Auburn Tigers vs. Clemson Tigers, 12 p.m. ET, ABC
Obligatory Tigers vs. Tigers joke goes here. And then look at what both of these teams have proven -- which is very little at the moment.
Auburn has defeated a Mississippi State team that waxed pitiful Memphis and has since lost to LSU as well -- nothing to be ashamed of, but also very little in the way of useful information to evaluate how impressive the Tigers' only BCS win was. The other game was a too-close-for-comfort home victory against Utah State, which has generally not been a quality team even by WAC standards.
Speaking of too-close-for-comfort wins against overmatched competition, Clemson is coming off of an eight-point victory over Wofford, though the Terriers have been causing coronaries for fans of the Palmetto State's two BCS programs for years. The only other win this year is a 24-point drubbing of Troy, which might or might not be the Troy of old. Again, we're not working with a huge sample size here.
What we do know is that Tajh Boyd and Barrett Trotter have both looked oustanding against their competition so far, though you have to account for what that competition was. When you adjust for the strength of schedule, both of these teams look about evenly matched on paper -- but one of them has to win this afternoon.
Of course, SEC and South Carolina homerism win out. Auburn in a close one with a big score.
Auburn 34, Clemson 31