Clearly, Ohio State is the favorite to win the College Football Playoffs this year; very few people debate that and those that do are probably biased. However, if you are betting on football, you know that Ohio State has very poor odds from a victory perspective. Therefore, it is important to identify sleepers to pick if you want a big payout.
UCLA is trending up right now but you can still get good odds on them and they are a true contender that was way undervalued at the beginning of the season. True freshman QB Josh Rosen looks great so far and appears to actually be an upgrade over Hundley last year. Paul Perkins is one of the elite running backs in the country both carrying the ball and catching passes out of the backfield. Jordan Payton is an underrated receiver on the outside and a true big play threat. Defensively, Myles Jack is an elite outside linebacker with tremendous closing speed and power on contact. He also doubles as a change of pace running back. Additionally, while the Pac-12 is a good conference, it does not appear quite as good as everyone thought. Oregon will take a step back this year as we’ve already seen. Arizona State is lacking a running game and their defense struggled in the second half against Texas A&M. UCLA could rip through the conference and find themselves in the playoffs.
All the attention in ACC is on Clemson and Florida State. Clemson is dealing with their #1 wideout having a severe head injury currently and unfortunately it is probably a matter of time that elite QB DeSean Watson joins him on the sidelines (Watson runs often and doesn’t do a good job of avoiding contact. He also has a history of injuries now). Florida State’s transfer QB Golston is a turnover machine and that will not change. With these teams down it is a great time to jump on Georgia Tech. They have the advantage of being one of very few teams in the country to run a triple option offense meaning every other team must prepare for it in a week. They also have been waiting to break through for a few years now and almost knocked off Florida State in the ACC Championships last year.
If you’re looking for a deeper sleeper, Oklahoma is the way to go. Baker Mayfield had a quirky game against Tennessee – awful for a while but then incredible when it mattered. He also showed great running ability and avoided numerous sacks in the game by himself. He actually looks like a young Tim Tebow out there. Perine is one of the elite backs in the country as we saw last year. Sterling Shepard is an elite deep play threat at wideout. Bob Stoops gets a lot of (deserved) criticism for his inability to win big game recently but with Oklahoma as an under the radar team for now, it will allow them to play with no pressure. Stoops has also traditionally had success with teams that flew under the radar to start the season. Oklahoma, Georgia Tech, and UCLA are great teams to target for college football betting.