The Crimson Tide enter the college football postseason as the favorites to win the national championship, according to Bovada. Alabama sits at 11-1 overall this season and will face Florida in the SEC title game on Saturday. A win in Atlanta should clinch a spot in the final four for the Crimson Tide. However, as fans know, a spot in the final four means nothing if you cannot get two wins once you get there.
Alabama is currently a +110 favorite* in the national title race according to the sports betting website. Oklahoma sits just behind them at +250 while the nation’s top ranked team, Clemson, sits in third at +550. The Crimson Tide have consistently impressed the people in Las Vegas, especially after the Crimson Tide’s streak of being a favorite was snapped in a game that they won by 28.
If Alabama, a 17-point favorite, can pull off a win against Florida, the Crimson Tide could be put in the midst of chaos at the top of the College Football Playoff Rankings. These lines are sure to change before the final rankings are released but for now there are still eight teams listed as being in the hunt for a national championship.
Following Clemson are the three Big Ten schools that still have a shot at getting into the playoff. The winner of the conference championship game between Michigan State (+900) and Iowa (+1600) should be safely into the playoff as a three seed at the lowest. Ohio State’s only loss is to the Spartans this season so the Buckeyes (+1600) could still sneak in if Michigan State wins and North Carolina can upset Clemson in the ACC title game. The Tar Heels are sitting in seventh at +2000 while 2-loss Stanford sits in eighth at +3300 with a Pac-12 Championship game left to be played.
Bovada also has the odds posted for the Heisman Trophy, which will be given out in New York on December 12. Crimson Tide running back Derrick Henry currently sits as a -300 favorite and currently leads the country with 1,797 rushing yards and 22 rushing touchdowns. The odds makers have four other running backs listed behind Henry and two quarterbacks.
LSU running back Leonard Fournette still sits at second in the country in rushing yards and third in rushing touchdowns but Bovada has him listed at seventh as a +3300 underdog for the trophy. Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey (+1200), Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliot (+1200) and Florida State’s Dalvin Cook (+2000) all sit ahead of the early-season favorite. The two quarterbacks now listed are Clemson’s Deshaun Watson (+500) and Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield (+1800). Henry is joined by Watson and McCaffrey as the only three players to get a final chance to impress the voters in a conference championship game.
Caleb Turrentine is a contributor at Touchdown Alabama Magazine. Follow him on Twitter, @CalebTurrentine.
*For those who are not too sure how the betting lines work, I’ll try to give a quick explanation. With the Crimson Tide being a +110 favorite, that means that for every $1 you bet, you could profit $1.10. So for Ohio State being at +1600, you could profit $16 for every $1 you bet. With Henry being a -300 favorite for the Heisman, you would only profit a third of whatever you bet if he won the trophy. If you put $1 on Henry, you would profit 33 cents and end with $1.33.
