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The 2018 college football season is getting ready to kick off another run towards this year’s national championship starting with the four-team field for the College Football Playoff. When it comes to betting on which four teams will make this year’s field, 5Dimes has you covered with betting odds for each of the top teams in each of the five major conferences.
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Top Bets for the 2018 College Football Playoff<br />
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Betting on one team to win the 2018 National Championship in college football can be a tough ticket to cash given all the variables that go into the equation. A viable alternative to picking the outright winner is betting on a team’s chances to make it into the field of four for the 2018 College Football Playoff. Here is a look at a few of my top-valued plays as you work your way down the list.
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2018 College Football Playoff- Top-Valued Favorite<br />
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The defending National Champion Alabama Crimson Tide are +190 favorites to defend that title successfully and their odds to make it into the playoff are also at the top of the list at -300. Playing in the SEC adds some risk to the equation for either bet no matter how good the Tide is this season.
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The second-favorite for each of these bets is the ACC Clemson Tigers at +300 to win the national title and at -140 odds to earn a playoff spot. Those numbers are far more attractive given the Tigers’ clear path to the ACC title game. Other than a fluke loss to Syracuse, they cruised to the conference title game in 2017 before hammering Miami 38-3 in the championship to punch their ticket back to the playoff. The talent is there on both sides of the ball to repeat that performance in 2018.
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2018 College Football Playoff- Top-Valued Contender<br />
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The Ohio State Buckeyes have been the talk of the Big Ten during the offseason as +1000 fourth-favorites to win a national title and a +190 favorite to repeat as conference champs. Recent off-field issues in Columbus have turned that talk to the immediate future of Urban Meyer as the team’s head coach.
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I had the Wisconsin Badgers pegged as one of my top teams in the Big Ten before the Buckeyes’ troubles surfaced and I now think there is some tremendous value in their +240 futures odds to win the 2018 Big Ten title along with their +375 prop bet odds to claim one of those four playoff spots. Wisconsin represented the Big Ten's West Division in last year's championship, and it gave the Buckeyes a serious scare in a 27-21 loss as a 3.5-point underdog.
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Behind Heisman hopeful Jonathan Taylor, the Badgers should be able to run the ball up and down the field all season long. As good as their defense was last year as the fourth-best unit in the nation, it could be even better this year.
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2018 College Football Playoff- Top-Valued Longshot<br />
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The Big 12 is the lone major conference in college football that is not broken down into divisions. This can be an advantage for the top contenders chasing down the favorite in the conference title race. Oklahoma is still the top dog heading into this season as a +100 favorite to win the Big 12 again, but the new-look Texas Longhorns appear more than ready for a return to glory as a national power as +300 second-favorites to win the 2018 conference crown.
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It may have been a slow and painful rebuilding process for loyal Longhorns’ fans with their last double-digit winning season coming in 2010, but I really like Texas’s chances to win the Big 12 this season. This also makes the team’s longer +650 odds to earn a playoff spot rather attractive. Texas is going to need quite a few things to go its way to make this a reality, but the value in the odds is definitely there.
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