A day after winning the last BCS National Championship, Florida State has been anointed the favorite to win the first national title of the College Football Playoff era.
The LVH SuperBook opened the Seminoles as 5/2 favorites to win next season’s four-team playoff Tuesday. Oregon and Alabama are next at 5/1.
Auburn is listed at 20/1. Last season, Auburn opened at 1,000-to-1 last season and had some books sweating futures liability until the final seconds of the BCS National Championship Game on Monday.
that was the closest I’ve ever seen 1000/1 straight bets cashing #sportsbetting
— Jeff Sherman (@golfodds) January 7, 2014
After Auburn’s run as an 1,000-to-1 underdog, the LVH kept their biggest long shots at 300/1 this year. The LVH took 14 bets on the Tigers at 1,000/1 and a $500 bet on Auburn at 200/1. The book managed its liability the best it could, said head oddsmaker Ed Salmons, and headed into Monday’s game with the best-case scenario being a Florida State win that failed to cover. That’s called the bookmaker’s dream, and when it happens on the biggest of games, it’s huge.
Some notes about the new College Football Playoff:
—A week after the conference championship games, a selection committee will pick the four best teams, not the most deserving, CFP executive director Bill Hancock emphasized to CBS Sports’ Tony Barnhart.
“That decision was made early on,” Hancock said. “Our committee will be charged with picking the four best teams for the playoffs and the best available teams for the other bowl matchups.”
—There is no limit to how many teams from a conference can go. And, since the committee will pick the four teams they believe are the best, a one-loss team that played a tougher schedule would seem to have advantages over an undefeated team that played a weak schedule. Value will be limited on long-shots from non-power conferences.
The issue with factoring strength-of-schedule heavily is that schedules are made years in advance, and the level of competition of an opponent can be difficult to predict. Should a team be penalized because an opponent it scheduled years ago had a down season?
—There will be 11 days in between next season’s two semifinal games (Thursday, Jan. 1, 2015) and the championship game (Monday, Jan. 12). The championship will continue to be played on Monday nights to avoid a conflict with the NFL.
—The Rose and Sugar bowls will host next season’s semifinal games, with the championship game being played at AT&T Stadium, in Arlington, Texas.
—The committee will release Top 25 rankings multiple times during the regular season. Each one will obviously impact futures odds.
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Odds to win the 2015 College Football Championship Game
(via Las Vegas Hotel & Casino SuperBook)