SEC’s underrated, Boise State’s overrated and Auburn’s blind-dated by a smitten BCS brain

Unbuckling the mailbag:

Question: Must say I find your weekly criticism of the SEC amusing. You actually mock Alabama for playing Georgia State while continually ranking Boise State No. 1, based on what? Is Boise State a good team? Who knows, they don’t play anybody!

Rick Davidson

Los Feliz

Answer: I know, I know. I’m hearing from SEC fans all over the country. It’s getting so bad I may have to get a restraining order against Verne Lundquist.

Truth is, Alabama is playing Georgia State this year, a first-year program being coached by Bill Curry, the former Crimson Tide coach.

Georgia State lost earlier this year to Lambuth, an NAIA school with 653 students.

Just remember that when Alabama rolls Georgia State on Nov. 18 and picks up ground in the polls and BCS computers.

Auburn plays Chattanooga next week. I don’t see a Georgia State or Chattanooga on Boise State’s schedule. What I do see when I watch Boise is a train.

Q: What is your problem with the Big Ten? Three teams ahead of Michigan State including Stanford and Arizona, who lost to Oregon State. I have noticed this West Coast bias for a long time, especially against the Big Ten.

Jerry Gross

A: I know, I know. I’m hearing from Big Ten fans all over the country. It’s getting so bad I may have to get a restraining order against Brutus Buckeye, who already has a restraining order out against the Ohio University mascot.

I have nothing against the Big Ten … I just try to look at facts. I questioned how it took Iowa two losses to fall in the polls behind one-loss Arizona, which defeated Iowa this year.

I thought Ohio State was overrated (it was), and Michigan State is ranked way too high, in my opinion, relative to what the Spartans have done. Michigan State’s best win was at home against Wisconsin, which beat San Jose State by 13 and should have lost at home to Arizona State, which is reeling in the Pac-10.

Michigan State is a nice-looking team but needed trick plays to beat Notre Dame and Northwestern. Navy didn’t need any tricks to beat Notre Dame.

Michigan State did not play a game outside the state of Michigan until last weekend, when it had to scramble back from a 17-0 deficit to beat Northwestern.

Michigan State’s stock will rise in my eyes if it wins at Iowa this weekend, but the Spartans haven’t done that yet, right?

Q: Chris, why do the computers put Auburn at No.1? Why do they rank Missouri as the No. 2 team over teams with wins over stronger opponents?

Ray

Sherman Oaks

A: The computers have not seen Auburn or Missouri actually play. They didn’t see the Auburn overtime win over Clemson in which a Clemson player dropped what would have been the game-winning scoring pass. They didn’t see the three-point win over Mississippi State and the three-point win over Kentucky. They didn’t see the Auburn defense give up 43 points to an Arkansas offense playing most of the game without injured quarterback Ryan Mallett. They didn’t see the SEC replay booth official in that game make two horrendous calls that accounted directly for two Auburn touchdowns.

They didn’t see Missouri beat San Diego State on a miracle play during which a Missouri player blocked an Aztecs player in the back but was not called for a penalty.

It’s amazing how high you can rank teams when you can’t see.

Q: As a reader and a Missouri alum, I had to wince a little when, a couple of weeks ago, you listed the Missouri Tigers among the pretenders when you discussed teams with no losses.

So now the question is: Will you acknowledge that you misjudged the Tigers, or hope people forget what you previously wrote?

Barry Garron

Northridge

A: I acknowledge misjudging all the Tigers this year: Missouri, Louisiana State, Auburn, Memphis, Princeton and even Cincinnati (the Bengals). If the Pacific Tigers still played football, I would have misjudged them too. I underestimated the Flying Tigers of World War II and, as a kid eating cereal, wasn’t crazy about Tony.

Could it be I just don’t like cats?

Q: So Auburn jumps all the way to No. 1 in the BCS?!? Have you studied their schedule? They played these four in nonconference: Arkansas State, Louisiana Monroe, Chattanooga and Clemson.

When will folks get it in their heads that the BCS game doesn’t automatically have to have an SEC team in it?

(Rant duration: 1 minute 9 seconds.)

Dave Macaray

A: It’s nice to see counseling and meditation have allowed you to keep your rants to less than two minutes.

The schedule looks a lot like the one that got Auburn in trouble in 2004. The Tigers, coached by Tommy Tuberville, were outraged that year when they finished third in the BCS behind USC and Oklahoma, which started the season at No. 1 and No. 2 and didn’t lose. Auburn started No. 17 in the Associated Press poll.

Auburn’s nonconference schedule that year included Citadel, Louisiana Monroe and Louisiana Tech.

Rest assured, Auburn won’t be denied this year if it goes undefeated. Unlike 2004, there are not two dominant teams like USC and Oklahoma holding Auburn back from its deserved place in any college football game that ends in the word “championship.”

Q: I read your stuff in The Times and, until now, have thought you to be decent and credible. Reading your comments regarding my alma mater, Auburn, changed my mind.

Why are you anti-Auburn?

Lew Glenn

A:

I promise to be nicer to Auburn once I get these jokes, passed on by your friends in Tuscaloosa, out of my system:

What’s the difference between the Auburn Tigers and a dollar bill?

Answer: You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill.

What do you call an Auburn player with a national championship ring?

Answer: A thief.

What do the Auburn Tigers and possums have in common?

Answer: Both play dead at home and killed on the road.

What does a tornado and a divorce in Auburn have in common?

Answer: No matter which happens, somebody’s losing a trailer.

My favorite Auburn joke was told by Steve Spurrier when he was coaching the Florida Gators. Spurrier said he was sorry to hear about the fire that burned 20 books in the Auburn library.

“The shame,” Spurrier remarked, “was 15 of them hadn’t been colored yet.”

Q: Boise has to go above and beyond what? An easy WAC schedule?

Michael Keith

Wells Branch, Texas

A: It’s not as easy as you think. Virginia Tech and Oregon State were both ranked when Boise defeated those teams, while there’s a good chance Nevada and Hawaii will be ranked when Boise faces those schools in WAC play.

Q: Chris: Do you have money in Vegas on Boise? You want it so bad it’s clouding your judgment.

Steve Orton

A: I haven’t placed a bet on the Broncos — or any horse, for that matter — since losing my Boise-blue Pinto on “Sham” in the 1973 Belmont Stakes. Sham was neck-and-neck with the eventual winner halfway through the race. I was already counting my money when — and I bet you they’ll make a movie about this — the other horse started to pull away.

I still thought Sham had a shot up until the point that the other horse, Secretariat-or-something, won by the slim margin of Jimmy Durante’s nose (31 lengths). Sham finished last.

Q: I have got to know what lunatics voted Boise No. 1 in AP, 11 of them? Isn’t there a list of voters and votes now?

Bill Swisher

Tampa Bay, Fla.

A: There is a list and you’ll be happy to know none of the 11 “lunatics” live in your town, although one lives in Miami.

Unlike the USA Today and Harris polls, the Associated Press makes its top 25 votes public every week.

Presenting the writers who voted Boise State No. 1, a.k.a. “The Lunatic 11”:

Ferd Lewis (Honolulu Star-Advertiser), Manny Navarro (Miami Herald), Chadd Cripe (Idaho Statesman), Bob Asmussen (Champaign News-Gazette of Illinois), Pete DiPrimio (Fort Wayne News-Sentinel of Indiana), Mark Anderson (Las Vegas Review-Journal), Keith Sargeant (Home News Tribune of East Brunswick, N.J.), Joe Giglio (News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C.), Ray Fittipaldo (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review), Wes Rucker (Chattanooga Times Free Press of Tennessee), Robert Cessna (Bryan-College Station Eagle of Texas).

Q: The computers must be infected with an East Coast-bias virus. How such a discrepancy can happen just reveals how worthless the BCS standings are. … Playoff system, anyone?

Wayne Muramatsu

Cerritos

A: Agreed, if they can install “anti-malware” for my home computer, why can’t they have a virus protector for the BCS computers?

USC being on probation this year at least spares us from the dreaded “Trojan” virus.

Q: Any chance the Pac-12 expands to the Pac-18 with a new Southwest Division: UCLA, Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, Occidental and Whittier College? I’m sure the Travel Channel would televise these games. Your thoughts?

Brent Montgomery

Long Beach

A: Well, considering Long Beach, Fullerton and Northridge don’t play football, and Occidental and Whittier are Division III programs, I’d say those are three or four divisional games UCLA could win.

Or, maybe not.

In 1920, UCLA’s second season, the Bruins lost to Occidental, 21-0, and were outscored at Whittier, 103-0.

In the spring of 1920, rumor has it, UCLA Coach Harry Trotter had gone to Hollywood to study the “six-shooter” offense from Tom Mix, the silent film cowboy star.

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