It's not exactly Florida-Tennessee, but LSU-Auburn is becoming a decisive rivalry in the SEC West.

Like Florida-Tennessee, the LSU-Auburn series is developing a reputation for playing a key role in the outcome of the SEC West, with either Auburn or LSU reaching the SEC championship game in three of the past four years.

This year's game between No. 5 LSU and No. 14 Auburn in Auburn should follow that trend.

"The team that has won this game the last few years has won the division, so it has kind of become a rivalry," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. "We've won our share and they've won their share."

Each team has won four games in the series over the past eight years, with Auburn winning 31-7 at home in 2002 and LSU winning 31-7 at home last year. Auburn coaches and players haven't forgotten about last year's embarrassing loss and know LSU is the most imposing hurdle standing in the way of their championship goals.

"We are going to take it to another level," senior strong safety Junior Rosegreen said. "We went down there last year and they beat us to death. We feel like we owe them. They are going to come in ready to play. We're going to be ready to play. It's going to be a great game."

It should be a great game, if it gets played. With Hurricane Ivan moving toward the Gulf Coast it's possible Auburn will be forced to postpone the game and move it to Nov. 6, when both teams have an open date.

That would be appear to be a disadvantage to Auburn on two fronts. First, Auburn coaches believe their team is further ahead of LSU at this point, especially with LSU's concerns at quarterback, and that could change over the next seven weeks. Plus, a schedule change would force Auburn to play LSU, Georgia and Alabama on three consecutive Saturdays.

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