Clay Travis
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The undefeated Wisconsin Badgers (12-0) know that they must beat the Ohio State Buckeyes (10-2) on Saturday in the Big Ten Championship Game to make the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history.
The Badgers are listed as 6-point underdogs though at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com and will need to break a five-game losing streak in the series that has seen them go 1-4 against the spread.
Last time Wisconsin met Ohio State with the conference title on the line came three years ago, and the latter was missing starting quarterback J.T. Barrett due to an ankle injury. This time, Barrett is coming off a knee injury, but he is listed as probable and ready to roll against the Badgers.
In the ACC Championship Game, the Miami Hurricanes (10-1) will be playing for the conference title for the first time ever, but they have had similar problems with the Clemson Tigers (11-1). The Hurricanes are consensus 9.5-point underdogs against the defending national champion Tigers and have failed to cover four of the previous five meetings, according to the OddsShark College Football Database.
Clemson has won the last two ACC titles but did not cover last year’s game as a 10.5-point favorite.
The Big 12 Championship Game returns for the first time since 2010, with the Oklahoma Sooners (11-1) back as the top seed versus the second-seeded TCU Horned Frogs (10-2), who have lost six of the last seven in the series. The Sooners are 7-point favorites in the rematch from a regular-season meeting they won 38-20 at home as 6-point chalk three weeks ago.
Oklahoma should get back into the College Football Playoff for the second time in three years with a victory, while TCU is playing the spoiler role.
And the SEC Championship Game will see a similar regular-season rematch between the Auburn Tigers (10-2) and Georgia Bulldogs (11-1), with the former winning 40-17 as 2.5-point home underdogs three weeks ago. The difference here is that Georgia is a 2.5-point underdog in the second meeting and had won nine of the previous 11 meetings, covering three in a row, before suffering its first loss of the season on November 11.
Pac-12 Championship Game – Stanford vs. USC (-4)
Conference USA Championship Game – North Texas vs. Florida Atlantic (-11)
MAC Championship Game – Akron vs. Toledo (-21.5)
AAC Championship Game – Memphis vs. Central Florida (-7)
Big 12 Championship Game – TCU vs. Oklahoma (-7)
SEC Championship Game – Georgia vs. Auburn (-2.5)
MWC Championship Game – Fresno State vs. Boise State (-9)
ACC Championship Game – Miami vs. Clemson (-9.5)
Big Ten Championship Game – Wisconsin vs. Ohio State (-6)
