If you’re looking to predict which team will win this year’s College Football Playoff, you probably shouldn’t get too creative with your pick because the latest odds suggest only three teams really even have a chance.
FanDuel is currently offering an eye-popping prop bet that truly highlights the lopsided talent disparity and lack of parity in college football right now. The prop allows betters to wager on the blueblood trio of the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Georgia Bulldogs, or the Ohio State Buckeyes to win the national title at -340 odds, or any other team at +280 odds.
Put differently, if you bet $100 that either Alabama, Georgia, or Ohio State win the national title, you would win just $29.41. Meanwhile, if you bet $100 on the field to win the national title, you would win $280.
These odds suggest that there’s a 77.27% chance either of those three perennial powerhouse teams will win this year’s title while there’s only a 22.73% that any of the 127 other FBS teams will take the crown instead.
As wild as these odds are, they make sense. As Connor O’Gara at Saturday Down South explains, these three teams are just hoarding talent.
In 2021, (Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State) accounted for 49 of the 125 (39%) FBS players who entered college as 5-star recruits. They ranked 1-3 in 247sports talent composite last year … and the year before that … and the year before that … and the year before that. The last time 1 of those teams failed to crack the top 3 in the talent composite rankings was 2017 when No. 3 USC barely snuck in past No. 4 Georgia, which still went on to play for a national title.
So while we anxiously await the start of another college football season, you probably don’t have to wait all that long to figure out who’s going to be playing for the national title in January – at least if you’re honest with yourself.
