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LSU Tigers vs. Mississippi St. Bulldogs, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
If there's one annual SEC game that gives Kentucky-Florida a run for its money in terms of futility for one of the teams, it's Mississippi State-LSU. And it's not just that the last Bulldogs win in the series came when Gerry DiNardo was patrolling the sidelines for LSU. Though that's certainly a part of it.
The other part of it is that, since 2000, no annual SEC game except Kentucky-Florida has a larger average margin of victory than Mississippi State-LSU. (And the margins aren't as far apart as you might think. LSU's average against the Bulldogs is 25.2; Florida's against Kentucky is 26.1.) And since only one team has won all of those games, all of those margins of victory have gone the same way. LSU isn't just consistently winning this series; it's dominating it.
Which is why this game almost doesn't seem fair most years, but particularly this year. LSU is likely angry after losing its first game of the year in heartbreaking fashion, and while intangibles can't really affect the outcome of a game that much, anything that makes the favorite sharper is one more reason to pick against the upset. Add to that the fact that I think Dan Mullen made a mistake in choose Tyler Russell over Dak Prescott, and it's a recipe for a pretty ugly game.
LSU 34, Mississippi State 17