College Football Odds: Can Alabama Run 2017 Table? 7/3/17
Tide is overwhelming favorite to win SEC, but can Alabama win ’em all in the regular season in consecutive years?
The Case For Alabama
SpreadExperts established earlier this summer that Alabama is the odds-on favorite to win the SEC in 2017, currently as much as -180 (at TopBet) and 4/7 (at VegasInsiders). Nick Saban’s team has won the conference three consecutive years and in four of the past five seasons. Since 2012, the only year the Tide did not win the conference was in 2013. That year, Auburn shocked the Tide with the “Kick Six” and outlasted Missouri in the title game.
Bovada currently lists Alabama at -200 to win over 10.5 games in the regular season. Bama is 29-1 in the past 30 regular season games, with only Ole Miss in 2015 spoiling that run. Interestingly, the Tide is just 18-12 against the spread in those games. And Bama is 14-15-1 vs. the over/under in the same span.
The Case Against Alabama
Alabama is the overwhelming favorite to win the SEC and is a 4/1 choice to make the four-team College Football Playoff. But the Tide’s sternest test against running the table again in the regular season this year comes in the first game out.
Bama faces ACC heavyweight Florida State on Sept. 2 in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Bama is currently a 7 1/2-point favorite at most outlets to upend the Seminoles, which well could be the closest spread the Tide could see all season long.
Should Bama get past the Seminoles, though, it isn’t exactly clear sailing. LSU (an 11/2 favorite to win the SEC) comes to Tuscaloosa on Nov. 4. A road trip to Auburn — an opponent Alabama has beaten 5 of the past 6 years — is at the end of the regular season on Nov. 25. Auburn is a 7/1 shot to win the conference.
