Oddsmakers: Clemson Is Overwhelming 'Tiger King' of ACC
Just when you think Clemson's football dominance over the ACC can't grow anymore, odds for 2020 come out.
According to Sportsbetting.ag, Clemson is a -600 favorite to win the conference championship, something the Tigers have done each of the last five seasons.
Sure, the league is down, but the amount of faith these oddsmakers have in Clemson to beat up on the ACC is overwhelming. No other conference favorite, according to Sportsbeting.ag, is even close to the -600.
Ohio State (-225), Alabama (-200), Boise State (-200), App State (-200) and Oklahoma (-125) are the only other favorites getting minus odds, and Clemson dwarfs them all.
Looking back at last year, Clemson was -350 in late August to win the ACC, and even that felt like a huge number. In 2018, the Tigers were a -225 favorite to hoist the trophy in Charlotte, N.C.
This year seems unprecedented for many reasons. One of those is the fact that Clemson is built better to withstand a shortened (or in some cases, no) spring football season. The Tigers are loaded on offense with quarterback Trevor Lawrence, running back Travis Etienne and receiver Justyn Ross ready to score plenty of points. Clemson also brought in 15 early-enrollees from the No. 3 recruiting class in the country in 2020.
The rest of the ACC doesn't stack up from a talent standpoint, and last year at least appeared to be one of the least competitive seasons from top to bottom in recent years. Some of that is certainly because of Clemson's dominance. The Tigers have reached the College Football Playoff five consecutive seasons, have been to the national title game in four of those years and have won it all twice.
The Tigers are already the favorite to return to the CFP and win the national title in the 2020 season.
The drop-off between Clemson and the next favored ACC team is steep. Miami is listed second at +750, the Hurricanes' same odds a year ago to win the league. After that, another pair of Coastal teams, North Carolina and Virginia Tech, are listed at +1000 and +1200, respectively.
Florida State, the first Atlantic team not named Clemson, is listed fourth at +1600. Louisville, which surprised the league last year with an 8-5 finish, is sixth behind Virginia at +2800. The Cardinals, heading into Scott Satterfield's second year there, are listed as a 21-point underdog at Clemson in the college football lines that have been released early.
From a sports betting standpoint, Clemson isn't really worth laying the -600, but there's also not much of a reason to fall in love with an underdog. Miami has been picked second by the oddsmakers for the past two seasons, but that program went 13-13 combined in that span.
FSU at least gets Clemson in Tallahassee, but the Seminoles haven't stayed within 30 points of Clemson the last two showdowns, and they're under new direction in coach in Mike Norvell.
Are the Tar Heels worth a flyer? After all, they did take Clemson to the brink of defeat in Chapel Hill last season, and quarterback Sam Howell should have a monster sophomore season, but they've got to prove they've advanced enough under Mack Brown to win the Coastal first.
You're really not looking at anybody else at this point. Regardless, this doesn't appear to be the year, according to oddsmakers, that anybody in the ACC is taking down the "Tiger King."
