College football mail bag: Those slippery final scores

Unbuckling the mailbag:

Question: Tell me I did not just read in the L.A. Times that Auburn bounced back after their loss to Utah State last week. I was at that game and we did not lose that game. The final score was Auburn 42, Utah State 38.

Sherry Hoggle

Answer: What!!!? Auburn came back and won? Like a lot of Tigers fans, I left the Utah State game early. So disgusted we were about to lose to a Western Athletic Conference team at home, I got in my car and drove with the radio off until I reached the Grand Tetons. I have been hiding out ever since in the woods, eating baked beans out of a can.

Knowing that, after Utah State, we had to face Mississippi State, a powerful Southeastern Conference team with a ferocious SEC defense that would not let us score any points, let alone 41, I have just emerged from isolation ready to face the world at 0-2.

Don’t tell me, Sherry, we also somehow beat Mississippi State?

Don’t tell me it was a goal-line stand.

We did!? And it was?

We’re 2-0?

SEC Rules! War Eagle!!

Doubters quit hating on us!

Q: Wasn’t California at Colorado the first game in Pac-12 history since it finished before USC played Utah?

Sam

A: No, Cal and Colorado was “non-league” because the game was scheduled before Colorado and Utah joined the Pac-12.

Oregon was also supposed to play Utah in a nonconference game this week, but dropped the Utes after Utah joined the conference.

Oregon will instead host Missouri State.

USC and Utah played the first Pac 12 game last week and the final score was 17-14, and then 23-14.

How much clearer could it be?

Q: Do the statistics Football Bowl Subdivision schools accumulate against teams like Charleston Southern, Norfolk State and Northwestern State count?

Is it true that all of the Atlantic Coast Conference teams have agreed to join the Pac-12 if they would be guaranteed either one game a year in Los Angeles or tickets to be in the audience for the taping of “The Price is Right”?

Jon Basalone

Brea

A: You bet those numbers count. Playing sub-division schools is a great way to pad your stats and kick-start a Heisman Trophy campaign.

That’s why I’ve always maintained early-season college football stats are as meaningless as the win-loss record for a relief pitcher.

Or, maybe you don’t know Rollie Fingers is in the baseball Hall of Fame with a lifetime record of 114-118.

Arkansas is averaging 51.50 points through two games, which ranks No. 3 this week in national scoring average.

“Souieee Pig!”

Except, the Razorbacks have played Missouri State and New Mexico.

Watch Oregon’s national numbers soar next week after it hosts Missouri State. The key stat for Oregon this year, though, was Louisiana State 40, Oregon 27.

As for your second question, that’s a brilliant thought.

You could have the ACC schools spin Drew Carey’s wheel to determine the final score for games. That’s pretty much what they do for Pac-12 games played in the Coliseum.

Q: As a Utah fan, we look forward to the “Holy War” every year, our annual rivalry game with BYU. My question is do others outside the state of Utah (e.g. you) perceive the rivalry as big as we do?

Jim Swilliam

Baltimore

A: I witnessed the “Holy War” firsthand in 2004 in Salt Lake City when Utah was trying to wrap up a perfect season and earn a Bowl Championship Series bowl spot.

Utah crushed BYU that day, 52-21, and I was on the field walking to the postgame news conference when I noticed a Utah fan holding up a sign reading, “Where’s Your God Now?”

Wow.

I’m curious to see how the rivalry changes with both teams no longer in the Mountain West. Utah, of course, has joined the Pac-12 while BYU has gone independent in football. As Utah Coach Kyle Whittingham noted this week, there is no conference title on the line and the game isn’t at the end of the season.

“There’s a different flavor, different feel,” Whittingham said on this week’s Pac-12 conference call.

That doesn’t mean sparks won’t fly.

Whittingham: “I think it will remain every bit as intense.”

Q: Though the Pac-12 may become the Pac-16, I have one major problem. The logo displays a mountain. Why?

Pac in Pac-12 means Pacific, meaning the Pacific Ocean. So shouldn’t the logo be the Pacific Ocean?

Tomas Reyes

A: I think you’re making a Pac-12 mountain logo out of a molehill. You want controversy? I hear if Oklahoma joins, the mountain will be replaced with the face of Barry Switzer.

Q: You made two references in Thursday’s Times to Boise having beaten “ranked” Georgia, but it was a preseason ranking based on exactly zero games. Thus your characterization was very misleading. If Georgia ends up 6-7 again, will you still be giving Boise credit for having beaten a “ranked” SEC team?

Brian Fodera

Los Angeles

A: Yes. Walter Camp’s Axiom on Football Common Sense says if a school is ranked on the day you defeated that school, you have heretofore defeated a ranked school. Even if that school becomes “unranked.”

Because…maybe the reason that school become “unranked” is because it lost to the team that just defeated it?

Q: Wasn’t the Big 12 breaking up last year prior to the LHN “starting” it?

Corbin

A: The Big 12 was already on a slippery slope, but the Longhorn Network sort of nudged it off the hilltop. Texas A&M certainly would not have bolted to the SEC right now if not for its disgust with the Texas/ESPN plan to televise high school games on the LHN. The NCAA ruled against that idea, but A&M was already halfway out of the barn.

Q: Please ask Mr. [Larry] Scott what is wrong with Oregon State? They look awful this year.

Scott Cleaveland

A: You’re right. Coach Mike Riley has come back from slow starts before but I don’t see how the Beavers get out of this one. Losing to Wisconsin was expected, but Sacramento State?

There’s not enough talent and too much controversy at the quarterback position, where Ryan Katz has lost his job to Sean Mannion.

Let’s hope Corvallis at least has a good pumpkin harvest.

Q: Please tell Larry Scott that this Texas Tech fan thinks he’s the greatest commish of all time….love to join your league.

Michael Hagood

A: I’ll try to thank him at Saturday’s Rose Bowl game between Texas and UCLA. Larry’s a huge UCLA fan who is coming down to see the Bruins after last week’s scintillating win over San Jose State.

Why else would Scott be at the game?

Q: Question for Mr. Scott: Will we ever be able to compete with the SEC in football?

McKinley Armstrong

A: Other than five straight BCS titles, what does SEC have over the Pac-12?

Wouldn’t you take Stanford over Vanderbilt on a neutral field?

Seriously, the SEC is better than everyone right now — especially the SEC West. The East isn’t so hot. South Carolina, picked to win it, just struggled to beat Georgia a week after Boise State manhandled Georgia in Atlanta.

Doesn’t that make Boise State the best team in the SEC East?

The Pac-12 is down a notch this year and took a PR hit when champion Oregon lost to SEC teams in successive high-profile games.

Make no mistake, though, Larry Scott is competing with the SEC. He’s forcing the SEC into an arms race. Luring Oklahoma would be a huge step toward equality. Scott wants to get to 16 teams before the SEC does.

It’s like the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union — except the SEC would say it plays better defense.

Q: Any predictions for Huskers vs. Huskies III on Saturday?

Huskers Gameday

A: Nebraska all the way, half the way, or some of the way. Honest answer: I don’t know. This is a goof-ball series. Nebraska destroyed Washington last year in Washington, but then lost the rematch in the Holiday Bowl.

Both schools are 2-0 this year, but Nebraska struggled with Fresno State and Washington struggled with Eastern Washington. Washington doesn’t have Jake Locker anymore, but Nebraska’s not in the Big 12 anymore.

Nebraska’s tough to beat in Lincoln, yet lost last year to Texas.

Washington has better apples; Nebraska has sweeter corn. Washington is named after a great U.S. president, but so is Lincoln.

Washington has the Space Needle but Nebraska has needles in haystacks.

Q: Will Pac-12 ever invite Boise State or is everyone just hoping that the perennial top-10 program just fades away?

Rob Bayless

A: No and yes.

Q: U of A, Cal, Oregon State?

MontyDAztec

A: If that’s a question about each school’s last appearances in a Jan. 1 Rose Bowl, the answers are “never for Arizona,” “1959” and “1965.”

Q: A lucky number? Perhaps when Texas A&M moves to the SEC they will change their famous tradition to the 13th Man.

Gerry Swider

A: The SEC has tentatively accepted your idea pending legal objections filed by Baylor’s famous 13th lawyer.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com