No. 12 Ole Miss (5-2, 3-2 SEC) hosts Auburn (4-3, 2-3) at 12:45 p.m. ET on Halloween at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi. Both teams are coming off losses to ranked opponents: Ole Miss fell 34-27 at Texas, while Auburn lost 38-17 to LSU after upsetting then-No. 1 Georgia the previous week.
The Rebels will be without star running back Kewan Lacy, who dislocated his shoulder against Texas, putting more pressure on quarterback Trinidad Chambliss (1,926 passing yards, 16 touchdowns). Auburn's dual-threat quarterback Byrum Brown has accounted for 1,842 total yards. Ole Miss has won the last two meetings, snapping a six-game winning streak by Auburn in the series.
Oddsmakers list Ole Miss as 11.5-point favorites with an over/under of 57.5 points. The Rebels are -455 on the money line (risk $455 to win $100), while Auburn is +350.
The SportsLine Projection Model, which simulates each FBS game 10,000 times, projects the game to go Under 57.5 points, with the Under hitting 52% of the time. The model notes that both teams are statistically better at scoring than defending, but Ole Miss has not scored fewer than 27 points all season. However, with Lacy out, the Rebels become more one-dimensional. Auburn has been held to 17 points or fewer three times in seven games, and only once in five SEC games has the total exceeded 51 points.
The model also indicates one side of the spread hits well over 50% of simulations, though that specific pick is available only at SportsLine. The model enters Week 9 on a 68-59 run on top-rated college football picks, returning nearly $400 for $100 players.
