Sports

What Are The Odds Michigan State Wins The National Championship?

July 24, 2014 / 3:12 PM EDT / CBS Detroit

The good news for this Thursday is that the Tigers finally addressed their bullpen by adding Joakim Soria from the Rangers.

The better news? Did you realize that college football is only 36 days away?

You've probably noticed the SEC, ACC and Pac-12 media days taking place over the past week. The Big Ten will get together early next week. Then camps start, then the best time of the year is finally here.

So it's officially not too early to start looking ahead to which teams have the best chance to win the first ever College Football Playoff. Our good friends at Bovada seem to keep odds on everything in sports. And sure enough, they already have odds posted for which teams will contend for the title. Below, the teams are listed along with the odds from the end of last season and the odds as of today. No – I didn't list everybody - just some of the teams of interest.

Odds on 1/7/14 Current Odds

Alabama 13/2 11/2

Florida State 11/2 11/2

Oregon 12/1 7/1

Oklahoma 20/1 9/1

Auburn 14/1 10/1

Ohio State 10/1 12/1

UCLA 25/1 14/1

Georgia 25/1 18/1

LSU 25/1 20/1

Michigan State 20/1 25/1

USC 33/1 25/1

Baylor 25/1 28/1

Florida 25/1 33/1

South Carolina 25/1 33/1

Stanford 9/1 33/1

Wisconsin 40/1 33/1

Mississippi 66/1 40/1

Michigan 50/1 50/1

Notre Dame 33/1 50/1

Texas 50/1 50/1

Clemson 25/1 66/1

Missouri 40/1 66/1

Nebraska 50/1 66/1

Texas A&M 25/1 66/1

Arizona 100/1 100/1

Iowa 40/1 100/1

Rutgers 100/1 1000/1

Some thoughts –

1) Thank goodness Rutgers is in the Big Ten now. Can't wait for those epic showdowns.

2) How exactly does Michigan State go from 20/1 after the Rose Bowl to 25/1 today? Sure, they lost Darqueze Dennard. But they do return a terrific defensive line and Connor Cook and Jeremy Langford on offense. What more could they do?

3) Ohio State is rightfully the highest ranked team from the Big Ten on the board. And by rightfully, I mean that because they're Ohio State and they're coached by Urban Meyer. But MSU took them out in the Big Ten title game and went on to the Rose Bowl. Both have a lot of players returning. To me, that's a reputation thing more than anything else.

4) Speaking of reputation, nobody has a better one than Alabama right now. Not many schools would lose a four-year starter, two-time National Champion at quarterback (A.J. McCarron) and actually go up in the odds. Nick Saban is the best coach on the planet. We know it and Vegas knows it.

5) Michigan was 50/1 at the end of last season and is still 50/1 today. I guess the odds makers don't think as much of Doug Nussmeier as some Michigan fans do.

Clip and save these odds and we'll see how they stack up next January.

Michigan State