The College Football Playoffs are in need of a champion. Will the Miami Hurricanes continue their journey to a national title? There are plenty of opinions both from pundits and those who are willing to put money where their mouths are. Ultimately, it comes down to what Mario Cristobal and his staff can put together and how the players deliver. So far, so good.
Instead of jumping right into the money pit let’s look at what Stats Perform, the world leader in sports AI who provides predictions for teams, broadcasters and more. They cover international soccer, the NFL, NCAA football, pro basketball, the NHL, MLB, Golf, Rugby and more. As a side note, just in case you were interested they predict that the Broncos have the best shot at winning the Super Bowl followed closely by the Eagles. Now, on to the meat of this story.
Which of the four teams in the CFP have the best shot at getting into the championship? Miami has the highest percentage among Indiana, Oregon and Ole Miss coming in at 67.2. Indiana is next at 62.1, Oregon at 37.9 and Ole Miss at 32.8. Hurry, hurry, tell us who is the expected national champion? Not so fast.
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Let’s look at the other odds that are out there and some of the punditry as well. Among the four teams in contention only Miami has won a national title going back to the BCS era and that was in 2001. And now folks, we have this thing called ‘parity’ and the field has been leveled. It’s a new era in college football and one we should all get used to moving forward.
It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to find that Indiana is the team that a majority of pundits and oddsmakers are pointing to as the likely CFP Champion. The Opta Analyst prediction (powered by Stats Perform) has Indiana at 53.2, Oregon at 28.5, Miami at 14.3 and Ole Miss at 4.0 when projecting the winner. Now, a portion of this doesn’t make sense and I’m sure it doesn’t need to be pointed out to you. Don’t worry, this site may have some minor question marks but they’re certainly closer in many areas than one might expect.
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How about the folks with the bag? You know, the people putting down big money on football bets. What do they have to say? Well, far from perfect they’re still eating crow over having Ohio State the top pick but we all know how betting on sports works. Now, it’s Indiana. We take a look at VegasInsider.com as they provide numbers from among others MGM, DraftKings, FanDuel, bet365 and many more. It’s easier to see where the movement is when you visit a smorgasbord.
The spread has Miami opening at -3 against Ole Miss and Indiana opening at -4 against Oregon. The total over/under for the first game is 51.5 and 47.5 for the second. An interesting side-note, the top five opening tickets at MGM were Ohio State, Georgia, Texas Tech, Indiana and Alabama. A customer in June placed $300,000 on Texas, $200,000 on Penn State and $115,000 on Clemson according to BetMGM trading manager Seamus Magee. Easy come, easy go.
So which of these four teams will move forward? Defense is the key but of course, if you aren’t being strategic on offense then you can close the book. In the semifinals who has the goods? When it comes to the football championship there is a wavering choice in Indiana. Hoosier fans, obviously can commit but there’s enough uncertainty in broader terms that when you bring the likes of Miami into the discussion you see a thrilling game in the making.
Being that we’re ‘ACC Nation’ we’ll be a bit ‘homerish’ here and say that Miami is bringing home the bacon. We’ve watched football (including other conferences) all season and it’s been a great year. Overall, It looks and feels like a Canes championship in the making to us and to others as well.
