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College football never stops.
During Monday’s game, we were crowning one national champion, an elite quarterback decided to announce his transfer, and another school decided to bring the run and shoot offense to the PAC-12. So let’s starting looking ahead to next year!
It’s just 228 days until Week 0 (Notre Dame at Navy in Dublin, Hawai’i vs. Arizona in Tuscon), and DraftKings Sportsbook has posted odds for the 2020-2021 National Championship.
Clemson +250
Ohio State +250
LSU +600
Alabama +700
Georgia +800
Notre Dame +2500
Florida +3300
Oklahoma +5000
Penn State +5000
Texas +5000
Wisconsin +5000
Auburn +6600
Iowa +6600
Michigan +6600
Texas A&M +6600
USC +6600
Washington +8000
Iowa State +10000
Nebraska +10000
Oregon +10000
Field +2000
The chalk sees two elite quarterbacks in Ohio State’s Justin Fields and Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence returning, and those two teams should have the inside track. OSU should be nice and angry about some of the calls that went against them in the semifinal this year, and last night, Clemson finally lost a game for the first time since the 2017 Sugar Bowl. You can do worse than these two, who both have plenty of depth on both sides of the ball despite the thin price being laid.
LSU played a lot of seniors and draft eligible kids last night, but Myles Brennan should slot in nicely as quarterback next year — and somehow, Ja’Marr Chase still has to play amateur football next year despite 221 yards and two TDs in a national championship game.
Looking for value? Penn State has plenty of it at 50-1. Their out-of-conference schedule is so soft you can measure it by thread count, Sean Clifford returns at quarterback, and they get Ohio State and Michigan State at home. If they can stun tOSU, they might cruise to the Final Four where your hedging can begin.
And don’t count out Texas at that +5000 price either either, who plays in the Big 12, which means they play no one overwhelmingly good at football. Sam Ehlinger has announced he’ll be back in Austin, and Tom Herman has started to make up the talent gap exacerbated under Charlie Strong. Plus, the committee likely won’t hold it against them if they get fillet’ed in Baton Rouge Week 2 next year.
USC has five-stars all over the place, the brand that will get recognition beyond accomplishment, and actually TWO quarterbacks that have shown they can play in JT Daniels and Kedon Slovis. If Clay Helton can keep it together and win the Pac-12, that 66-1 will seem quite juicy for a team entering the tournament, even as a #3 or #4 seed.
Otherwise... Michigan gets the Buckeyes on the road, Florida doesn’t have a quarterback (yet... but we bet Dan Mullen is refreshing the portal as we speak), Georgia still can’t score, Notre Dame remains a farce against elite teams... who else can crack this top line?
It’s too soon to tell. But get that value down now before one good Spring Game gets all the alums of your favorite school taking shots and buying the price down.
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