Look-ahead lines favor Alabama over College Football Playoff contenders - AL.com

The College Football Playoff committee slotted Alabama at No.

So it isn’t surprising that BetOnline installed Alabama as a favorite against the other three programs that rank in the top four in the College Football Playoff rankings:.

As of Sunday evening, Alabama (-28 at LSU), Notre Dame (-33 vs. Syracuse), Clemson (-21.5 at Virginia Tech) and Ohio State (-22.5 at Michigan State) were all heavy favorites this week.

According to the BetOnline oddsmakers, Ohio State is the second-best team in college football, 1.5 points better than Clemson.

However, Ohio State didn’t play its first game until Oct.

But Ohio State may need to play Michigan State and Michigan in the next two weeks in order to have a chance at a conference championship win.

If you believe the oddsmakers, it’s possible that Alabama’s reward could be to play the second-best team in the country in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

The reality is that Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State are the three best teams in the country.

Barring major personnel issues due to injury or COVID, Clemson will be favored over Notre Dame in a potential ACC championship game rematch.

It seems highly unlikely the College Football Playoff committee would force Clemson and Notre Dame to play for a third consecutive time in a semifinal game.

Another scenario would involve Notre Dame beating Clemson again, which would knock the Tigers out of College Football Playoff contention and invite a lesser team into the field of four.