I'm not familiar with SEC football but firing Gus strikes me as a horsefeathering stupid decision. He was 7-18 against Bama, LSU, and Georgia. If your goal is to win a title you need to be doing better than that. This was his 8th season there. Things get stale after a while. Cristobal seems to be a name that would make sense. Although some speculate he is holding out for Saban’s retirement. Auburn fans are all in on Freeze right now apparently.
Bama could have lost the title game and still gotten into the playoffs IMO. They are clearly the best team in the country and it isn’t particularly close
Jeeeez SEC refs.... Mississippi State player is potentially paralyzed. Doesn’t move (still hasn’t) for 15 minutes. He’s on the stretcher being carted off the field heading toward a chopper and the refs come up and announce that after booth review he has been ejected from the game for targeting.
Pretty clear forward lateral in there. I wonder what the call would have been if not forward. Both teams were on the field, obviously Ball St first and most. I'm assuming both teams would have been called for too many men on the field, and they would have to do the play again untimed, but not even sure. Also not sure all the guys trying to make the tackle were actually on the field when the play started. Same for blockers/lateral-ers. The only people happier for that flag than Ball State fans were the refs themselves. They are thrilled to have avoided your scenario.
From a program prospective, it seems you would absolutely want the bowl game for a myriad of reasons: funding, recruiting exposure, rewards for the players, and the extra 14 practices or whatever it is you get.
I don’t think this is a new gimmick. Auburn basketball just did it like 2 weeks ago It’s about to get really, really bad at LSU. Some crazy rumors out there. Don’t be surprised if Orgeron is fired with cause.