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Auburn most likely to play bowl game in Tampa or Atlanta

Collin Mickle
Published: November 25, 2007
Updated: November 25, 2007

Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville’s future could become clear today, depending on the outcome of his meeting with athletic director Jay Jacobs.
But Auburn will have to wait a little longer for its postseason picture to come into focus.
The Tigers finished the regular season 8-4 and 5-3 in the Southeastern Conference. AU is alone in second place in the SEC’s Western Division.
Auburn’s likeliest bowl destinations are the Outback Bowl, in Tampa, Fla., or the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, assuming the SEC sends two teams to Bowl Championship Series bowls.
The winner of the SEC Championship Game between LSU and Tennessee will receive an automatic BCS bid to the Sugar Bowl. Georgia, 10-2 and ranked fourth in the BCS standings, is expected to receive an at-large BCS invitation.
According to the BCS selection rules, the No. 4 team in the BCS standings, if not a conference champion, automatically receives an at-large bid if any are available. Georgia has no regular-season games remaining, but there’s a slim chance the Bulldogs could slip out of the No. 4 spot if their computer rankings change next week.
Regardless, Georgia is likely to receive an at-large BCS bid, possibly to the Orange Bowl. That leaves eight SEC teams for seven remaining SEC-affiliated bowl games.
The Capital One Bowl, which makes the first selection, is expected to take Florida. The Cotton Bowl will likely follow by taking Arkansas — assuming LSU beats Tennessee in the SEC title game.
The Outback Bowl then faces a decision. The bowl gets first pick of remaining Eastern Division teams, which in practice means Tennessee, 9-4 in this scenario.
But the Outback, which hosted Tennessee last year, is allowed to pass on the Vols to select another team. Assuming LSU is in the Sugar and Arkansas is in the Cotton, Auburn is the most likely candidate.
If the Outback chooses UT over AU, the Tigers will almost certainly go to the Chick-Fil-A, which has the next pick.
“I would imagine it would be one of those two,” Tuberville said Sunday. “Really, it doesn’t make any difference. Both are good games.”
Auburn hasn’t played in the Outback since 1995. The Tigers played in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, then known as the Peach Bowl, in 2001.
Auburn moved up in the polls after Saturday’s 17-10 win against Alabama. AU is 23rd in the Associated Press poll and tied for 21st in the coaches’ poll.
The Tigers are 24th in the Harris Interactive poll and in the BCS standings, as well as 24th in the computer rankings that contribute to the BCS.
DB Powers worried after dog bite
There couldn’t have been a stranger postgame question than the one Auburn cornerback Jerraud Powers asked team doctors after Saturday’s game.
“When I went into the training room I was like, ‘Do I need a rabies shot?’” Powers said.
The question came up after Powers had a frightening encounter with a police dog late in the fourth quarter. Powers followed Alabama receiver DJ Hall into the back of the end zone, but quarterback John Parker Wilson overthrew Hall.
As Powers turned to run back to the line of scrimmage, he felt a tug on his left hand.
A police dog, standing with its handler inches from the field of play, snapped at Powers’ hand and bit through his glove. Powers wrestled briefly with the animal before it released his hand.
“I saw blood coming out of my glove. I started panicking,” said Powers. “I was looking toward the sidelines and I was screaming, ‘The dog bit me,’ the next three plays.”
Medical staffers told Powers he didn’t need a rabies shot.
Law enforcement officers, some accompanied by dogs, routinely line the Jordan-Hare Stadium field in the fourth quarter. The police dogs are apparently intended for crowd control, though it’s unclear if officers are authorized to release the dogs against unarmed fans who rush the field.
It’s the first time AU head coach Tommy Tuberville can remember a police dog attacking a player.
“That doesn’t happen very often,” Tuberville said. “It did happen and obviously it’s something we’ll have to look at and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The story may not be over yet. Tuberville said Powers joked with teammates that he might consider legal action.
“The players were kidding around with him at the end of the game,” Tuberville said. “He said: ‘You young guys just wait, next year you younger guys will be playing in Jerraud Powers Stadium.’”
Injury report
Powers wasn’t the only injured Tiger.
Senior cornerback Josh Hebert injured his knee on the opening kickoff and didn’t return. Hebert will undergo knee surgery this week and won’t play in Auburn’s bowl game.
Safety Aairon Savage suffered a broken rib in the first quarter, but continued to play and finished with one tackle. The sophomore is expected to play in the bowl game.

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Auburn most likely to play bowl game in Tampa or Atlanta

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