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LinkMeme Watch: Oddsmakers latest to cast their lot for 'Bama repeatBy Matt Hinton
Human predictions follow a reliable formula: What's Going To Happen Next ≈ What Just Happened. What just happened in college football? Alabama won the mythical championship, Ohio State won the Rose Bowl and Boise State finished undefeated. What's going to happen next, according to the oddsmakers? Pretty much the exact same thing:
Early Odds to Win 2011 BCS Title (Bodog.com)
• Alabama (7-2)
• Ohio State (13-2)
• Boise State (12-1)
• Oregon (12-1)
• Texas (14-1)
• Nebraska (15-1)
• Southern Cal (15-1)
• Florida (16-1)
• Virginia Tech (17-1)
• Oklahoma (18-1)
• TCU (18-1)
• Iowa (20-1)
It helps, of course, that Alabama returns the Heisman Trophy winner, Ohio State features the most hyped/visible quarterback in the nation going into the season and Boise State returns essentially the entire roster from its second Fiesta Bowl-winning team in four years. Usual powers hit by more attrition (see: USC and Florida, both racked by early departures for the draft and unexpected coaching turmoil) won't be saddled by quite the same expectations. Add another notch to the tidal wave of opinion for a Crimson Tide repeat, already well on its way to cementing itself as the near-unanimous preseason consensus despite overwhelming losses (nine departing starters, including all but one member of the front seven) on defense. All those top-ranked recruiting classes have their benefits.
For the record, Bodog isn't drinking any of the Brian Kelly Kool-Aid on offer in South Bend -- Notre Dame is listed at 70/1 to take home the title, worse than Arkansas (30/1), Oregon State (35/1), Pittsburgh (40/1), Michigan (60/1), North Carolina (60/1) and Washington (65/1) and much worse than the entire field of 67 teams not even worth considering for the list (30/1). I would suggest an extremely competent coach taking over a still-talented roster deserves slightly more credit than that, but I've also vastly overrated the Irish in the preseason each of the last four years based on an allegedly blue-chip depth chart (projecting an ND national championship was not crazy in August 2006, I promise), so what do I know?
I know it's just more hype and doesn't really mean much, but as I see it, the more I see the words "Nebraska Cornhuskers," the better it is for the program. Well, unless it's like the news Oregon has been generating, but you get what I'm saying.