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College football picks, Week 9: Auburn will cover the spread against Ole Miss

The tailspinning Rebs are a 4.5-point home dog in Oxford this weekend.

By smeargle
John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

This week's slate in college football has a lot of high stakes bouts with undefeated teams hitting the road. Of our 10 pick 'em matchups, seven feature home dogs, including your "NOTHING TO SEE HERE" Ole Miss Rebs. As much as we'd all love Ole Miss to pull the upset, the house is on fire and we aren't sticking around to roast marshmallows—eight of us are picking the Tigers to cover a 4.5 spread at Vaught-Hemingway on Saturday. Don't worry though, we can still lose this weekend and potentially make it to the Birmingham Bowl!

Other interesting story lines include:

  • The World's Largest (REDACTED) Party has Florida as barely a touchdown favorite against Georgia. The SEC East feels like a bunch of retired people sitting around talking about the good ole days and eating too many memberberries. Member Tim Tebow? Member Herschel Walker? Member consistently winning 10-plus games a season before firing our coach? Member being relevant in our conference? Yeaaaaaaaaa I member!
  • Jim Harbaugh's Wolverines are more than a three touchdown road favorite against in-state rival Michigan State. Big point spreads on the road against a rival typically favor the underdog, so I'm taking MSU in this one.
  • The ACC Atlantic division is similar to the SEC West in that it's loaded at the top (Clemson, Louisville and Florida State) and the other division (Coastal) is somewhat underwhelming. So let's start TALMBOUT dem Noles! FSU's biggest fan this weekend is Louisville, as a Clemson loss would help the Cardinals' chances of sneaking back into the Playoff hunt.
  • Speaking of the ACC Coastal division, the winner of Virginia Tech and Pitt will be in prime position to compete for the division title. Pitt's a home dog and we like them (mainly because they didn't lose to Syracuse).

    • Week 9 picks against the spread

    Spreads we love

    Auburn (-4.5) at Ole Miss: This game actually opened with Ole Miss as a one-point favorite, but that was before the Tigers curb-stomped Arkansas and Ole Miss gave up a record performance to Leonard Fournette. The line jumped to Auburn -2 on the opening day of betting and has slowly crawled up to 4.5 points. We'll be watching the game while crying in a dark corner as Auburn rushes for at least 400 yards.

    Kentucky at Missouri (-3.5): Kentucky showed State that not just anyone can waltz into Commonwealth Stadium (yes, I had to look up the name of the UK football stadium) and come out with a W. OK, let's be honest, State is just reaching dumpster fire levels of bad. The Wildcats are two precious games away from being bowl eligible and Mizzou is tailspinning, so we love Kentucky to keep it close, if not win outright.

    Spreads we're split on

    Washington (-10.5) at Utah: The Huskies are a unanimous Playoff lock in most polls and will face their toughest road test for the rest of the season against the Utes. I have a feeling this game will be close throughout the first half but Washington's top-15 defense will close it out down the stretch.

    Nebraska at Wisconsin (-8.5): The Big 10 seems to be this year's power conference as four of their teams are floating back and forth around the top 10. The Badgers' only losses are to Michigan and Ohio State in overtime, so it should be no surprise they are more than a touchdown favorite at home against the undefeated Huskers. With Wisconsin's at-times stagnant offense, 8.5 points is just too much for me to lay.

    Last week's picks

    Bama continued to cover big spreads, the Rebs still couldn't make adjustments after halftime, MSU lost as a road favorite to Kentucky.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    Don't call it a comeback, but Borkey and Alex, after spending the first couple weeks in the basement, are making big pushes. Juco still rules the roost with his anti-Ole Miss propaganda, though who can blame him at this point? The rest of us are sitting at 50 percent or lower.

    Here are the current standings, with last week's record in parentheses.

    • 35-23 (60%) Juco (5-5)
    • 29-29 (50%) Jeff (2-8)
    • 28-30 (48%) Borkey (5-5), Gray (5-5) and Will (5-5)
    • 27-31 (46%) Alex (6-4) and Ghost (4-6)
    • 26-32 (45%) Smeargle (4-6)
    • 25-33 (43%) Whiskey (5-5) and Zach (4-6)
    • 21-37 (36%) TwoYards (4-6)
    Who ya got? What's your lock of the week? Does Ole Miss have a chance to cover? See y'all back at the Vaught!