Man, that's tough when you break it down. On one hand, any MSU fan should be thrilled with a 10-2 season. Especially if it means that we would have beaten the likes of Bama, LSU, A&M on the road, and Ark on the road.
However, in the situation that you describe, we would most definitely be right in the middle of the playoff hunt up until the EB if our only loss at that time truly was to a very highly ranked Auburn team on the road. So by losing the EB in Starkville, we'd quite possibly be blowing a CFP spot as well. That would be pretty tough to handle even if overall, it would have been another great season.