College football betting - Who are the national title favorites?

Yahoo

a day ago

Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz and senior sports betting analyst Ben Fawkes break down the sportsbooks' favorites to win it all this season.
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Video Transcript
The college football season is finally here, and that means we get to talk about national championships.
Ben, who's the favorite right now?
Texas fits, uh, as you would expect, right?
No, this, uh, this hasn't happened in a long time.
Texas is the favorite, plus 500 at Bet MGM.
Ohio State just behind them, plus 525, with Georgia and Penn State at 7 to 1, Oregon and Clemson, the next best odds at 9 to 1.
Uh, Alabama 10 to 1, Notre Dame 12 to 1, and we'll certainly see a lot of movement, right?
Texas plays Ohio State week one.
Ohio State 2.5 to 3 point favorite, depending on the book that you're looking at.
So one's gonna rise a little bit, one will fall a little bit after that first week.
I think Clemson's another fascinating one.
They opened at 30 to 1 at one sportsbook out in Vegas.
They're now down to 12 to 1 there.
One oddsmaker told me it's been kind of an off-season love affair with Clemson.
Another book said his highest liability is on Clemson, so a lot of bets as well for Clemson at a couple different books.
It's amazing how many huge brands you've already named in this, so it's gonna be an exciting year.
Where's the money going right now?
Yeah, a lot of, I, I think even though you have the 12-team college football playoff, bets really only think they're, you know, 4 to 6 teams that really have a realistic chance at winning, right?
They're just, there's kind of the cream of the crop.
And so at Bet MGM, as you would kind of expect, Texas number one in bets, Texas number one in money, Texas, the biggest liability at Bet MGM.
You also have Penn State, though, Ohio State and Clemson as some of those teams with the most bets, and fifth, Notre Dame.
Uh, but for a lot of, you know, I think you always like to measure the liability, right?
What do the sportsbooks stand to lose?
Texas number one liability like.
Like I said, Penn State number two, Clemson three, LSU and Alabama, who you kind of forget, Alabama still, still out there, you know, they've been rising a little bit.
We're 12 to 1 last week, now 10 to 1 at Bet MGM, but Texas is certainly the one that they want to avoid right now, even with those short odds.
Let's go full Dumb and Dumber.
So you're telling me there's a chance.
Like, give me a, give me a long shot that can make a surprise run.
I said, why not South Carolina, right?
This is a quarterback-driven sport, and certainly, Lenora Sellers is a potential Heisman quarterback, Heisman candidate.
We saw him put it together against Clemson last year and had some big performances, and South Carolina, they play seven projected top 21 teams by Bill Connolly's SP+ in their final nine games.
So, in other words, they're gonna have the schedule to prove it.
Whether or not they win enough of those games to make the playoff and make a run is a different question, but they'll have the spotlight, they'll have the schedule, they just need the results.
Just what everybody needed, a Cinderella from the SEC.
It's gonna be a wild season.
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