Your Guide to Betting CFB's Conference Championship Weekend
It’s one of our favorite weekends of the year: conference championship weekend!
OutKick Bets has you covered with the best bets for this week’s slate of games. But, before we get into that, if you’re not following us on Twitter yet, do it now! We tweet tips and tricks throughout the week to help guide your betting strategy. Follow us here: @OutKickBets.
Now, let’s get to the action.
Generally, you never want to look down on a card and take many favorites, but there are mismatches. Typically, this weekend has the sharpest lines of the season, so we only took lines that looked relatively soft.
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That said, in the words of Clay Travis, we found an absolute blood bank guarantee in the SEC Championship Game.
All five games below are great to bet, so stay tuned until the end of the post. Current odds come the way of our good friends at the FanDuel Sportsbook.
(Odds subject to change.)
Friday
MAC: Buffalo (-12.5) vs. Ball State – In the wild world of MACtion, it’s always a treat to get two good teams coming off big wins. Ball State is on a massive high after their win against Western Michigan. Unfortunately, that’s about to run out (sorry, Jason.) Buffalo’s top rushing attack and superb defense will beat Ball State handily. The Bulls should cover this spread.
Pac-12: No. 13 USC Trojans (-3.5) vs. Oregon Ducks – The game was supposed to feature the Washington Huskies, but after COVID-19 concerns, Oregon will replace them. Despite the Ducks losing badly in two straight, USC hasn’t blown anyone out this season. Expect it to be close, but ultimately, red-hot Kedon Slovis and the Trojan offense will be too much for the Ducks’ 75th-ranked defense.
Saturday
Big Ten: No. 4 Ohio State (-19.5) vs. No 14 Northwestern – If any an underdog were to cover a spread this week, it’s Northwestern. Admittedly, if this matchup were taking place in Chicago, we’d be on the Wildcats. They move the ball well, control the clock, and have a stellar defense. But Justin Fields and company are poised to win big and solidify their spot in the College Football Playoffs. The Buckeyes are a vastly superior team that puts up points. We’re taking them up to 21 points this week.
ACC: No. 3 Clemson vs. No. 2 Notre Dame (Over 59.5) – We’re taking over the total rather than the spread. Notre Dame at +10.5 looked obvious after the Fighting Irish beat the Tigers back in November, but Dabo Swinney is a tough coach to bet against twice in the same season. We can bet on points to be scored, though (they combined for 87 in their first meeting.) This one is our early favorite for the game of the week. We’re on the over.
SEC: No. 1 Alabama (-17.5) vs. No. 7 Florida – Simply put, we expect Alabama to crush Florida. After the Gators’ inexplicable loss to LSU last week, there’s no way they stand a chance against what might be the greatest Crimson Tide squad Nick Saban has ever coached. The line did jump five points from its lookahead (-12), so we prefer taking our blood bank guarantee instead.
Lock of the weekend: ALABAMA (-9.5 First Half)
This bet is an undefeated 10-0 on the season. The sportsbook looks at us like we found Grays Sports Almanac every time we make it. No, our name isn’t Biff Tannen, but betting this is like knowing the future.
The Tide come out hot every week, while the Gators come out flat. Following Alabama’s 52-3 beatdown over Arkansas last week, a game where the Tide scored 38 points in the first half, Saban said he felt his team started the game off slow. Best of luck, Florida.