AUBURN | There was 3:37 left in the fourth quarter and Auburn had just scored a touchdown to cut Mississippi State’s lead to 43-34.

Perhaps there was still a chance for the Tigers to pull out a win and avoid the biggest collapse in reported school history after racing to an early 28-3 lead.

Trailing by nine, the conventional wisdom may have been to kick the extra point and cut it to eight, knowing that you’ll need another touchdown and 2-point conversion to send the game into overtime.

Auburn coach Bryan Harsin elected to go for the 2-point conversion at that moment.

On the play, Bo Nix rolled to his right, was pressured and threw an interception at the goal line. It was later reveled that Nix had played the majority of the second half on a broken ankle.

The Tigers attempted an onside kick, which was recovered by MSU. AU managed to get the ball back with 3:03 left after a missed field goal, but backup quarterback T.J. Finley was sacked and fumbled on the second play of the drive, and it was recovered by MSU.

Harsin was asked about his views on going for the 2-point conversion down nine points during Wednesday’s SEC teleconference.

“Yes, the old chart question,” Harsin said. “Yes, there is a chart that everybody in America uses. I think that tends to be made fun of when coaches and things, when it doesn’t work out. But everybody has the same one. That’s pretty standard. And then you look at momentum. You know if you have to go for two, what that’s going to put you down by or up by, and then really it comes down to just, for us, have you got momentum? Are you going to do it at the end of the last drive when you have to or are you going to do it during a drive when you can? So that’s what it really comes down to.

“I think it’s a big swing in momentum and that is a determination in the game. So you see teams do it. They’ll go for it earlier, they’ll go for it later. I think it kind of comes down to … and also, you have player availability, you have just as far as play selection — did you use it before, do you need to come up with something different. So there’s a lot of different things that come up in the game so it’s not just one standard process I think everybody uses from that standpoint other than there is a chart that people look at or a guy on the sideline has that says, ‘You should got for two if you’re down by this or up by this.’ Then you get to make that decision as a coach.”

Auburn plays at South Carolina Saturday night at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.