Jalen Hurts

College Football Playoff odds: Alabama big favorites over Washington

Published Dec. 29, 2016 2:15 a.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, OddsShark/Sports Illustrated

The Washington Huskies are 15–1 straight up and 10–6 against the spread in their last 16 games overall. Despite their recent success, the Huskies will be a massive underdog this Saturday when they face the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Peach Bowl.

Washington is a 14-point underdog at the Georgia Dome at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The Huskies are 4–0 ATS in their last four games played in the month of December.

Other teams around the country saw their playoff chances improve when the Washington Huskies lost at home to USC 26–13, bringing their 9–0 SU and 5–4 ATS winning streak to start the season to an end.

But the Huskies left the playoff committee little room to exclude them with their play in the final three games of the season, beating Arizona State 44–18, Washington State 45–17 on the road and Colorado 41–10 in the Pac-12 Championship Game. After being favored in every game this season, the Huskies will now take on the unfamiliar role of underdog.

In its last nine games as a betting underdog, Washington is 1–8 SU and 3–6 ATS per the OddsShark College Football Database.

Alabama rarely seemed to break a sweat in its demolition of the SEC, finishing the regular season with another SEC title and a 13–0 SU and 9–4 ATS record. The Crimson Tide likely would have advanced to the postseason even with a loss in the SEC Championship Game, but the game was never in doubt as Alabama rolled Florida 54–16.

The defending national champions are 7–2 SU and 6–3 ATS in their last nine postseason appearances, with one of the most recent losses coming as a 7 1/2-point favorite in the first College Football Playoff to Ohio State.

Saturday’s total is set at 54 points. The OVER is 7–3 in Washington’s last 10 games against teams with winning records.

For as well as Washington’s quarterback Jake Browning played throughout the season, he struggled against his toughest test when the Huskies hosted the Trojans. If the Huskies are going to have any real chance at an upset, they will need Browning to play a virtually mistake-free game against the best defense in the nation.