The bookmakers in Vegas may have yanked Georgia-Auburn off the board the minute the feces started getting real in "Camgate," but that hasn't stopped the pundits from making their predictions. And nearly all of them are damning the torpedoes and going full speed ahead with projections of an Auburn win, despite the growing controversy.
With all reports indicating that Cam Newton will start against Georgia, all of Rivals.com's expert pickers are going with the Tigers; Mike Huguenin is confident enough to pick the Tigers by 11. CBSSports.com's panel is also unanimous in favor of Auburn. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's legendarily caustic Jeff Schultz is even more blunt, predicting that the "Dogs go down, and hard" (with Auburn easily mopping up the 8.5-point spread being offered by the few sports books that haven't taken the game down entirely).
When people start offering exact predictions of the final score, though, things start getting pretty interesting, and the general consensus seems to be that a whole lotta points are fixin' to get scored on the Plains this afternoon. CFN says Auburn wins 34-31, though "A.J. Green is going to go nuts, cementing himself as a must-have top ten draft pick when he comes out, and it’ll be another growing up moment for Murray." ESPN.com's SEC blogger, Chris Low, predicts a "track meet" that Auburn will win 38-31. SI.com's Stewart Mandel ups the ante even further, predicting that both teams will cross the 40-point mark but that Cam Newton will pull the Tigers to another close win.
And what sayeth master handicapper Phil Steele? "I think the Bulldogs keep it close until late, but like many times this year Newton and the Auburn offense makes a key play late to move to 11-0." His score projection: Auburn 34, Georgia 31.
Whatever happens, it doesn't look like anyone's going to be leaving the stadium early to get a head-start on the drive home.