College Football Playoff Odds and Lines: Predictions For Michigan vs Alabama & Texas vs Washington

College Football playoff odds and lines have been officially posted. Find the most updated College Football odds for the college football playoff games as well as best bets and predictions for Alabama vs Michigan and Texas vs Washington.

College Football Playoff Game Odds & Lines

Lookahead College Football odds and lines for the college football playoffs – search any school to bring up their odds.

Early College Football Playoff Bets to Place

The College Football Playoff field has been set and four teams are prepared to battle for their right to make it to the National Championship. The opening lines for these games have already been released, making it intriguing to see how they move over the next few weeks leading up to kickoff.

Let’s take a look at early odds for the college football playoff and which bets are worth locking in right now.

Alabama (+1.5) vs. Michigan Prediction

Say what you want about Alabama making the playoff field, arguably no team in the country is playing better than them right now. That sentence alone makes it especially intriguing at the fact that they come into this one as a slight underdog, originally opening as high as +2.5 in some shops.

Their late season success comes from their tweaks in scheming, fully unlocking Jalen Milroe’s skills to the benefit of a more efficient offense. Nick Saban recognized that Milroe is not a pure passer, shifting his offense to be a more run heavy unit with a heavy dose of QB scrambles. 

That applies pressure to opposing linebacking units, potentially setting them up to get burned through the air when they get caught cheating up. This is especially worrisome for Michigan as they have not faced a skilled runner at the quarterback position like Milroe at any point of this season.

Jalen Milroe LASER👀

pic.twitter.com/mCrPbWjUea

— PFF College (@PFF_College) December 2, 2023

Defending pass play explosiveness has been an issue for the Wolverines, coming into this game ranked 46th in Def Pass Explosiveness. That has been Milroe’s strength, using his legs and Bama’s ground game to set up field flipping deep shots to his five star athletes at wideout. Like Milroe and his legs, the Alabama receivers bring in a skillset that Michigan has not faced outside of Ohio State. The difference between Bama and Ohio State is that Alabama actually has a quarterback who can hit them in stride deep.

On the other side of the ball, Michigan’s offense is in a rough position as Alabama’s front seven is more than capable of stuffing Blake Corum in the trenches. Alabama currently ranks 19th in Def Rush Success Rate and comes off of a brilliant run stopping performance against Georgia.

Worse yet, Michigan is unable to exploit the one glaring weakness of the Crimson Tide defense. That weakness revolves around rush play explosiveness as Alabama ranks a shockingly low 117th in Def Rush Explosiveness. Explosiveness is practically non-existent when talking about Michigan and their ground game as they rank 117th in that regard.

Early Bet: Alabama Moneyline +102

Washington (+4.5) vs. Texas Prediction

It almost sounds crazy to say, but is Washington getting disrespected after putting together an undefeated season? They beat Oregon early in the year and the result was them going into the rematch as a +9.5 underdog. They showed that oddsmakers could not have been any more incorrect, beating Oregon once again for the Pac 12 championship.

The result after that? Being pegged as a +4.5 underdog to the Texas Longhorns in the College Football Playoff. Granted Washington has had their fair share of struggles throughout the year, now taking on one of the best defenses that they have faced this season.

Even with Texas bringing in an NFL level front seven, the Huskies offense is more than capable of moving the ball down the field by exploiting the Longhorns secondary. Defending the short throw has been an issue for Texas, ranking 31st in Def Pass SUccess Rate and now has to take on a fully healthy Washington group of pass catchers who feature plenty of next level talent.

Micheal Penix Jr has been a maestro at shredding opposing secondaries with the short throw, leading the Washington offense to metrics of sixth in Pass Success Rate and eighth in Pass PPA. This will scramble an elite Texas linebacking unit, potentially anchoring them in coverage and becoming more vulnerable to getting beat deep.

More intriguing yet, Washington’s defense comes off a rather impressive performance in their last game against Oregon. Mainly at stopping the run, an area of the defense that they will need to succeed in once again against the Texas offense.

The reason this was intriguing is that the Washington defense has been a relatively underwhelming unit throughout the season. They ended the year ranked 129th in Def Rush Success Rate and 125th in Def Rush PPA.

Even with some regression to be expected, the Washington offense is more than capable of making up for their defensive inefficiencies. That gives some slight value at a spread above the key numbers of +3 and +4, making Washington the play early on as it is expected that this spread will continue to drop.

Early Bet: Washington +4.5