College Football 2024: Season Insights, Updates and Futures Bets

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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on sports.

00:04Great Bill Bender is with us as he will be throughout the college football season.

00:08We gave Bill some time off, but now Bill is forced to talk to me every week about what's to come in college football.

00:15We're a month away from the college football season.

00:18Kind of crazy. All right, Bill. So let's get started here.

00:20Big 12 media day. We got Big 10 coming up.

00:23We got SEC coming up and you know, look, there's no real news to come out of the Big 12.

00:29We do hear a lot of talking. Deion Sanders making news for things.

00:32He says Mike Gundy coming out and saying things, you know, and so nothing new here.

00:37It's just, you know, a new world and it just seemed it does seem.

00:40I don't know if it seems like this to you Bill.

00:41It seems like there's a lot of complaining going on from the coaches complaining about attention,

00:46complaining about NILs at least feels that way.

00:49I hate to start off with that, but that's kind of my perception.

00:52Well that and then the two big takeaways I had were from Brett Yormark.

00:56One, saying flat out, we have one of the top three conferences in the country,

01:01which was a veiled, maybe not so veiled shot at the ACC.

01:06And then two, saying we have the deepest conference in the country.

01:09Now from a parody standpoint, that is true.

01:12When you try to break down the Big 12, you could throw a dart at any one of these favorites.

01:17Kansas, Kansas State, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Utah, the preseason pool favorite,

01:25even West Virginia and Texas Tech.

01:27So and maybe I should mention Colorado because they're the school that gets the most of attention,

01:32probably will get the most bets, probably will be the most fun team to play with on the video game

01:37with Shidor Sanders and Travis Hyatt.

01:40Yeah. No, I think the video game is just so much attention right now.

01:44I know we've been talking about it here on Sports Grid too.

01:46OK, so college football format, way different.

01:51I think the average person by now knows that we have gone from four to 12 in the college football playoff.

01:59So we're certainly going to get, I think, a better sampling of the landscape of college football.

02:04We're not going to be forced to have to yell and scream when teams don't get in the top four.

02:08We'll probably do that now, but they don't get in the top 12.

02:11But with this new format, does it still favor the top teams in the country, Bill?

02:17Or is this sort of like a March Madness where it's kind of like seeding, but anything can happen in one game?

02:24Well, that's what we're going to find out. It's an experiment of sorts.

02:26Most bettors are going to take Georgia or Ohio State to win this thing this year.

02:31That's not a surprise. But, you know, what happens when we have the Jordan Travis injury in the middle of the playoff?

02:38You know, that's bound to happen.

02:40You know, what happens when we have that quirky upset?

02:42I'm not sure how many upsets will happen into the semifinals.

02:47But, you know, if you're Alabama or Texas or Oregon, you want to make sure you're that second team in the Big Ten or the SEC.

02:55So you're positioned to have a high seed, maybe get a home game in the first round.

02:59That's the one flaw in this Death Star that we keep talking about.

03:02Those top four teams, for whatever reason, we're still holding on to the bowl selections where they don't get a home game.

03:09So if you're Georgia, Ohio State, Utah, Florida State, the teams we have projected to win their conferences this year,

03:14you're not going to get that first round home game.

03:17Yeah, but the thing is, Bill, if I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong, that the first four do get a bye.

03:22Is that correct? They don't play?

03:23Yeah. Yes, they do.

03:25So in essence, the Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and ACC champion will get a first round bye.

03:31The four highest conference champions.

03:33I don't think there will be a scenario where there'll be a group of five champion that that climbs into the top four.

03:39That said, you know, Memphis or Boise State, their dreams come true now.

03:44They get to be in the playoff. I think it would be somewhat ironic.

03:47I saw the Mountain West Conference pool come out this week.

03:50Boise State is picked to win that conference.

03:53Boise State, to me, over the last 25 years, has been the ultimate Cinderella.

03:57Probably could have made a BCS title game one year.

04:00I think it would be kind of cool if they broke through, represented the group of five in the first playoff.

04:05And that's certainly possible.

04:07Yeah. And I think when you look at it, it's more of the same cast of characters as far as the favorites are concerned.

04:13I guess the question is, you know, Bill, is that do you think that a Liberty or some team that we don't expect climbs into this thing,

04:23wins a couple of games and then faces a David versus Goliath situation, which is what makes sports fun?

04:30I would hope so at some point. I think it's just going to be very hard.

04:34You know, you look at the Fiesta Bowl last year, Oregon beat Liberty 45 to 6.

04:39Now we can say, well, it matters now. And those times in the college football playoff era,

04:44the 14 era where a team like UCF beat Auburn or Houston won their bowl game against Florida State,

04:52we can always fall back on the excuse of, well, they had guys missing. That won't happen now.

04:57So, you know, a couple of dream scenarios for me are one, that upset happens.

05:02And two, let's use Boise State as an example. Let's say they climbed into that eight seed.

05:07So they get to host a home game at that point against, say, LSU or Tennessee.

05:13Can you imagine how riled up you'd be in Boise State and with that blue turf and you see LSU come out on it?

05:19I think that's one of those moments I want to see. Yeah, I think it'll be fun.

05:24And again, you're right. Getting home game at schools that don't really expect to be there is definitely a big change.

05:31As far as looking from the outside, looking in.

05:33So let's pull up the longest odds that we have here on the board to potentially get to the college football playoff, Utah.

05:39Let's start off with them. Utah again. I mean, what's really interesting here, Bill,

05:44it feels like the odds makers are sort of hedging here a little bit.

05:47I mean, they're only plus 260. Like you're not even getting 6 to 1 or 7 to 1 on any of these teams.

05:52K-State 3 to 1, USC 4 to 1, NC State plus 470.

05:56And I mean, I got to hammer the point home here that 12 teams are making it.

06:00OK, so this isn't like four. If it was four, you know, Utah would be plus 600 or something like that.

06:06And Kansas State would be plus 900. But I think the uncertainty has FanDuel and some of the other books really,

06:13honestly, not giving you a ton of value on any of this stuff.

06:16Well, and the Big 12, it's really tough because, well, they just get one team.

06:21Utah, Kansas State, Oklahoma State all going to face long odds.

06:25And if you look at this Big 12 schedule, it's very front loaded.

06:28Most of the heavy hitting games are going to happen in September.

06:32So you're going to have to adjust those bets. I do like Utah as a little bit of a sleeper.

06:36I think they're a steady team. I just don't know how they're going to react to playing Big 12 teams that they haven't played over the years.

06:43So they're one of those teams to watch. Kansas State as well. And Oklahoma State, you mentioned Mike Gundy earlier.

06:49Ollie Gordon back, all five offensive linemen back.

06:52Alan Bowman's a seventh year quarterback. This could be the year that the Cowboys break through and make the playoff.

06:58Yeah. Great point about Utah, too. I mean, we just don't know.

07:00I mean, Utah's played that one or two tough games on the schedule at a conference.

07:04Now all the games are in conference and tough. Thanks, Bill, for coming on.

07:08We'll catch up again next week. Hey, thanks so much.

07:13Thanks, Bill.

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