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BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Ticker) -- Louisiana State appeared to be going nowhere after a loss to Mississippi on October 27. A month later, they're partying on the Bayou. Before a record crowd of 92,141 at Tiger Stadium, 24th-ranked LSU clinched its first trip to the Southeastern Conference championship game with a 27-14 victory over No. 22 Auburn. "This was the best we've played on defense all year," said LSU coach Nick Saban, who team allowed just 293 yards and 15 first downs. "This is such a big win for us and our institution and all the people who worked so hard to make this happen." The Tigers, who shared Western Division titles in 1996 and 1997, will play East Division winner Tennessee next week at Atlanta in an unlikely matchup. When the clock expired, thousands of LSU fans stormed on to the field -- a scene that did not seem possible a month ago. "No doubt, this is how I wanted to finish in Tiger Stadium, but the season is not over," LSU defensive end Kyle Kipps said. "This was the most unbelievable game I have ever played in." LSU (8-3, 5-3 West) dropped to 2-3 in the division after the loss to Ole Miss before rebounding to win its final three conference games. "We definitely played well as a whole unit, our whole team," linebacker Bradie James said. "We won the game, yet I'm still in still in shock that we won the West. I'm wearing the SEC West championship tee-shirt and I can't believe it." Auburn (7-4, 5-3) needed to win only one of its last two contests to return to the SEC title game for the second straight year, but it gave LSU an opening by falling to Alabama, 31-7, at home two week ago. Technically, Auburn and LSU shared the division title, but the Bayou Tigers earned the trip to Atlanta based on the head-to-head meeting. "We played a good football team tonight," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. "I have to give LSU credit. They deserve to go play in Atlanta. They have a lot of weapons and we just didn't play well on third downs on either side of the ball." LSU was in control for most of the contest after Auburn pulled even, 7-7, on Jason Campbell's 72-yard touchdown pass to Tim Carter with 11:05 left in the first quarter. LSU snapped the tie 2:20 into the second period on Rohan Davey's 17-yard TD pass to Josh Reed and took a 21-7 halftime lead on Domanick Davis' seven-yard run with 3:40 left in the quarter. John Corbello kicked a pair of field goals in the second half for LSU, which increased its lead in the all-time series to 19-16-1. "They had the big play early on, but for the next three quarters, we shut them down," LSU linebacker Trev Faulk said. "We're just going to build on this and carry the momentum to the SEC championship game. This is why I signed here." Auburn made it close on Chris Butler's 13-yard TD run with 3:50 remaining. After passing for more than 1,200 yards in his previous three games, Davey was held somewhat in check, completing 16-of-34 for 245 yards with an interception. But Reed enjoyed another big game with 10 grabs for 186 yards. The junior receiver extended his SEC record for receiving yards with 1,680 yards on 90 catches. Davey with an LSU single-season record of 3,267 yards. "It all goes back to their quarterback," Tuberville said. "I've seen Rohan Davey go through the good times and the bad times, and that kid has done an outstanding job with this football team. He's really improved. Nick and his staff have done an outstanding job keeping him under control." Labrandon Toefield chipped in with 120 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries. He fell 26 yards shy of 1,000 for the season. Toefield scored his 19th rushing touchdown on a two-yard run in the quarter, tying the SEC single-season mark held by Georgia's Garrison Hearst and Alabama's Shaun Alexander. Campbell completed 13-of-24 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown for Auburn. Butler rushed for 68 yards on eight carries.
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