(Alternate title, LSU/Auburn: Battle of the Nicknames)
Overall records (Now includes 2021)
LSU leads, 32-24-1
In Baton Rouge, LSU leads, 19-6-1
In the state of Alabama, Auburn leads, 18-13
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In Auburn, Auburn leads, 13-9
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In Birmingham, Auburn leads, 3-2
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In Mobile, Auburn leads, 2-0
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In Montgomery, LSU leads, 2-0
Longest winning/unbeaten streak–6 wins by LSU, 1926-1937
Longest Auburn winning streak–4 wins, 1989-1994
Home/away streaks
LSU won 3 in a row at Auburn, 1926-1936
Auburn won 2 in a row at LSU, 1997 & 1999
LSU won 10 in a row at home, 2001-2019
Auburn won 4 in a row at home, 1981-1994 and 2000-2006
Longest streaks with only one loss (pure winning streaks excluded):
LSU, 6/7, 1969-1988 and 2007-2013
Auburn, 5/6, 1981-1994
Biggest wins:
LSU, 35, 45-10 in 2011
Auburn, 37, 48-11 in 2020
LSU’s biggest win at Auburn was 20-6 in 1973. Their largest point total at Auburn was 31, in a 12-point win in 1998. Auburn’s biggest point total on the road was the 41-7 win in 1999.
Highest-scoring games:
@LSU : LSU 45, Auburn 21, 2015
@Auburn: Auburn 30, LSU 28, 1992
The lowest-scoring post-war game was a 7-3 home win for Auburn in 2006. There has not been a shutout in this series since 1935.
Highest scores by either team:45, LSU in 2011 and 2015
48, Auburn in 2020
41, Auburn in 1999 and 2014
35, LSU in 1972 and 2013
34, Auburn in 2000
31, LSU in 1998, 2003, and 2009; Auburn in 1997
In 2011, LSU once again tied up Auburn in games since the start of the 1980 season, 12-12. It also tied the teams at 10 since the start of the 1992 season. (Both ties were of course broken by LSU’s win in 2012.) The 1999 Cigar Game (see below for more background) is no longer the record-holder in a couple of aspects, but it remains Auburn’s last win at LSU. It is one of only four Auburn wins at LSU ever. The first happened in 1939, but the last three all happened from 1993 to 1999. The one tie took place in 1941, and then Auburn did not return to LSU until 1969. It is also worth noting that LSU surpassed the 1999 Auburn point total in the first 38 minutes of the 2011 game.
Intro (written before 2010 game)
I called it the battle of nicknames, because they’re both nicknamed, in the simplest sense, “Tigers” but have other monikers. LSU added “Fighting” at some point to their nickname. Supposedly “war eagle” was always just a live mascot/battle cry and never a nickname, but people have called them War Eagles (I fail to see how that’s a bad thing, but far be it from me to judge other fans’ sensitivities). Auburn’s teams have also been referred to as the Plainsmen, and LSU’s teams have also been referred to as the Bayou Bengals, both in reference to the local geography. (Who said sports weren’t educational?) Many of the recent games have nicknames as well.
With the win last season, LSU became the first team to win three in a row in the series since Auburn won four in a row from 1989 to 1994 (obviously non-consecutive seasons…this corresponds to the six consecutive seasons in which LSU finished with a losing record). But even at that time, even though Auburn won 9 games or more in three of those seasons, three of those four games were still decided by 4 points or fewer.
Before 2008, the home team had won for 8 consecutive seasons. This was one reason LSU has never won the SEC West in an even year (which, since SEC expansion in 1992, are the only years that LSU has traveled to Auburn).
LSU’s 21-point win {in 2009} was the largest margin since LSU won 31-7 in 2003, but the 5 games from 2004 to 2008 were decided by a total of 19 points. That’s actually a deceptively high number since the whistle blew after LSU’s go-ahead touchdown in 2007 with only a second left, and LSU won by 6. Also, the games between the two teams are typically defensive struggles. In 1988, LSU won, 7-6. Since 1988, there have also been final scores of 10-6, 12-6, 19-15, 20-17, 10-9, and 7-3. There have only been 3 games since 1972 in which either team scored more than 31 points (all Auburn wins).
This may be quite a different game in light of Auburn’s SEC-record-breaking 65-43 win last week. On the other hand, LSU has played in four games (Vanderbilt, Mississippi St., WVU, and Tennessee) this season with a combined point total under 37. Auburn has played in one, a 17-14 win at Mississippi St.
The series is knotted up at 11 wins apiece since 1980 (inclusive), so I’ll say it could go either way. Both teams were also undefeated in 2008, 2006, 2004, and 2000, but none of those games were after September. Each team had one loss in 2005, the mutually best recent October match-up. Except for 2001 (only due to 9/11), 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2007, all of the games since 1992 (inclusive) had been in September.
The following is mostly copied and pasted from a post on TSN on October 17, 2007, so some references are to that time and not to the present…
The rivalry
(In the following, I’ve used “Fighting Tigers” to denote LSU.)
This is different from many of the other LSU series since I actually remember most of the significant games in the series. I think that has helped endear the rivalry to those my age (late 20s) and younger. When people start talking about Bear Bryant or John Vaught (prominent opposing coaches, neither of whom I remember, for rivals Alabama and Ole Miss, respectively), it doesn’t really register as well. LSU and Auburn only played 6 times between 1942 and 1988. Even though this became a yearly event in 1992 and Tulane left the SEC after the 1965 season, Auburn still played Tulane more times in the 20th century than it played LSU.
The flashpoint in the LSU/AU rivalry was the 1988 Earthquake Game, when an earthquake was actually recorded at LSU’s geology department after Tommy Hodson threw the winning touchdown to Eddie Fuller with less than two minutes left in the game. Likely contributing to the earthquake was the fact that the score was the Fighting Tigers’ only in the game, as LSU won 7-6.
Auburn had been ranked #4 in the country and LSU had lost consecutive games, at Ohio St. and at Florida, to fall out of the top 25. The two teams would be co-champions that year, and despite LSU having beaten Auburn, the Tigers went to the Sugar Bowl as a one-loss team. Auburn would lose in the Sugar Bowl to Florida St., and LSU would lose in the Hall of Fame Bowl (now known as the Outback Bowl) to Syracuse to finish with 4 losses. The Fighting Tigers’ only regular-season loss after the Auburn game was to #3 Miami.
The Earthquake Game had been the first meeting between LSU and Auburn in 7 years. It was only the 26th meeting between the two teams, and the first meeting had been in 1901. The two teams met in 1989 then didn’t meet again until 1992, when the SEC split into two divisions, mandating annual meetings between LSU and Auburn.
A long series of games with nicknames followed. They weren’t consecutive, but there are a lot of them.
Close games intensify rivalry
The 1989 and 1992 games did not merit any nicknames that I know of, but they were close as well, with Auburn winning 10-6 and 30-28, respectively. Auburn had hosted both games.
The 1993 meeting (the year of Terry Bowden’s undefeated probation season) does not have a nickname that I know of, but it was the first time Auburn had won @ LSU in 54 years. It also gave Auburn its first three-game winning streak over LSU since 1924. Auburn, of course, would finish undefeated but would not make a bowl game or join any serious national championship discussion because the Tigers were on probation.
The Disaster on the Plains
The 1994 game, the fourth game in the series after the Earthquake game, was hosted by #11 (AP) Auburn, who was still on probation so was unranked in the coaches’ poll, in the third week of the season.
LSU had not qualified for a bowl game since the year of the Earthquake Game but had scored a major victory over then-undefeated Alabama (see Alabama link below) the prior year on the way to finishing 5-6. After starting the previous season 2-5, LSU had won 4 of 6, one of the losses by only five against #15 Texas A&M to start the season.
When the Fighting Tigers beat a good Mississippi St. team (who would finish 8-4) by 20 in week 2, it seemed that LSU head coach Curley Hallman may have finally been turning the team around in his fourth season. Hallman was starting to be seen as the opposite of his predecessor Mike Archer, who was a good game manager but after his first two seasons seem to waste away the talent that had been recruited by Bill Arnsparger.
Seemingly maintaining this momentum, the Fighting Tigers led the 2-0 Tigers 23-9 with 12 minutes left in the game.
On second down, deep in his own territory, LSU quarterback Jamie Howard inexplicably threw the ball into triple coverage, and it was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. LSU got the ball back, and Howard did the same exact thing, but on third down this time. The game was now tied.
The Fighting Tigers responded though, driving down to the Auburn 5 before kicking a field goal. LSU would lead by 3 with 2:14 left in the game.
On third and short at the LSU 30, the Fighting Tigers should have run the ball again, followed by a punt if unsuccessful, to force the hapless Auburn offense into the two-minute drill, which probably would have resulted in no worse than a tie since the Tigers had not had an offensive touchdown all game.
But Howard threw to a crossing wide receiver, once again into triple coverage. That was tipped and a fourth defender caught it and ran for a touchdown as well. Auburn won 30-26.
Auburn fans call it The Comeback Game or The Interception Game. Auburn would finish the season 9-1-1, losing only to Alabama.
It was the third time in four meetings and fourth time in six meetings that the game was decided by 4 or fewer.
It was almost all downhill from there for Hallman, who was fired after LSU lost five of its next six–six of seven including the Auburn game–before relatively meaningless wins over Tulane and Arkansas to end the season. Hallman has not been a college head coach since and briefly (and unsuccessfully) coached a high-school team in Alabama.
More close games
In 1995, after only losing 1 game over the previous two seasons and starting 2-0 again, Auburn was ranked #5 in the AP poll (#6 in the coaches poll), and made a return trip to Baton Rouge to face its benefactor from the previous season, Jamie Howard. LSU had recently hired as head coach Vanderbilt’s Gerry DiNardo, whose most impressive record as head coach had been 5-6.
LSU had again lost to Texas A&M and had beaten Mississippi St.
The Auburn offense had a similar performance to the one in 1994, but their defense was held scoreless this time; the Fighting Tigers won, 12-6. Although that wasn’t exactly an impressive achievement for LSU’s offense, the redeemed Howard was carried off the field as a hero.
LSU would end that long bowl-less streak by beating Nick Saban’s Michigan St. Spartans in the Independence Bowl. Both Auburn and LSU would lose four games on the year.
The Night the Barn Burned
LSU also won the next year (1996) at Auburn, 19-15, on the way to a 10-2 record. During the game, an old gymnasium caught fire on the Auburn campus (this has been blamed on LSU fans, although I’ve never heard of any actual evidence substantiating this), and smoke could be seen from the stadium. This also happened to be LSU’s first win @ Auburn since 1973.
But Auburn took a road game back the next year, winning 31-28.
Back and forth
In the nine years beginning in 1998, LSU won 4 and Auburn won five.
1999 was the last game of the series under DiNardo, who, after beating Auburn on the way to a 3-0 start in 1998, would lose 15 of his last 18 games as head coach.
This didn’t stop Tommy Tuberville from lighting up a cigar after his Tigers’ 41-7 win in Baton Rouge, hence “The Cigar Game.” Auburn has not won a road game in the series since.
In fact, every game in the series since then {no longer true} has been won by the home team. Of possible interest to those other Tiger fans, Auburn was 3-2 against Saban with all three wins coming at home.
Auburn won by 17 in 2000, followed by a 13-point loss in 2001, which, due to Sept. 11, had been postponed to December and acted as a playoff for LSU’s first SEC West Championship. LSU started only 4-3, so the timing may have affected the outcome. In 2001, LSU won its first outright SEC Championship since 1986 and its first Sugar Bowl since the 1967 season. LSU has won 2 Sugar Bowls, 2 SEC West titles {now 3}, and once SEC title {now 2} since.
The two teams then exchanged 31-7 victories, the second of course by LSU on the way to the Fighting Tigers’ first national championship since 1958.
2004 – The Extra Point Game
This set up quite a meeting in 2004, as LSU was ranked #4 and #5 (AP) and visited #13 Auburn, who had gone through a tumultuous off-season that had almost ended Tommy Tuberville’s employment on the Plains.
After an impressive opening drive and a missed extra point, the Fighting Tigers led only 9-3 at halftime. That score stood until Auburn got the ball with about 8 minutes to play. LSU at one point forced Auburn into a 4th and 12 from LSU’s 28-yard line.
Not only did Courtney Taylor catch Jason Campbell’s pass for a first down on that play, but he also later caught his first touchdown pass with 1:14 to play, also on fourth down.
In what seemed apropos, John Vaughn then missed the extra point after a low snap.
Vaughn got another chance though, as Ronnie Prude was whistled for doing something (I still don’t quite understand this rule or why it applied) that involved trying to use another player for support in an effort to block the kick when actually he hit the player coming down from a jump.
Even if it was the correct call, I think it should be like the opposite of roughing the punter. If he successfully blocks the kick, then make it a penalty. If not, why call a penalty? Because he could have hurt himself? So what? It’s football. That seems to be how it’s called in practice—I’ve only seen it called twice at the most since then—but I think it was a rule modification and therefore fresh in the official’s minds. Nick Saban was on the rules committee and claimed not to understand the rule himself.
This game is now known as the “Extra-Point Game.” The winning points are shown on YouTube.
You could probably guess that Vaughn’s second try sailed through and Auburn held on for a 10-9 win. That game and the 8-point win over Alabama were the Tigers’ only games decided by fewer than 18 during the regular season that year. Saban’s last LSU team would finish 9-3 after a hail-mary loss to Iowa in the CapitalOne Bowl.
2005 – The Field Goal Game
Maybe it was bad juju from 2004, but Vaughn (same guy) missed field goals from 41, 54, 37, and 49 yards during regulation. He did make one from 26 yards and converted both extra points attempted without any drama. LSU’s two kickers were 1 for 2 in regulation.
Vaughn missed the 49-yarder in the waning seconds of regulation, after LSU had tied it with about 90 seconds left in the game, sending the contest into overtime.
Chris Jackson redeemed himself from a 38-yard miss with a 30-yard successful attempt for his only field goal of the game (Colt David, LSU’s primary kicker {in 2007}, had kicked the first from 44 yards). Auburn, unlike LSU, could not pick up the initial first down when it got the ball. Ronnie Prude (same guy who was flagged for the penalty on the try in 2004) broke up Brandon Cox’s third-and-long throw to Anthony Mix, who had caught Auburn’s go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Vaughn’s 40-yard attempt at the tie hit the left side of the upright, putting him at 1 for 6 for the game and ending the game.
LSU won despite being out-gained by 112 yards and only converting 4 third downs to Auburn’s 8.
2006
The game is known as Ref Gate–you know which side calls it that since the official final score was 7-3 Auburn. It’s also called “The Play,” and I think I’ve also seen it called “The Call,” since the most pivotal referee decision was to pick up a flag that had been thrown for pass interference. But there were a number of important calls that went against LSU. Also, the Mad Hatter may have played a role in this one (although Jimbo Fisher was the offensive coordinator, and I think Miles deferred more to him at the time), as LSU had many potential field-goal chances that the Fighting Tigers bypassed in an effort to get in the end zone. I don’t want to post the video of calls again, but it can easily be found on Youtube.
Auburn won despite being out-gained 311-182.
More series facts from the 2007 blog
Auburn has not led in the series since it lost in 1934.
The only Auburn opponents that the Plainsmen have played 10 times or more and have a worse winning percentage against are Alabama and, wait for it…
Tulane. It is a compliment to only have losing records against three teams that you’ve played that many times, but I wasn’t expecting one of them to be Tulane. Also in Auburn’s defense, they’ve only played the Green Wave once since playing them every year from 1921-1955.
The largest margin of victory in the series was 34 in the 1999 Cigar Game, surpassing the previous record of 28 (Auburn had won by 28 in 1901, and LSU had won by 28 in 1972). The 31-7 contests are in a 3-way tie with Auburn’s 34-10 win in 1993.
Right now (2010), LSU has won 3 in a row and 8 of the last 11 contests in Baton Rouge, the first of the group being in 1969.
Last year was only the second time in 6 years that the winner of the LSU/Auburn game did not win the SEC West. Along with LSU’s co-championship in 1988, Auburn of course finished with the best record in the SEC in 1993 but was not eligible for the SEC Championship.
Auburn is only LSU’s 10th most-common opponent, and LSU is Auburn’s 8th most-common opponent, but Auburn appears in the list of the top 15 Tiger Stadium crowds three times, for each of the last three games there. Arkansas and Florida, with 2 each, are the only other teams on that list more than once.
The two teams have also done a good job filling Jordan-Hare stadium recently. According to the Auburn CSTV website (I’m not sure when it was last updated, I assume after the 2004 season), the Extra-Point Game was tied for first with only two other contests (Georgia and Arkansas in 2004). LSU also appeared in the top 15 for the 2000 contest won by Auburn, 34-17. LSU’s two appearances were tied for second with Alabama, among others.
The other blogs in this series can be accessed through the LSU Rivalry Series tab above.
2014 to 2019
LSU lost by an identical score when the Fighting Tigers started 0-7 in conference before Gerry DiNardo was relieved of his duties (leading to the hiring of Nick Saban in the following offseason). LSU won by 35 in 2011, so that’s still the biggest win in the series by either team. This is the fifth time Auburn has beaten LSU by more than 20 (49 games dating back to 1901), but it is only the third time since 1938. The closest of the three was by 24 in 1993.
LSU did have five losses of 28 or more since then, but only once was under Les Miles. They were Florida 2000, Florida 2001, Alabama 2002, Georgia 2004, and Florida 2008.
Since the SEC expanded to 12 teams in 1992, LSU has traveled to both Auburn and Florida in every even year. LSU has never won both games and not coincidentally has never won the SEC West in an even year, so this pretty much assures it won’t happen this year either. This pattern momentarily changed when LSU and Florida traded home games in 2016 and 2017. This allowed LSU to win a road game against Florida in the same year they beat Auburn for the first time since 1980.
I didn’t realize this going into the 2017 game, but this was actually the first competitive LSU-Auburn game in Tiger Stadium since 2007. That was when LSU only needed a field goal to win, but Matt Flynn threw a touchdown to Demetrius Byrd that was caught with about 3 seconds left (although the ensuing kickoff was with 1 second left). Appropriately enough, the 2007 team was in attendance on Saturday. The 2007 game came two years after an overtime win by LSU which resulted from multiple missed field goals by Auburn.
It was nice to get another close win against Auburn in light of the 4-point loss in 1994 (the disaster on the plains), the 1-point loss in 2004 (the extra point game), the 4-point loss in 2006 (Refgate), the 7-point loss in 2010 (I don’t think it had a nickname; it was just a good close game on the way to Auburn’s national championship), and the 5-point loss last season (I guess we can call it the final nail in the Miles coffin game). The other games mentioned in this paragraph were all at Auburn, where LSU has only won twice since 1998.
(Below added before the 2022 game)
Another LSU win at Auburn would come on a last-second field goal in 2018, but these are all the latest updates.
2016 Reaction
2017 Reaction
2018 Pregame
2019 Pregame
2019 Reaction
2020 and 2021
LSU was in bad shape in 2020, having lost the season’s starting quarterback Myles Brennan due to an injury sustained in the third game. The Fighting Tigers had only started 1-2 but scored 34 points in the first loss and 41 in the second. Brennan was the only LSU starting quarterback in history to throw for over 300 yards in his first three games.
Unlike in 2014, it wasn’t the starting quarterback’s first start, but it was TJ Finley’s first road start in the SEC, and it was a big step up from his first start (against South Carolina, who would finish 2-8 that year). It yielded similar results regardless. Actually Auburn won by three more points than it had in 2014 to set a new record. By the way, if that name sounded familiar, it would have been Auburn’s starting quarterback for the next time LSU visited the plains in 2022 had he not gotten hurt.
On paper, the game should have been much closer. I mentioned in parentheses that South Carolina (LSU’s opponent in Week 4) only won two games on the year. One of those wins was over Auburn. Other than the subpar quarterback play, I think the game just happened to fall in the middle of Auburn’s best stretch (3 consecutive wins) of the year and at the beginning of LSU’s worst stretch of the year (1-3, the win over a rebuilding Arkansas team being the only game in the stretch in which LSU would score more than 17 points).
Auburn would go 6-5 on the year, and LSU voluntarily removed itself from bowl consideration after going 5-5.
The 2021 contest in Baton Rouge was a bizarro version of the 2019 game. Rather than the LSU quarterback being uncharacteristically ineffective, the Auburn quarterback (Bo Nix, son of Pat Nix, who had faced LSU in 1994 and 1995) was uncharacteristically effective. The LSU defense had multiple opportunities to stop the other Tigers during their winning drive late in the fourth quarter but just could not get him to the ground. LSU’s Max Johnson threw for 325 yards to Nix’s 255, but Finley (now on Auburn’s roster) added one pass for 35 yards and Nix ran for 74 yards. Nix’s fancy footwork accounted for more yards than that given escaped sacks. Auburn had a better rushing attack, but before the 92-yard winning drive LSU and Auburn had almost identical total yardage and LSU had had the better punter and placekicker all night. (Nix transferred to Oregon after the season, leaving the Nix family record against LSU at 3-2.)
I felt that LSU deserved to win the 2021 game and probably didn’t deserve to win the 2019 game. The 2019 LSU team may have been the best in history, but Auburn and Texas were the only two teams that really gave LSU a good scare. Auburn consistently played better than their talent level all night and had the better game plan, but they just couldn’t quite get the offense together well enough. Auburn’s defensive coordinator Kevin Steele was the defensive coordinator for LSU who was brought onto Les Miles’s staff at the same time Orgeron was. I don’t know what if any insight that game him into defending that version of LSU (the offense was quite different when he left), but Auburn was the only team that kept LSU below 36 points all year, losing 23-20.
I don’t mind that exchange though. Whether the 2021 LSU team was 7-6 or 6-7 isn’t really of any major significance to me (it ended LSU’s “.500 or better” run since 1999 {exclusive}, the last time Auburn had won in Baton Rouge; but the bowl-eligibility streak had remained in tact). It’s more important to me that LSU went undefeated in 2019, its first undefeated/untied season since 1958 and second since 1908. It also meant that LSU won an even 10 home games in a row in the series rather than just 9.
For what it’s worth, Auburn also finished 6-7 in 2021. So 1997 under Terry Bowden is still the last time Auburn both won in Baton Rouge AND finished with a winning record in the same year. Bowden is the only Auburn coach to have done so, and he did it twice.
2022
Auburn seemed to pick up right where they left off at the start of the 2022 contest. Both teams entered at 3-1, but LSU was favored since the three wins had come in a row and the loss was by a single point at a neutral site rather than in a blowout at home. Also, the Fighting Tigers beat their Mountain West opponent (New Mexico) by 38 to the Plainsmen’s 8 (against San Jose St.).
Anyway, Auburn had another scrambling quarterback (this time Robby Ashford) that was able to keep plays alive and LSU’s defense struggled to keep up with him whether he was scrambling or throwing downfield. Sometimes it was just bad coverage and LSU made him look good, but regardless Auburn got out to a 17-0 lead with 9:38 to play in the second quarter.
However, from that point forward, every time Auburn threatened they were shut down by the LSU defense. Later in the second, the Plainsmen had a 1st and 10 from the LSU 24 and were stalled there. The ensuing field goal attempt missed. In the second drive of the first half (after the first drive went three and out), Auburn went for it on 4th and 10 from the LSU 37; and Ashford’s pass fell incomplete. The next drive, Auburn had a first and goal from the LSU 5 before former LSU Tiger Koy Moore threw an interception on a reverse to Harold Perkins. Auburn would again get into LSU territory, this time to the 35, on the last drive of the game. Ashford threw an interception to Greg Brooks on second down after leading the offense to that yard line.
Since they took so long to show up, I thought it was fair to delay discussion of the LSU offense. Similar to the Mississippi St. game two weeks before, there was barely any sign of life before the two-minute drill at the end of the first half. It was 17-7 at that point, but the touchdown was scored by the defense after an Ashford fumble (there was one turnover by each team that was inconsequential). LSU faced two third downs on the ensuing drive. There was an illegal hands to the face that resulted in a first down after Jayden Daniels threw out of bounds on third and 10 from the LSU 26. Later, from the Auburn 46, Daniels just barely ran far enough for a first down on third and 6. Other than the touchdown on a short option, the only significant single play was a 39-yard screen pass to running back John Emery, Jr., who nearly scored after hurdling a defender on the right sideline.
LSU had converted only one third down before that drive and also failed to convert a third down on either of the first two drives of the second half. This would change as LSU’s running game started to wear down the Auburn defense late in the third quarter. Due to success on the ground, the Fighting Tigers only faced one third down on the drive and needed just a single yard. Josh Williams got the first at the Auburn 34, one yard beyond the distance required. Williams would run for four yards a little later before the ball went back to Emery, who ran 20 yards for a touchdown. LSU had some more success on the ground but couldn’t sustain any drives after that. It didn’t matter because Emery’s touchdown run had put LSU ahead and Auburn was stuck at 17 points on offense for the rest of the game.
If LSU had had one more second to run a play in 2016, this would have made three wins in four trips to Auburn after the 2014 blowout. As it stands, two out of three isn’t bad. LSU has won four of six in the series since the 2016 loss.
The Bayou Blogger 
2010, Alabama, Auburn, Boise St., College Football, Hawaii, LSU, Michigan St., Mississippi St., Missouri, N.C. State, Oklahoma, Oregon, TCU, Utah
Week 9 Top 25 and Commentary
In Rankings, Rankings Commentary on October 31, 2010 at 2:44 PMrank team prev.
1 Auburn 1
2 TCU 4
3 Missouri 3
4 Mich. St. 2
5 Oklahoma 6
6 LSU 5
7 Oregon 9
8 Utah 11
9 Ohio St. 7
10 Nebraska 13
11 Boise St. 10
12 Okie St. 15
13 Alabama 8
14 Arizona 14
15 Iowa 22
16 Wisconsin 12
17 Miss St. 17
18 Stanford 18
19 NC State —
20 Arkansas 21
21 Baylor 25
22 Nevada 20
23 S.Carolina 19
24 Florida St. 16
25 Hawaii —
Missouri and Michigan St. didn’t lose much here, but I double-checked the numbers, and they make sense. It doesn’t work like the polls, which tend to dramatically punish the most-recent loss. Oregon and Utah gained some ground, just not enough to get above the best one-loss teams. They have big games ahead though. LSU has been stagnant with a I-AA win, a loss, and a bye week in the last three weeks. I had Alabama with two wins over Ole Miss rather than a win over Tennessee and a win over Ole Miss, so that’s why they moved down more than would make sense for a team with a bye. Alabama will be fine if they beat LSU, Auburn, and Mississippi St. Boise St. has been falling behind, but with Hawaii next week, that’s a chance to move up again.
Not entirely unlike the BCS, this is made so that the best teams finish on top, so I don’t mind that there will be teams like Hawaii that make it in there from time to time, even with a couple of losses.
For the first time since I’ve been doing computerized rankings, there were no Big East teams in the top 40.