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ESPN’s matchup predictor isn’t being kind to the No. 6 team in the land, mostly because that team, Florida, is heading to the Plains to face the No. 1 team in the land, Auburn, on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers are 21-1 overall and a perfect 9-0 despite playing in the SEC, which has been by far the best conference in the country this season. That lone loss of the season at No. 2 Duke is a distant memory and so is Johni Broome’s injury, as the Auburn star has recovered from an ankle injury that sidelined him for a few weeks and is doing major damage again.
Auburn won its 14th game in a row in Tuesday night’s 98-70 home destruction of Oklahoma, as Broome and Chad Baker-Mazara scored 15 points each to keep the Tigers perfect in SEC play.
Florida, which is 19-3 overall and 6-3 in the SEC, is coming off a bounce-back home victory over Vanderbilt on Tuesday that followed a 20-point loss at Tennessee last Saturday. The Gators won without leading scorer Walter Clayton Jr., who was out with a sprained ankle. Clayton’s availability for the Auburn game will obviously go a long way in whether Florida can pull off the upset against the top-ranked team in the country.
ESPN’s matchup predictor likes Auburn’s chances to win Saturday regardless, giving the Tigers a robust 82.1% chance to stay undefeated in the SEC.
The Tigers and Gators will tip things off at 4 p.m. ET, with the game on ESPN2.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
