[Tuck4Bama]

STARKVILLE — About the time South Florida's 26-23 overtime win at Auburn went final and silenced Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday night, Mississippi State's chartered jet was high above the Mississippi farmland on its return trip from New Orleans.

But the Bulldogs were certainly aware of the upset. And no, they weren't violating the no-cell-phones-in-the-air rule; they were flying a charter on AirTran, which has XM Radio at every seat. XM carries SEC games, thus allowing the Bulldogs to hear what was going on over at Auburn.

But MSU coach Sylvester Croom, who was in his seat reading a book, said he didn't much care when he found out the score.

"They're still one of the better teams in the conference," Croom said. "We're going to prepare that way and we go in expecting a tough football game from them. ... I look at it as we're playing Auburn and what happened last week doesn't make a whole lot of difference as far as I'm concerned."

Auburn upset not changing plans