Welcome to Before The Snap, For The Win’s college football show where we’ll break down the sport’s trending storylines, examine each week’s biggest matchups and track the College Football Playoff and Heisman Trophy races.
In the middle of a brutal schedule, Auburn is 7-2 and No. 12 in the College Football Playoff rankings with two losses, and it still has to play No. 4 Georgia and No. 5 Alabama. The Tigers have just a five percent chance to make the playoff at this point, but they do have the opportunity to have a massive impact on the playoff picture.
If LSU, Ohio State and Clemson continue playing the way they have all season, they’ll be the first three teams in. But that fourth spot could come down to Georgia, Alabama or Oregon, among other playoff hopefuls.
What do those three teams have in common? Auburn.
In Week 1, Oregon lost, 27-21, to the Tigers, and that remains the Ducks’ only defeat as they try to become a one-loss Pac-12 champ looking for a playoff spot. But depending on how other conferences close out the regular season, Oregon’s one loss could end up keeping it out of the top four.
Auburn hosts Georgia on Saturday, and upsetting the Bulldogs would hand them their second loss of the season and likely knock them out of playoff contention. A two-loss team has never been invited to the playoff, so it would probably take a conference championship and some chaos for that to happen.
And in Week 14, Alabama travels to Jordan-Hare Stadium to take on Auburn, and after the Crimson Tide lost to LSU in Week 11, a Tigers win could shut the door on their playoff hopes too.
Auburn probably won’t make the playoff, but it can be a huge spoiler this year.
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