For G-5 teams, an early season drubbing at the hands of Alabama would all but end any chance of cracking the Top 25 that year. Those kind of money games are the primary reason that no SBC team has ever been ranked in the Top 25. Taking on Miss St is one thing, Alabama is another. When Tech made it into the Top 25 two years ago, we had wins over over Virginia, Illinois, and Ole Miss, all three P-5 conference teams, but none a perennial Top 5 program like Alabama. Since then, its been almost impossible for us to get that "second tier" type P-5 team to schedule us. This season, we have the privilege of opening at Oklahoma, followed by a game at Auburn. I dread both of these games and I wish that our AD hadn't agreed to play them, but until money games are no longer necessary for us to fund our overall athletic program, we'll play them every year. Who knows, sometimes you get lucky and catch a program when its down. Auburn DID look kind of shaky in that CHAMPIONSHIP game, right??????