No. 18 LSU heads to Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday as a road favorite against an Auburn team coming off a huge upset. Here is where the betting market stands, according to ESPN.
The ESPN lines
ESPN’s FPI gives LSU a 71% chance to win the game outright and projects a win by 7.7 points. That makes the Tigers clear favorites, but it still leaves Auburn with about a 3-in-10 chance, which is far from nothing. LSU enters at 5-2, while Auburn is 4-2, and the Auburn Tigers just beat No. 1 Georgia as a 20 point underdog. Kickoff at Jordan-Hare is at 11 a.m. CT on ABC.
The matchup
LSU also comes into the game with an 8 game SEC road losing streak. The game could be much closer than anticipated as Auburn’s confidence is high after their win last week at Georgia. Despite that win, the Tigers remained unranked and Georgia only fell 4 spots.
LSU’s season has been up and down, but their two losses have been on the road against SEC rivals within one score. The Tigers lost 32-24 to Ole Miss as a 2.5 point favorite and 35-34 at Kentucky as a 9.5 point favorite, but all of their wins have been blowouts. The most recent was a 31-0 shutout of No. 16 Mississippi State in Tiger Stadium.
There’s also familiarity among coaches. Auburn defensive coordinator DJ Durkin ran Kiffin’s defense at Ole Miss in 2020 and 2021, so he knows how Kiffin thinks.
ESPN’s odds show LSU as a clear winner but not an overwhelming favorite. Jordan-Hare has a history of producing weird results, and Auburn just proved it can beat a top team. Kickoff is Saturday, October 24th.
— Eric Palmer, TigerSources