Alabama 42, Auburn 14.
Well, that was… more or less expected, actually. The Crimson Tide started the day as three-touchdown favorites, won by four and aggressively snuffed out any remaining sense of optimism in Auburn's national championship encore. The Tigers finish with four losses in their last five SEC games, by a combined 125 points. The defending champs beat one team, South Carolina, that finished with a winning record.
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As usual, Alabama's dominance was so complete as to be almost casual. The defense held Auburn to its worst output in total yards (138) in more than a decade, didn't allow the Tigers across midfield until well into the fourth quarter and effectively pitched its third shutout of the year. (The Tigers' touchdowns came via a fumble return and a kick return, respectively.) Herculean tailback Trent Richardson embarrassed a few more people en route to the first 200-yard game of his career. A.J. McCarron connected on three touchdown passes and finished with his most efficient day of the season against a team that isn't Georgia Southern. For an 11-1, season-long frontrunner that was already outscoring opponents by almost four touchdowns per game, it was a thoroughly dominant end to another thoroughly dominant regular season.
Now what? Now they wait.
Specifically, they're waiting for the BCS standings on Sunday night to measure the distance between LSU and Alabama in the top two positions and Oklahoma State at No. 3, with one looming question in mind: With 'Bama idle next weekend and Oklahoma State hosting its biggest game of the year against Oklahoma, are the Cowboys — already in better standing with the Big 12-loving BCS computers — close enough to conceivably leap the Crimson Tide for dibs on the second ticket to the BCS title game?
The answer is not a foregone conclusion. But if it's no — and frankly, the chances of the answer to that question coming up in OSU's favor are distant, at best — Alabama will have the luxury of sitting at home next Saturday, tickets to New Orleans effectively in hand, while LSU puts its No. 1 ranking on the line against Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. To repeat, the team that lost the head-to-head, do-or-die blockbuster of the year remains in better position to play for a national championship by avoiding playing for the championship of its own conference. With a single weekend remaining in the regular season, this is the status quo.
But it's out of Alabama's hands now: They've made their closing argument, and it was brutally effective. Outside of the loss to LSU, the Tide's closest game all season was a 27-11 cruise at Penn State, which only looked that close thanks to a garbage-time touchdown. Mississippi State managed to stay within shouting distance at 24-7; 'Bama's other SEC wins were all by at least twenty-four. So at least Auburn has the comfort of knowing it's not alone.
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Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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