From one emotional spectrum to another, Auburn certainly didn’t lack motivation when it closed Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday and likely won’t have trouble getting hyped for today’s second installment of the Iron Ball.

There’s just too much on the line.

Forget the pride elicited from beating an in-state rival on this day. The Tigers and Tide are jockeying for a better seed in the upcoming SEC Tournament and the result of today’s game will have a direct effect on whether Auburn opens with an NCAA Tournament-bound team, or a team such as Georgia or South Carolina.

The Tigers, winners of three of their past four, would finish no worse than fourth place in the West with a win today. Couple that win with an Arkansas loss to Ole Miss, and Auburn would finish tied for third and would take the third seed into the tournament.

“In February is when you want to be playing your best, and I think we are,” coach Jeff Lebo said. “I think teams now are very fragile. One game a team or a player could lose their confidence, whereas before it could take four or five, so we have to be careful. You know it can change on a dime.

“Like last year, our team is playing their best at the right time.”

There’s also the matter of Lebo’s job security, which may or may not hinge on how Auburn finishes the season.

Lebo told multiple media outlets Thursday he hoped he had “the backing” of Auburn’s administration when he sits down with athletic director Jay Jacobs and university president Jay Gogue at the end of the season.

Jacobs, in Duluth, Ga., for the SEC Women’s Tournament, could not be found for comment.

Lebo has already clinched his fifth losing season against the SEC in six years with Auburn. He is 96-91 overall (35-60 SEC) since 2004, when he made the jump from Chattanooga to the Tigers, who were riddled with freshly enforced NCAA probation and bad publicity from the university’s accreditation scandal.

Lebo, who was originally signed to an eight-year deal, is set to make $750,000 this season and his contract runs through 2013. If Auburn were to terminate his contract, it would owe him $500,000 per year until 2013. If Lebo were to leave on his own, he’d owe the university $375,000 per year until 2013.

Auburn chose not to exercise a one-year rollover on Lebo’s contract, which would have added another $500,000 to his buyout.

Though Lebo has the highest-ranked signing class of his time at Auburn arriving in the fall, the Tigers graduate five seniors from this year’s roster. Four of those seniors — Tay Walller, DeWayne Reed, Lucas Hargrove and Brendon Knox — combined to score 79 of Auburn’s 89 points Wednesday for a memorable Senior Night, which may have also foreshadowed another rebuilding year for the 2010-11 season.

Lebo has repeatedly talked about how much he loves this current team throughout the season, even while the Tigers have let numerous golden chances on the road slip away.

“I’m just proud of them for playing so well at the end of the season and at home,” Lebo said Thursday. “We haven’t been consistent playing 40 minutes on the road, like I would like, but if we can learn how to do that in the last road game that would be awesome.”

Alabama would need to beat Auburn and have South Carolina upset Vanderbilt today in order to hop the Tigers for the fourth seed in the SEC Tournament. If the Gamecocks win, it would be the difference-maker in a tie with Georgia for fifth place in the SEC East.

Because Alabama and Auburn would have a head-to-head split, the same division records, the same records against all SEC West opponents and the top four SEC East teams, the tie would be broken by the teams’ record against the fifth-place team in the East. Auburn beat Georgia but lost to South Carolina, while Alabama did the opposite.

Auburn would land the third seed over Arkansas with a win and a Razorbacks loss because the Tigers’ 6-4 record against the West would be better than Arkansas’ 5-5 mark.

“All the motivation we have is that we probably have to win the SEC Tournament to get in the NCAA Tournament, so that’s our motivation right now,” Waller said. “We’re going to keep pushing as hard as we can.”

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