College Football Week 1 Picks: Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Auburn Tigers

The Arkansas Razorbacks are 3-1 against the spread in their last four road games versus the Auburn Tigers, which is important to consider when making your Week 1 college football picks, as the two teams prepare to meet at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 30.

Sports bettors will find that the Razorbacks are 20.5-point road underdogs in the NCAA football odds, with no betting total available in the market.

Let's take a closer look at this Southeastern Conference matchup from a betting perspective, while offering up a prediction along the way.

Gambling stats via Sports Book Review 

Arkansas Razorbacks

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The Arkansas Razorbacks have named junior Brandon Allen as their starting quarterback for the opener, with the signal-caller looking to improve upon his 49.6 completion percentage of a season ago.

Second-year head coach Bret Bielema will likely lean on sophomore running back Alex Collins in this affair. Collins became just the second first-year player in school history to gain over 1,000 yards on the ground in 2013. 

Auburn Tigers

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The Auburn Tigers have won eight consecutive openers at Jordan-Hare Stadium, but the last three have come by a total of 14 points in that situation.

Sports bettors will want to monitor the status of Tigers starting quarterback Nick Marshall, who was cited for possession of a small amount of marijuana earlier this month. He could be given an early-season suspension as a result.

Marshall accounted for 234.2 yards of total offense per game in 2013. 

Prediction

I'm going to recommend that readers back the Arkansas Razorbacks as one of their Week 1 college football picks, as they've covered the number in five of their last seven meetings in Auburn.

Pick: Arkansas Razorbacks +20.5

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