College football’s rivalry weekend begins today, but most NCAAF fans and bettors are focused on tomorrow’s matchup between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines, which has the CFP seeding at stake.
Unfortunately for the Big Ten Conference, both Michigan and Ohio State are members of the Eastern Division, meaning they cannot meet for the December 3 championship game.
The victor between the Wolverines and Buckeyes will advance to the Big Ten Championship Game where their opponent will be either the Purdue Boilermakers or the Iowa State Hawkeyes depending on the outcome of their last regular season contests.
Legal college football betting sites favor Ohio State with little more than a touchdown at home in a high-scoring affair.
Michigan Wolverines @ Ohio State Buckeyes
- Michigan Point Spread: +7.5
- Michigan Moneyline: +225
- Ohio State Point Spread: -7.5
- Ohio State Moneyline: -275
- Over/Under: 56.0
In the top 25 of the current College Football Playoffs, the Wolverines sit 3rd and the Buckeyes 2nd, but there’s a chance that both the winner and loser of tomorrow’s game will be included in the final CFP bracket .
The Michigan-OSU winner will most likely find it easy to deal with their Big Ten championship opponent and make the CFP playoffs.
The loser will end the 2022-23 NCAAF regular season with a single loss to a top-four team, giving them a solid shot at a CFP start if everything goes perfectly.
The current College Football Playoff betting odds reflect the CFP rankings for places 1-4. This suggests it will be difficult for any teams outside of the top 4 to compete for a national championship this December and January.
2022-23 NCAA soccer betting futures
- Georgia (#1) -140
- State of Ohio (#2) +250
- Michigan (#3) +1000
- TCU (#4) +1400
- Clemson (#8) +2000
- USC +2500
- LSU (#5) +3500
- Oregon (#9) +6000
A Clemson Tigers team with a loss doesn’t seem like much of a threat to usurp Michigan or Ohio State, even with an ACC championship in hand.
Things get complicated when the LSU Tigers manage to beat the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC championship game as the Southeastern Conference winner has been included in the college football playoffs since its inception in 2014.
If LSU is granted entry into the 2-loss CFP, then a 1-loss Georgia team will almost certainly be one of the last four programs to make the playoffs.
That will weigh on the CFP Selection Committee when it makes its final decisions on December 4 following the conclusion of the Conference Championship Games across the country.
The reason? The Texas Christian University (TCU) Horned Frogs are poised to end the year as the Big 12 champions with an undefeated record.
Sure, TCU doesn’t have a major win against a team from another Power 5 conference, but they beat whoever came before them and that was enough for the committee to grant the Cincinnati Bearcats (Conference USA) a CFP seed ) last year.
Towards the end of the season, there are usually a surprise or two that magically clear the final CFP rankings, but if not, there could be a backlog at the top, letting some good teams down.
College football betting odds from Bovada
Source – CFP Rankings,