Betting Trends for College Football National Championship
Scott Morris | January 8, 2017
One team will be crowned the college football national champion after winning the 2017 College Football Playoff Championship game on Monday, when the Alabama Crimson Tide meet the Clemson Tigers in a rematch of last year’s championship game.
Alabama enters this game as 6.5-point chalk with an overall record of 13-0. Clemson is 12-1 with its only loss to Pittsburgh by just one point.
Alabama was the preseason AP favorite to win the national title.
Preseason No. 1 ranked, undefeated teams are 3-7 SU as well as ATS in bowl games they have participated in dating back 37 seasons, including a win by Alabama over Washington this season in the Peach Bowl.
In BCS championship games and the first two seasons of CFP title games, teams that were undefeated were 10-10 straight up and against the spread since 1999, the first year of the BCS.
However, unbeaten teams are just 1-2 SU while 0-3 ATS when playing an opponent coming off consecutive wins SU and ATS.
Three teams have entered the national title games off SU wins as an underdog the previous game, with all three winning the national title.
Alabama is 12-3 SU versus opponents from the ACC dating back 37 seasons, with 10 of its 12 victories by 10 points or more.
The SEC has a bowl record for this season of 5-6 SU and ATS, while the ACC bowl record this year is 8-3 SU and 9-2 ATS. This bowl season the SEC is 0-2 SU and ATS versus teams from the ACC.
Clemson over its past sixteen games versus opponents from the SEC is just 3-13 SU but has covered the number in 8 of 11 games as a dog of over 3 points in those same games.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban has a record of 44-5 SU in games that the Crimson Tide is ranked No. 1. Saban is also 88-15 SU while 59-39 ATS in games that his team is undefeated.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney versus undefeated opponents is 10-6 SU and ATS, including covering the number in 6 of 7 when Clemson is the dog.
After all is said and done with trends, head to head battles also count and Alabama is a perfect 13-0 versus Clemson dating back to 1905.
