Michigan & Alabama the favorites in College Football Playoff
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00:00 the big picture.
00:05 Donny, let's start with the discussion in the college football playoff by looking at the big picture.
00:07 Four teams still in the running for a national championship.
00:11 And both teams that play in the Rose Bowl have better prices than the other two teams that will face off in the Sugar Bowl.
00:18 Michigan, a slight favorite in the granddaddy of them all.
00:21 A slight favorite to win a national title at plus 200.
00:25 Alabama, 20 cents behind.
00:27 Texas, only 30 cents behind.
00:30 Alabama, who they beat week number two of this season at plus 250.
00:34 Washington, the fourth and longest price at plus 650.
00:39 Donny, what does that say to you?
00:41 To know that both Michigan and Alabama have better prices to win a national championship than either of the two teams,
00:47 Washington and Texas, that will face each other in the Sugar Bowl.
00:50 If I'm looking optimistically at this, I think it's right.
00:54 I do think the winner of the national championship is going to come out of Alabama and Michigan.
00:58 But having said that, that's not the national championship game.
01:01 And you know if you're Nick Saban and/or Jim Harbaugh, you're putting weeks and weeks and weeks upon effort into just beating Alabama and/or Michigan.
01:10 And if you win that game, it is going to feel like you won the national championship,
01:14 but you still got to play the following week to win the national championship.
01:18 So I think that gives a little bit of an extra bonus here for that Texas-Washington game,
01:22 who again, somebody has to win it, somebody's going to move on.
01:25 And I think there's going to be so much emotion in that Alabama-Michigan game,
01:29 a matchup that we're not quite used to in a Rose Bowl stage that, correct me if I'm wrong,
01:33 the Big Ten used to tell us, the national championship, we don't play for that, we play for the Rose Bowl here.
01:38 So we'll see if that adds up, where Michigan is so excited about winning the Rose Bowl,
01:41 but Alabama, do they have any gas left in the tank for the following week?
01:44 But I remember when this playoff came out, Ben, I was sitting on the Pro Football Today set,
01:48 right when it came out, wishing, hoping, and praying that Florida State would be kept out of the playoffs
01:53 so we can enjoy an unbelievable Final Four.
01:56 And we're getting that here. And it starts with Alabama-Michigan,
01:59 but with those totals here to win the championship, I do think it's right.
02:02 But I think Washington, man, has been getting shortchanged all season long,
02:06 and they're getting that short end of the stick again here in those odds in the college football playoff.
02:11 There is a pervasive thought, Donny, that maybe you could compare Washington to last year's TCU.
02:17 An underdog, an overlooked team by the oddsmakers.
02:21 They do not add up, in my opinion.
02:24 TCU was a team undervalued by the odds all year,
02:28 but I don't think they are at the ceiling or the pedigree of this Washington side
02:32 when you look up and down the roster for the Huskies.
02:35 Frankly, a defense that's been underwhelming this year,
02:38 but still a ton of talent in the secondary and led up front by Braylon Trice on that Washington defensive line.
02:45 On the offensive line for the Huskies, the Joe Moore Award,
02:49 given out to the best O-line as a group in the country, Washington won it.
02:54 You know Michael Pennix Jr., the nation's leading passer at more than 4,200 yards,
02:58 with all the talent at his disposal that you could dream of as a quarterback.
03:03 Dylan Johnson, who has stepped up in a big way in the back half of this year for UW,
03:08 and now a fully healthy Jalen McMillan, joins Jalen Polk and Roma Dunzey
03:13 to spread out that Washington arsenal.
03:16 [Music]