The No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide finished their season with a record of 13-0 straight up and 8-5 against the spread, earning the top seed in the College Football Playoff. The Crimson Tide will face the only team that doesn’t enter the playoffs undefeated in the No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners in the semifinals.
College Football Playoff semifinal odds: Opening betting lines for Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl
The Alabama Crimson Tide and Clemson Tigers have both been opened as heavy betting favorites at sportsbooks on the College Football Playoff semifinal odds.
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Alabama is a 14-point favorite on the early Orange Bowl odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Before meeting Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, the Crimson Tide had beaten every one of its opponents by at least 22 points. Against Georgia, Alabama needed a fourth-quarter comeback led by Jalen Hurts to secure a 35-28 win.
Oklahoma defeated Texas 39-27 in the Big 12 Championship Game, covering the spread as 9.5-point favorites to break out of an 0-3-1 ATS slump. Kyler Murray has passed for 4,053 yards and 40 touchdowns this season and will give Alabama’s defense its biggest test of the year. The Sooners are 3-0 SU in their last three games against Alabama.
On the early Cotton Bowl odds, the No. 2 Clemson Tigers are an 11.5-point favorite over the No. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Clemson wrapped up a 13-0 SU and 7-6 ATS season in style with a 42-10 win over Pittsburgh in the ACC Championship Game. Since needing a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat Syracuse back on September 29, the Tigers went 6-2 ATS over their last eight games and won all eight of those games by at least 20 points.
With no conference championship in which to play, the Fighting Irish probably needed to be perfect in their 12-game regular season to advance to the playoffs. They succeeded in that goal with a 12-0 SU and 6-5-1 ATS campaign that included impressive wins over Michigan and Syracuse. Notre Dame is 5-0 SU and 4-1 ATS in its last five games against ACC opponents per the OddsShark College Football Database.
The winners of the two semifinals games will meet in the College Football National Championship Game on Monday, January 7 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Alabama is a -240 favorite on the updated national championship odds over Clemson (+275), Notre Dame (+1400) and Oklahoma (+1400).
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