Alabama -7 and 52.5
What do you like and why?
The dog has covered the last two, in the Championship.
Dabo playing his alma mater. Nick w/outgoing DC Smart and OC Kiffin and Tide a bit under-valued, both teams did well on the road and both teams have speed and size at key skill sets and I like the coolness of Watson and Coker gets better every game it seems.
Books have this number right on.
Sag has Alabama @ A = 100.48 and 2 Clemson A = 95.36, no home field edge here. So Bama should have been at a minimum a 5 pt fav. My other ratings I use have Bama as a 2 pt fav without any home field edge.
Bama is 1-1 vs Top 10 this year, Clemson is 1-0 vs Top 10.
Bama has the Heisman and Last 3 Heisman games, the Heisman winner's team has lost or not covered. Mariota last year year.
Strength of schedules are about as close as most championship games. Bama's only loss vs Ole Piss. Clemson's biggest challengers this year, ND and Fla St along with UNC. If Bama were playing ND, Fla St or UNC they would have been double digit favs or more.
Turnovers are the key and Bama has a 10 T/O edge over Clemson.
Special Teams edge to Bama.
Coaches having been there, Bama has the edge.
Clemson with an 18 pt margin of victory and Bama with a 21 pt margin of victory.
Throw out the conferences they're in, but you can argue that ACC has stunk in the Bowls, NC State, UNC, Fla St all losers, only Duke won in OT vs Indiana Hoosier-daddies.
Bama with a solid kicker and front 7 as well as backers, I love Ragland.
Clemson has one solid backer in the Bosworth wannabe.
Bama allowing just 2.3 yds per carry on "D" and Clemson 3.6. That's huge. We all know that Dabo will key on Henry, which may open the aerial game for Bama and if does, Bama's WRs might be better overall than when Cooper played last season.
Dabo's theme is bring your own Guts and I know he'll have his team fired up but right now on paper, this is a coin flip for me and I'll probably be playing only the total and ML.
This game will be played in Phoenix where doggies have ruled in the past and also the total has hedged over the number, mostly in the Fiesta Bowl games.
I'll be jumping on Bama if this line drops to -6, right now it's -7 most casino's and off-shores, some 6 1/2's out there, 5 Dimes has 7 1/2.
Total opened at 53, it's at 51 to 52 1/2. My # for this one was 53 so Vegas had it pegged. Margin of error is 3 pts either direction so not much wiggle room.
GL on what ya play, a teaser might have to be in order and I'm not pressured on picking this one just yet.
Just giving my 3 1/2 cents worth for food for thought.
It's been a long time since Danny Ford's team won the Nat'l championship over Woody Hayes and I love underdogs but this one is right on the money on side and total, so let the line move a bit to pounce.