College Football Playoff: Making the national championship case for each of the 12 teams in the field

More teams than ever have national title dreams in the second week of December.

The first 12-team playoff is less than two weeks away, as Indiana and Notre Dame will kick off the postseason on Friday, Dec. 20. A day later, the three other first-round games will take place ahead of the quarterfinals on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

At the moment, there are six teams that can legitimately call themselves contenders and six teams that are long shots. At least according to the betting odds. But you can make a case for any of the 12 teams in the postseason to win the College Football Playoff. Even if you have to squint a little bit.

Here is that case for each team in the field. (All betting odds are from BetMGM.)

No. 3 seed Boise State (+6000)

Why the Broncos can win it all: It doesn’t make much sense why Boise State is the biggest long shot at the moment. The Broncos get to play one fewer game than eight other teams and could potentially face a Georgia team without Carson Beck in the semifinals with a win over either SMU or Penn State.

No matter who Boise State plays in the playoff, it can argue that it has the best offensive player on the field in Ashton Jeanty. The Heisman finalist has rushed for 2,497 yards so far on 7.3 yards per carry — and nearly 5.5 of those yards come after contact. Only 66 qualifying players in college football average more overall yards per carry than Jeanty does after contact. He’s capable of posting a big game against anyone, no matter what the opposing defense’s gameplan is.

The Boise State defense is buoyed by a pass rush that can get after the quarterback in any number of ways. Four different players have at least five sacks and the Broncos have tallied 51 sacks as a team. A disruptive pass rush in big moments can change football games.

No. 4 seed Arizona State (+5000)

Why the Sun Devils can win it…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-11 15:46:00

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