The Auburn Tigers take on the California Golden Bears. Check out our college football odds series for our Auburn California prediction and pick. Find how to watch Auburn California.

What a scenario this is: Hugh Freeze, formerly the coach of Ole Miss, then the coach of Liberty, returns to the SEC at Auburn and immediately goes to Berkeley, California, for an early-season night game in the last year of the Pac-12 Conference. Auburn at Cal is such an unlikely nonconference matchup, and it's occurring with Hugh Freeze making his return to the SEC in the last year of the Pac-12 Conference's existence. Auburn was able to get in a Pac-12 road trip before the conference died. This is not something which will be replicated anytime soon.

California is a mystery team. The Golden Bears scored 58 points on the road in a win at North Texas last week. Does this mean the Golden Bears are genuinely good and a lot better than expected, or does it mean that North Texas is really, really bad and far worse than we anticipated? We should learn a lot more about Cal in this game against Auburn. We'll probably learn about Auburn as well, but this seems to be more of an indicator of where Cal is in its progression.

Here are the Auburn-California College Football odds, courtesy of FanDuel.

College Football Odds: Auburn-California Odds

Auburn Tigers: -6.5 (-115)

California Golden Bears: +6.5 (-105)

Over: 54.5 (-110)

Under: 54.5 (-110)

How To Watch Auburn vs. California

TV: ESPN

Stream: ESPN Plus

Time: 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT

*Watch Auburn vs California LIVE on fuboTV (click for free trial)*

Why Auburn Could Cover the Spread

Hugh Freeze might not be a coach a lot of fans like, admire, or respect, given his exit from Ole Miss in disagrace and scandal. He won't win any popularity contests. However, when game day arrives and it's time to coach up a group of players, Freeze is really good. He made Ole Miss an elite program when he was there, taking the Rebels to two New Year's Six bowl games and winning one of them. He beat Nick Saban and Alabama multiple times. He develops players and creates a physical identity with his teams. This wasn't just an Ole Miss achievement for Freeze; he did this at Liberty. Now he gets to do this at Auburn. Freeze is a dramatically better coach than Cal boss Justin Wilcox. We can slice and dice these rosters in many ways and on a lot of levels, but the coaching mismatch is by far the biggest reason to expect that Auburn will cover the spread.

Why California Could Cover the Spread

The Golden Bears might have an offense. They put 58 on the board last week at North Texas. Many will say, reasonably enough, that “it's only North Texas, don't get too hyped about this.” However, no one was expecting Cal to be that productive on offense. No one thought Cal would score anywhere close to 58 points in Denton, Texas, in an unfamiliar environment in a season opener. Usually, it takes some time for a new quarterback and offense to come together, but Cal made all the pieces fit in Week 1. If that's the case, Cal should be able to score against an Auburn defense which faces a lot of questions heading into Week 2.

Final Auburn-California Prediction & Pick

The coaching mismatch — Freeze over Wilcox — is impossible to ignore. Take Auburn.

Final Auburn-California Prediction & Pick: Auburn -6.5