fiver

the florida-au game was very ugly to watch. both teams are reeling from injuries to key players on offense, and both teams are really struggling at qb. I can only hope that Clint Moseley (the third option at the beginning of the season) built some confidence when he was given his shot in the second half. He wasn't great, but he at least allowed the O to have more than one dimension.

I'll wait for the Y! investigation. I suppose Charles Robinson could still be 'investigating', but safe to say he's reviewed thoroughly already. I doubt he's going to write an article indicating he couldn't find anything either, but by all means, don't give up hope.

AU verdict reached by NCAA..

Auburn's O switched qbs every other play, and i now see why Gus has been hesitant to let Kiehl Frazier throw the ball...Barrett Trotter is definitely the best passer on the team, and he's bad. Deangolo Benton (filling in for injured Emory Blake) dropped two passes downfield, and Gus pretty much abandoned the pass game after that which allowed Arkansas to key on the run. It wasn't a good matchup for AU's defense.....they are pretty good against the run but a good qb can pick them apart. I still think they have a real shot at beating Florida at home next weekend.

AU will likely play without their #1 and #2 receivers against Arkansas, Emory Blake and Trovon Reed...both injured.

ruben quevedo?

Rick Wilkins. Now theres a guy I thought we'd be watching for years to come. yeah, he had that one great season...

Ced Landrum and Hector Villanueva were two of my favorites....Rick Wilkins isn't obscure enough to be mentioned yet I guess?

The young DL must pressure Tyler Wilson as much as they did Stephen Garcia if they are going to have a shot at beating Arkansas this weekend. The secondary is going to have their hands full. Expect Mike Dyer to get 30+ carries again this week in hopes of keeping the AU defense off the field for as long as possible. True freshman, Kiehl Frazier (6-3 210), is AU's new solution to 3rd and short and is AU's future at QB (hopefully). His role is going to continue to increase each week per Malzahn.....Barrett Trotter will still get most of the snaps, but he was definitely rattled by the SC pass rush, and i have to think his days are numbered. AU is again a 10 point dog on the road.

Stephen Garcia made the AU defense look much better this game. The young DL did have a decent pass rush for the first time this season, and they'll need to do the same next week against Arkansas. AU is slowly working in Kiehl Frazier at QB, 12 or so snaps this game. Hope that trend continues.

I'm resigned to looking for moral victories this season and hope to see more of them as the season progresses.

I think it was at least 90% LHN. Yes, I've heard that LHN was the sticking point, and it's going to be the sticking point with the other BCS conferences as well. Texas would need to become an independent, equally share LHN revenue, or remain in the Big 12.

It's because they're a borderline JUCO that has no fanbase or media markets of note. Their stadium seats 5000 less than the lowest BCS conference team(Cincy). They're currently increasing the seating capacity of the stadium, which will seat 53,000 when complete in time for the 2013 season. According to Nate Silver, they have a bigger fan base than TCU. Boise State is the #41 highest seller in collegiate apparel (for the first quarter of 2010-2011 fiscal year) as well. Academics is the excuse I hear the most, but frankly I think it's far more likely about geography. If they were located closer further south, I think they'd have a better chance. According to Nate Silver, Clemson has the 10th biggest fanbase in the coutnry. Silver also listed Auburn as having a larger fanbase than Alabama, and I have a hard time believing that. Bama fans seemingly outnumber Auburn fans by a pretty wide margin in the state of Alabama...I don't have anything but anecdotal evidence to support that....maybe Bama fans are just louder and more obnoxious so they seem to outnumber AU fans.

Just saw this on the ESPN bottom line. Right after it said that the SEC denies that it extended an offer. My friend's dad is a board member at UGA. Says that Slive really wants FSU, but isn't sure how it's going to work due to the ACC money issue. same with VT

That list is absurd. Missouri blows Texas Tech out of the water, academically. As does KU. I have literally never heard of New College of Florida. Wikipedia has informed me that they don't give letter grades. Okay, look. I know you got a crocodile in spelling, but this has gone too far. I'm also puzzled by that forbes list...don't have time to determine how it was compiled, but the usnews list appears more accurate just by quick, anecdotal evaluation.

I was looking at this ranking...Texas A&M is 58 and Missouri in the 90s... http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities

http://missouri.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1267857 Officially getting my hopes up. Bc you want to be in the SEC or bc any seat is better than none? I figure Missouri ends up in the bigx. Big Ten would be my first choice but I don't know how realistic it is right now. If SEC comes at us with an offer now, I would hope we'd take it instead of waiting around for a Big Ten offer that might not come. I'd welcome Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC. Both are top 100 schools academically and are solid in all facets.

FAU's offense is ranked 120th out of 120 teams presently. Hopefully, the Auburn D can hold them to 35 or so points.

Auburn's defense is really bad, and I would have liked too see them give the ball to mike dyer more often on offense. I knew they were going to have a tough time this season but the loss still stings.

Auburn is a 4 point dog at Clemson....hoping they can pull out another close one.

well, I didn't get to watch the Auburn-Mississippi State game as I was 100 miles offshore catching big yellowfin tuna. However, from what I've read, the offensive line looked better. The defensive line (the defense in generally, actually) still has a lot of problems. However, I'm now more hopeful about Auburn making a bowl game this year and competing against most teams in the SEC. They are still going to have a tough time playing with Alabama, LSU, Florida, and Arkansas this season I think. I was pleasantly surprised to see they got the W yesterday.

Let the castrations begin!! very odd motivational technique but effective....

Mississippi State lost just 17-14 to Auburn last year and that was the Cam Newton-led Tigers. Since then Auburn lost a ton to graduation and is starting quite a few young players (talented, but young) and Mississippi State returned a good amount of players, including QB Chris Relf. I don't know if fiver will agree with this, but Auburn is pretty likely to finish either 5th or 6th in West while Mississippi State could be anywhere from 2nd to 4th (depending on how well LSU and Arkansas do). Also, Auburn should have lost to Utah State last week and it took some crazy luck/clutch play/whatever for them to escape with a win. I agree with dew's assessment. Auburn graduated it's largest senior class ever and have relatively few upperclassmen starting as Tubberville laid an egg recruiting his last year and a half at AU. I'll be happy if AU is bowl eligibile at the end of the year. All that said, I think (hope) you'll see AU's O and D lines get better and better as the season progresses as there is a lot of young talent on the 2 deep chart for those units, and they were pretty bad in the first game of the season. I'm also hoping that true freshman, Kiehl Frazier, plays his way into the starting QB slot by the end of the year as I'm not overly impressed with Trotter or Mosely. Oh, and Mississippi State is fielding their best team since the Jackie Sherrill days.

Well that's what you get for being the mopey Mizzou guy. I'm being partly facetious because there's really no scenarios that have Mizzou in a non-BCS conference at this point. But still, aside from "they have really good football teams and money", the SEC is a horrible landing spot. They are widely considered at the bottom of BCS conferences when it comes to academics, basketball, lunatic fanbases, ethics/corruption, obnoxious conference hivemind, etc. I understand why you'd prefer for Mizzou to join the Big Ten vs. the SEC, but bias clouds your judgement. Mizzou would be middle of the pack academically in the SEC as Vandy, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn all rank ahead of Mizzou academically per the US News yearly poll (measure used earlier in this thread). The association between the SEC and poor academics is legitimate but overstated on this forum. How would you categorize fans who did not actually attend the university (or any university) in the Big 12 presently? I believe those types of fans disproportionately contribute to the SEC's reputation of having 'lunatic fanbases'. Are SEC fans on this forum unreasonable generally? I'm going to climb out on a limb and surmise that Redflash didn't attend the University of Alabama. Ethics, corruption issues exist in every conference, but I agree the SEC has more than their share. The SEC addressed Medical redshirts, oversigning issues this past year, and I believe the conference is making some strides in this area. I don't understand how you'd think joining Conference USA would be preferrable. How did the sec address oversigning? And you honestly believe the sec is making strides in rules violations? Oh, I forgot that auburn totally didn't do anything illegal re Cam Newton. The SEC reduced the signing class limit from 28 to 25 earlier this year, and I agree it could still be abused, but it's progress. the SEC office must now approve medical redshirts. If "Auburn" paid Cecil Newton, it was not orchestrated by the university.

Well that's what you get for being the mopey Mizzou guy. I'm being partly facetious because there's really no scenarios that have Mizzou in a non-BCS conference at this point. But still, aside from "they have really good football teams and money", the SEC is a horrible landing spot. They are widely considered at the bottom of BCS conferences when it comes to academics, basketball, lunatic fanbases, ethics/corruption, obnoxious conference hivemind, etc. I understand why you'd prefer for Mizzou to join the Big Ten vs. the SEC, but bias clouds your judgement. Mizzou would be middle of the pack academically in the SEC as Vandy, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn all rank ahead of Mizzou academically per the US News yearly poll (measure used earlier in this thread). The association between the SEC and poor academics is legitimate but overstated on this forum. How would you categorize fans who did not actually attend the university (or any university) in the Big 12 presently? I believe those types of fans disproportionately contribute to the SEC's reputation of having 'lunatic fanbases'. Are SEC fans on this forum unreasonable generally? I'm going to climb out on a limb and surmise that Redflash didn't attend the University of Alabama. Ethics, corruption issues exist in every conference, but I agree the SEC has more than their share. The SEC addressed Medical redshirts, oversigning issues this past year, and I believe the conference is making some strides in this area. I don't understand how you'd think joining Conference USA would be preferrable.