At this time last week, there was growing momentum behind the Oregon Ducks as a good bet to win the national title.
The Ducks were 9.5-point favorites over the Washington Huskies in the Pac-12 championship, and plenty of sharp bettors thought that if Oregon won that contest, it would have every chance to run the table in the College Football Playoff.
The momentum was so palpable that, according to the Action Network, 71 percent of the dollars wagered on the Pac-12 championship game were on Oregon even though the Huskies were undefeated and already beat the Ducks this season.
So, if the betting market was so confident in the Ducks’ legitimacy as a national title contender a week ago, why does it seem like nobody is talking about the team that beat them for the second time this season?
At the time of writing, Washington is a 4.5-point underdog against Texas and +800 to win the national championship on BetMGM Sportsbook.
There are lookahead lines out for the title game and the Huskies are projected to be a 6-point pooch against Alabama and a 6.5-point underdog against Michigan.
This is not an argument that Washington is the best team remaining in the race for the national championship, but rather trying to figure out why there’s not any momentum building on the Huskies’ behalf.
As a bettor, it’s never a bad thing that a team you fancy is flying under the radar, but it is helpful to try and figure out why.
It’s especially confounding because Washington ticks a lot of the boxes you look for in teams in these playoffs.
They have the best quarterback in the field in Michael Penix Jr., game-breaking skill-position players in RB Dillon Johnson and WR Rome Odunze, and one of the best coaches in the country in Kalen DeBoer.
Perhaps another reason that Washington is not getting much support — at least right now — is that it just played one betting darling and is now about to take on another.
The entire college football universe has been waiting for 14 years for Texas to claw its way back into contention for the title and now that the Longhorns are truly back, there will be a lot of punters out there who will want to be along for the ride.
It’s also likely that bettors just can’t see a Pac-12 team winning the national championship.
The conference has sent just three teams to the College Football Playoff in the competition’s 10-year history and none since the Huskies were dominated, 24-7, by Alabama in 2017.
But the strange thing is that Oregon would have this same baggage had it advanced and everybody seemed to be piling onto the Ducks’ bandwagon up until kickoff against Washington last week.
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Without a dominant team in the field, this year’s College Football Playoff is wide open.
That’s why plenty of punters thought that Oregon was good value as a gatecrasher.
But for some reason, the undefeated team that beat Oregon twice is not getting the same kind of support.
For whatever reason, bettors don’t seem to fancy the Huskies.
Take advantage of that and back Kalen DeBoer’s side to lift the trophy at +800.