2018 College Football Playoff Championship Odds And Prediction

ByMike Marteny|

PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 01: Sony Michel

2018 College Football Playoff Championship Odds And Prediction:

We find ourselves at the end of anther college football season. It has been a long and interesting road getting to the national championship game. In the end, it was two SEC teams that will meet for the hardware. Luckily, it is two teams that did not meet during the regular season, which in itself is nearly impossible.

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For those of you that are in favor of expanding the playoffs, don’t be. Appreciate it for what it is. The regular season still had playoff games all season long. Just look at Ohio State vs. Oklahoma. Georgia vs. Notre Dame. Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State. Ohio State vs. Penn State. All of those games were played before the last month of the season, and they all had a significant impact on how things played out.

As for how these teams got here, it took an epic Rose Bowl, and Alabama and Clemson meeting for the rubber match for the third straight year in the playoffs. Alabama took the rubber match with the most lopsided victory of those three games. The Tide did it with defense and more defense.

Oklahoma blew a 17 point lead for, oh, about the fifth time this season. That was a bit upsetting, but things were trending that way anyway. The Sooners had issues stopping Chubb and Michel all game long. The difference was that Georgia made adjustments at the half to counteract the Oklahoma offense.

However, the Sooners were ultimately undone by questionable playcalling in the overtimes. In the first overtime, the defense was gassed, and it was all they could do to hold Georgia to a field goal. You need less than a yard on fourth down. With your defense not being able to get a stop, I think you go for it.

Also, after the first down in the second overtime, the Sooners called a gadget play that had little chance of working and a screen play against maybe the fastest linebackers in the country to put themselves in a third and 15 situation. It was a good third down call, but because of the other two horrible plays, Oklahoma still couldn’t reach the line to gain.

As for the defense on the last play, how in the world do you lose track of Michel? How? If he lines up at the quarterback, you have to react! They did not.

The line for the National Championship game is Alabama -3.5.

Pick:

I am going to put three confidence points on this one. I was impressed with the defense of both teams, but I was impressed by Georgia more because they beat Oklahoma in a game in which Oklahoma dictated the pace of the game. I’m not sure Alabama could have done that. Georgia will enforce their pace on Alabama mostly because the Tide are similarly built on offense.

The defense will decide the game. I was very impressed by the Georgia linebackers against Oklahoma. The poise of Fromm was also very impressive. It was reminiscent of Jalen Hurts just last year! Ultimately, I expect the Georgia backs to win this game for the Bulldogs, but it should be an epic battle!

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Thanks for keeping up with the odds and predictions throughout the season! I will have one final tally of bowl season, and the final tally for 2017. I don’t think I hit my 55% goal, but I should have come very close. It’s not as easy as it looks picking every game!