NCAA Football Predictions: Week 6 Opening Line Report and Picks

We have had our first Power 5 conference firing of the season, and it's not very surprising that it was Rutgers giving Chris Ash the pink slip. The Scarlet Knights, quite possibly the worst athletic program in the Power 5, were beaten 52-0 by Michigan on Saturday. It was their 14th straight loss in the Big Ten and Ash was 3-26 in conference play during his tenure. Remind me again why the Big Ten invited this school? Oh yeah, the New York market. I lived in Manhattan for a while and I can assure you that few people in NYC care about Rutgers.

Don't feel too sorry for Ash as he gets $8.47 million not to coach. Tight ends coach Nunzio Campanile will serve as the interim head coach for the remainder of 2019. The leading candidate to be the next full-time guy is former Rutgers coach Greg Schiano. The Knights opened as 15-point home underdogs this week against Maryland.

No athletic director likes to be the first guy to fire a coach. However, now that Rutgers has done the deed, don't be surprised if a few more guys are axed in the next few weeks. Tennessee, for example, with Jeremy Pruitt if the Vols are wiped out by Georgia on Saturday. The Dawgs are 25.5-point road favorites.

Here are a few Week 6 opening lines that caught my eye. Games Saturday unless noted. Picks are ATS.

No. 7 Auburn at No. 10 Florida (+2.5): Good luck convincing me that any school in the country has a tougher schedule this year than Auburn. The Tigers already own a neutral-site win over then-No. 11 Oregon and a victory two weeks ago at then-No. 17 Texas A&M. This game in Gainesville starts a run of three straight on the road, which concludes at No. 5 LSU. Auburn still has to host No. 3 Georgia and No. 1 Alabama. So in theory, the Tigers could lose this game and would make the College Football Playoff by winning out, including the SEC title game, with that crazy-hard schedule. Florida, meanwhile, hasn't played a ranked team yet, but this starts a tough four-game stretch that's followed by a trip to LSU, at South Carolina and vs. No. 3 Georgia in Jacksonville. This is the first meeting between Auburn and Florida since 2011 and the first time they meet both ranked since 2006. Florida is 9-8 all-time in the series when both are in the Top 25. Pick: Gators.

More: Guy Picks the Auburn vs. Florida ATS Winner

Cal at No. 13 Oregon (-15.5): Huge game in the Pac-12 North. Cal's Justin Wilcox has to be an early candidate for National Coach of the Year with what he's doing in Berkeley even though the Bears lost at home to Arizona State in Week 5. We somewhat saw this program improving when it went from 5-7 in Wilcox's first season to 7-6 last year. Wilcox is a defensive guru, but we weren't sure this team would have enough offense to contend in the North; Cal was picked to finish ahead of only Oregon State. If the Bears do pull the upset here, they will be in command of the North because they already own a victory at Washington. Not really sure what Oregon is - the Ducks should have won their opener against Auburn but blew it late and haven't been challenged in three games since against meh/bad opponents. Huge break here with Oregon off a bye week. Justin Herbert is proving himself worth of potentially being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft by completing 74.4 percent of his passes for 1,127 yards, 14 touchdowns and no interceptions. Oregon has won nine of the past 10 in this series, including 42-24 last year. Herbert threw for 225 yards and two scores. Pick: Cal.

More: Guy picks the Cal vs. Oregon ATS Winner

No. 25 Michigan State at No. 4 Ohio State (-19.5): The ABC prime-time game. It starts a season-defining stretch for Michigan State with games vs. Wisconsin, Penn State and Michigan upcoming. Sparty perhaps was looking ahead to this one a bit this past Saturday as they escaped at home vs. Indiana 40-31. Misleading score because MSU hit the game-winning field goal with five seconds left and then scored on the ensuing kickoff when the Hoosiers were trying some gimmicky stuff. I honestly thought OSU would be tested at Nebraska but was dead wrong as the Nuts rolled 48-7. Since a 17-14 upset of No. 2 Ohio State in Columbus in 2015, the Spartans have lost three straight in the series and have managed just nine combined points in being routed the previous two. Pick: MSU.

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