The 12-team College Football Playoff is new, exciting, and it gives us eight more meaningful games to watch in December.

More games is always a positive, but the quality of them might not be great.

After all, the spreads for all four first-round games are more than a touchdown. Clemson is an 11.5-point underdog against Texas in the 5-12 game!

But you don’t just have to bet on single games within the CFB Playoff. There are plenty of other options to look at.

For example, DraftKings is offering an over/under on wins by all 12 teams in the playoff itself. All four teams with byes (Oregon, Georgia, Arizona State and Boise State) are set at over/under 0.5 playoff wins right now.


That’s a steal for Oregon and Georgia. The Ducks are -130 to win one playoff game, while the Bulldogs are -145 to have a single playoff victory.

You could lock into those spots now without knowing the opponent. Of course, that comes with risk because right now a possibly Carson Beck-less UGA is an underdog in a projected matchup with Notre Dame, but a 6.5-point favorite in a potential showdown with Indiana.

The Oregon win prop might be more valuable because the Ducks already beat Ohio State and are projected to be a touchdown-or-so favorite against Tennessee.

On the other hand, Notre Dame to win over 1.5 games is +160. That’s a better price you’ll get if you pick the Irish to beat Indiana and then UGA.

Penn State’s over 1.5 playoff wins is -205, which is laughable from the perspective that James Franklin can’t win a big game. Sure, the Nittany Lions have a great setup with SMU and then Boise State, but it’s still funny to see them with the lowest odds to win multiple playoff games.

The Nittany Lions are also -250 to not make the National Championship Game, which many will tell you is the hammer lock of the century, because, well, Franklin can’t win the big game.

I would look into the “to make championship game” markets for Oregon and Georgia. It’s worth noting for Georgia that the Bulldogs have one of the two active coaches to win a national title. Kirby Smart and Dabo Swinney are the two. If Dabo takes Clemson on a run, I might refuse to watch any CFB coverage because Dabo’s self-righteous bullshit is one of the most insufferable bits out there.

An Oregon/Georgia final matchup prop sits at +550 on NJ betting apps and PA sports betting apps. I think that’s the most likely final matchup, but Notre Dame can beat UGA, so I would look to sprinkle either ND/Oregon or ND/Texas as the final matchup at +1100 or +1000.

As for the first round itself, Tennessee is probably the only road team that can win because Ohio State looked flawed against Michigan, but I have my doubts about a freshman quarterback winning on the road against a top-10 team.

From a strictly futures perspective, Oregon, UGA and Notre Dame are probably the only teams you can put serious trust in.

Every other playoff participant has some sort of serious flaw, and that might the ideal factor to give us the chaos that the oddsmakers don’t expect to see.