aaron Murray.
And while I'm sure as hell not about to sit here and defend him and his two teammates who were tossed out of the game for throwing punches after Fairley knocked Murray out of the game, I will opine that playing dirty has its advantages, for good or ill.
Unfortunately, playing dirty is not only effective, it's also a great way for one team to get inside the heads of the other team. That would be the fear factor mentioned in the above byline.
If we may stray into the NFL for a quick comparison, just take a look at the Pittsburgh Steelers. They've had all sorts of dirty players on their roster over the last decade, and all they've done is win two Super Bowls.
4. Offense
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In a way, both LSU and Auburn are one-dimensional teams. LSU's offense is a patchwork affair, and Auburn's defense is very beatable.
But Auburn, like most of the other top teams in the nation, are able to get away with a fairly bendable defense because of their ability to put points on the board.
The Auburn Tigers are fifth in the nation in scoring offense and sixth in yards per game.
On the flip side, LSU is on the same level as Tennessee and Florida in the SEC in terms of offensive output. And in my opinion, it's the lack of style points that has a lot of people calling for teams like Wisconsin and Stanford to jump them in the BCS rankings.
3. Overall Dominance
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If you were to take yet another look at LSU's schedule, you would see that they only have about three wins that can be considered "dominant."
Among these are a 27-3 win at Vanderbilt, a 29-7 win against Mississippi State, and last week's 51-0 beating of LA Monroe.
Among those three, only Mississippi State is any good.
Compare this with Auburn, who has six wins by at least two touchdowns.
The key reason for this, as I hinted at earlier, is offense. If LSU played in any other conference but the SEC, LSU would likely be well outside the top 10 because of the lack of style points generated by their offense.
2. Ability To Overcome Adversity
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Don't get me wrong, LSU has had to deal with their share of adversity this season, too. I don't think anybody gave them a chance against Alabama, and they've had to have gained something from all their close wins this season.
But compared to the now ever-present crapstorm that has surrounded Auburn and their star quarterback over the last couple weeks, their come-from-behind victory against the Bulldogs is worth some pretty major props.
We learned a lot of things from Auburn's win this past Saturday, but I think the key lesson was that Newton and the Tigers are simply not going to choke in their chase for a BCS title.
Therefore, in addition to the previously mentioned fear factor, they're also strutting around with that champion swagger these days. A truly scary bunch, if you ask me.
1. Quarterback
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You knew this was coming, right?
Auburn has arguably the best quarterback in the country in Cam Newton, who is having a season for several different record books. As things stand right now, he has 2,038 passing yards 1,297 yards rushing and 39 total touchdowns.
To compare, LSU has gotten a grand total of 10 touchdowns out of their quarterbacks.
Indeed, as far as being able to take charge of any given game, Auburn has the most powerful force in college football on their side. It's like somebody put Captain America in an Auburn uniform and told him to go to town.
On the other side, Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee look like a couple of Pop Warner players next to Newton.
Fact.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
