The Ohio State Buckeyes march towards the College Football Playoff continued with a 34-0 blowout win over Wisconsin.
Now the Buckeyes get an extra week to prepare with a game that many expected would be their biggest test of the season versus Penn State next Saturday.
Instead, the Nittany Lions have stumbled through four straight losses and the dismissal of head coach James Franklin as one of the season’s biggest disappointments.
As if things weren’t bad enough already, Penn State will visit No. 1 Ohio State next Saturday and then host No. 2 Indiana the following weekend.
The Buckeyes are up to -17.5 for their clash with the Nittany Lions at FanDuel.
Ohio State remains the obvious favourite to repeat as College Football Playoff national champions at +250.
Three of the top four choices to win the FBS title at FanDuel reside in the Big Ten in the Buckeyes, Hoosiers, and Oregon Ducks.
Then there’s the SEC favourite Alabama.
The Crimson Tide were largely cast aside following a Week 1 loss to Florida State.
However, Alabama hasn’t lost another game since, reeling off six straight wins to improve to 6-1.
That impressive stretch includes four straight wins over ranked opponents in Georgia, Vanderbilt, Missouri, and Tennessee.
Alabama to win the FBS Championship is down to +650 as the second choice at FanDuel behind Ohio State.
The Tide are an 11.5-point favourite for this Saturday’s game at South Carolina, which you can watch on TSN2.
No team has been a road favourite more often than Alabama over the last five seasons.
However, the Tide are just 5-11 against the spread as a road favourite of 10 or more points since 2021.
That’s the second-worst mark in the entire FBS.
Is Alabama a legitimate championship contender?
I’m hesitant to crown them just yet, but their offence should continue to roll in this week’s SEC showdown against the Gamecocks.
The Tide have scored on 48 per cent of their offensive drives since that Week 1 loss to Florida State – the fifth-best mark in the entire FBS.
Alabama has scored points on 61 per cent of its drives.
The rushing attack stalled in last week’s win over Tennessee, but quarterback Ty Simpson took that opportunity to throw for 253 yards and two scores.
Simpson is now a co-favourite to win the Heisman Trophy at +330 at FanDuel, along with Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
While the Gamecocks have held John Mateer, Cutter Boley, Beau Pribula, and Diego Pavia under 180 passing yards, LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier threw for 254 yards against South Carolina a couple of weeks ago.
Simpson is playing the best football of any of those quarterbacks right now, but his passing yards prop over/under for Saturday’s game is up to 265.5 at FanDuel.
The biggest weakness for the Gamecocks is a run defence that just gave up 171 rushing yards to Oklahoma.
As good as Simpson has looked this season, I think Alabama leans a little more on its rushing attack against a defence that can be beat on the ground this Saturday.
I’ll lock in a Same Game Parlay with Crimson Tide running back Jam Miller to record 50+ rushing yards and Alabama to win outright at -120 odds.
Miller registered at least 85 rushing yards in back-to-back wins over Vanderbilt and Missouri.
While he sustained a concussion in the victory over the Tigers, he got 12 carries in last week’s win over the Vols.
Miller was held to 15 rushing yards on 1.3 yards per carry, so he should be motivated to bounce back with a better performance before Alabama’s bye week.
Give me a builder SGP with Miller 50+ rushing and the Tide to win outright as a FanDuel Best Bet for Saturday.
Hopefully, Alabama continues to roll in Week 9.
