Alabama is a 13½-point favorite over Cincinnati in Friday’s CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl, and Georgia is a 7½-point favorite over Michigan at the Orange Bowl.
Betting
The Houston Texans’ upset helped Las Vegas sportsbooks to a small winning day despite the fact that double-digit favorites went 4-1 ATS and favorites went 7-4 ATS overall.
BetMGM and Caesars each reported a seven-figure loss, the SuperBook reported a six-figure loss and Station Casinos also reported a big losing day capped by the Packers’ 45-30 win and cover over the Bears on “Sunday Night Football.”
Based on a parlay of each team’s conference futures at BetMGM — where the Bucs are +210 favorites to win the NFC and the Pats are the +450 third pick to win the AFC — the odds are 16-1 that the matchup happens.
In the first seven weeks of the season, there were only two outright upsets by underdogs of seven points or more. But there have been nine such upsets in the last four weeks.
Underdogs went 9-3 ATS with seven outright wins, including upsets by the Jaguars (+16) over the Bills and Broncos (+10) over the Cowboys.
NFL Sunday on Halloween was a veritable house of horrors for bettors as the books won big to snap a rare losing streak. BetMGM reported close to a multimillion-dollar win.
Caesars Sportsbook and BetMGM each reported multimillion-dollar losses, and the South Point, Station Casinos and Westgate SuperBook also suffered their worst losing day of the season.
Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale bet $3.35 million in June to win $35.6 million on the Astros to win the World Series.
The Raiders are arguably the most surprising 2-0 team after traveling across the country on a short week and beating the Steelers 26-17 on Sunday as 5½-point underdogs.
New Orleans, which whipped Green Bay 38-3, delivered the biggest win on a monster day for the books as underdogs went 10-3 ATS with eight outright upsets entering Sunday night.
The first round of the NFL draft hasn’t seen six quarterbacks selected since the famed quarterback class of 1983, which produced John Elway, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly.
In a span of 11 days that began Thursday, fans and bettors can feast their eyes on a smorgasbord of baseball, the Final Four and NCAA championship and the Masters.
If a bettor had placed a $100 money line wager on Oregon State and kept rolling it over during its six-game winning streak, the bankroll would be a little more than $250,000.
Sharp bettors and the betting public are banking on Ohio to cover the spread against Virginia, which opened as a 10½-point favorite but is down to -7.