Powered by:
Morning Coffee: Battle of undefeated teams in National Championship Game
Published
The College Football Playoff National Championship is set to be decided tonight on TSN.
No. 1 Michigan is currently a 4.5-point favourite versus No. 2 Washington at FanDuel.
Both teams are undefeated entering tonight’s finale.
It will be just the third meeting in NCAA history between a pair of teams that are both 14-0 or better.
The winner will become just the sixth team in NCAA football history to go 15-0 or better in a season.
In the first five years of the College Football Playoff, the betting underdogs went 3-2 straight up and 5-0 against the spread in the national championship.
Since then, the betting favourite has won and covered the spread in four straight championship games.
The Huskies are in familiar territory as an underdog once again on the biggest stage.
After an upset win over Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinal, Washington is just one victory away from completing an improbable championship run.
This is the Morning Coffee for Monday, Jan. 8, 2024.
Undefeated teams battle in CFP National Championship
While tonight’s showdown will feature a battle of undefeated teams, only one of them was expected to be able to make it this far.
The Huskies could be found as high as 25-to-1 to win the national championship at FanDuel entering the conference championship weekend.
Washington upset Oregon as a +285 moneyline underdog in the Pac-12 Championship to clinch a berth in the College Football Playoff.
Exactly one month later, the Huskies upset Texas as a +132 moneyline underdog in their College Football Playoff semifinal to reach the national championship.
Washington is 5-0 straight up as a betting underdog since head coach Kalen DeBoer took over in 2022.
That’s the second-longest win streak as an underdog to begin a head coach’s tenure with a Power-5 program dating back to the FBS/FCS split in 1978.
Urban Meyer won his first seven games as an underdog at Ohio State.
Dating back to the 2019 season, the betting favourites have gone a combined 11-3 in the College Football Playoff.
For as impressive as the Huskies have looked all season, this will undoubtedly be their toughest test so far.
In terms of the total, it’s worth noting that the over is 6-2-1 in the College Football Playoff National Championship.
The over is also 5-2 in Michigan’s games against ranked opponents this season.
While we haven’t seen any significant movement on the spread, the total did tick up from 55.5 to 56.5 at FanDuel late last week.
Regardless of which team comes out on top, we could be in store for some fireworks in the National Championship.
NFL playoff field set
The Buffalo Bills didn’t clinch a playoff spot until the final day of the NFL regular season.
Despite that, only two teams have shorter odds than Buffalo to win the Super Bowl at FanDuel this morning.
The San Francisco 49ers are the obvious Super Bowl favourite at +230. The Baltimore Ravens are the second choice at +350.
Both of those teams will enjoy a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs in their respective conferences.
After that, it’s the Bills in the No. 3 spot at +650 to win the Super Bowl.
Buffalo, which could have been found as high as 14-to-1 to win the AFC East at FanDuel in early December, clinched the No. 2 seed in the AFC and a division title with last night’s win over the Miami Dolphins.
The Bills have looked as good as any team in the league over the past five weeks.
It will be very interesting to see whether they can ride the momentum of a strong finish and make a deep postseason run.
Meanwhile, the Dallas Cowboys are down from +850 to +750 as the fourth choice to win the Super Bowl at FanDuel, just in front of the Kansas City Chiefs at +900.
After stumbling into the playoffs, the Philadelphia Eagles went from +1100 to +1400 to win it all at FanDuel. The Miami Dolphins jumped from +1300 to +1600.
We celebrated a winner on the first FanDuel Best Bet of 2024 with the Bills moneyline against the Dolphins on Sunday Night Football.
While I’m tempted to give an early lean for the NFL Super Wild Card Weekend in this column, I’m going to spend a little more time dissecting the matchups before I give out a pick for this column.
I’ll see you back here on Tuesday morning.