Auburn's sked cred

Friday's B'ham News reported that AU football is looking to move their 2006 LSU home game from Oct. 21 to Sept. 16. The principal reason being, that Tulane scheduled LSU and Auburn for the same day. Yep. 12 games, and they still couldn't manage to keep them straight.

Guys, I know things are insanely crazy down there, which is, like, as crazy as it gets, but [JOKE DISPARAGING COMPETENCE OF TULANE'S ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT DELETED DUE TO TO BLOGGER'S OVERACTIVE LIBERAL POST-KATRINA SENSITIVITY].

If the move happens--and seeing as how both AD's think it's the best idea since peanut butter was introduced to jelly, I bet it does--that would give Auburn the following schedule:

Sept. 2 Washington State
Sept. 9 @ Mississippi State
Sept. 16 LSU
Sept. 23 Temple
Sept. 30 @ South Carolina
Oct. 7 Arkansas
Oct. 14 Florida
Oct. 21 Tulane
Oct. 28 @ Ole Miss
Nov. 4 Arkansas State
Nov. 11 Georgia
Nov. 18 @ Alabama

Cool things about that sked: 1. A non-conference opponent with a reputable name that will ward off "cupcake" cries from the national media, while at the same time not actually threatening at all to win. 2. No unsightly I-AA teams, but still the absolute closest thing available in Temple. 3. LSU earlier in the season, when we do better against them (check the Advocate article again if you didn't read it through...and it doesn't even go back to the Bowden days, when the same truism applied in early-season upsets in the 1993 undefeated season and the 1997 SEC West title season) 4. The three toughest games on the entire schedule--LSU, Florida, and UGA--are ALL at home (not that that necessarily means anything in Georgia's case).

The biggest drawback (as pointed out by NOLA-based pal Marcus elsewhere on the Internets) is that there are no true open dates on the schedule. It's 12 games in 12 weeks. But the Reasonable Substitute for an Open Date games (Temple, Tulane, Ark. St.) are nicely spread out. The way I look at it, there's three mini-seasons: the Wash St.-Miss. St.-LSU season, the SC-Ark.-UF season, and the UGA-Bama season. Think of it in Super Mario terms: Worlds 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3, bonus level, followed by Worlds 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3, then a special three-part super-easy "bonus" World, and then the final deathtrap castle of 3-1, 3-2, and Bowser in the SEC title game. (And if Auburn actually gets through all of that unscathed, it turns out--surprise!--there's actually one more unseen level to go before you can win the national championship...er, rescue the Princess).

All in all, I'd approve. Here's to hoping things work out.