The Iron Bowl is here, and Alabama football will be playing for its SEC Championship and College Football Playoff life in Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday night.
Georgia clinched a spot in the SEC Championship Game with Texas beating Texas A&M on Friday night. Alabama can join them in Atlanta by beating Auburn.
There will be plenty of motivation on both sides. It's the Iron Bowl after all. It always means more, and records are always thrown out the window. At 5-6, Auburn will look to garner bowl eligibility. More importantly for the Tigers, they can end the Crimson Tide's season.
For Alabama, a win puts them in a position to accomplish their preseason goals. A loss, and Kalen DeBoer's Crimson Tide will have collapsed in November for the second year in a row. DeBoer isn't on the hot seat, and won't be, no matter the outcome, but a second straight year of missing the College Football Playoff will make things a bit uncomfortable in Tuscaloosa.
Betting odds for Alabama vs. Auburn
Odds courtesy of FanDuel as of 9am ET on Saturday.
Spread: Alabama -5.5
Over/Under: 46.5
Moneyline: Alabama -210/Auburn +176
Iron Bowl predictions from the Bama Hammer Team:
We all like Alabama in this game, though we differ on how comfortable the win might be. It's been a decade since the Crimson Tide won a multi-score game in Jordan-Hare Stadium. Alabama's only done that four times in Iron Bowl history: 1999, 2001, 2011, and 2015.
Perhaps too much has been made about the Jordan-Hare voodoo, but there's definitely always been a weird vibe on the Plains that makes these games more hotly contested than they have any business of being.
But one fact remains about the Iron Bowl that often gets forgotten. Usually, the better team wins this game. Alabama is the better team this year, and the Crimson Tide will overcome the haunted house and clinch its spot in Atlanta for next week's SEC Championship Game.
Picks:
John Mitchell: Alabama 21, Auburn 12
Josh Yourish: Alabama 31, Auburn 20
Ron Evans: Alabama 26, Auburn 20
Greg Bosworth: Alabama 27, Auburn 14
Dominic Giacobazzi: Alabama 17, Auburn 14