Tennessee has become a major sportsbook liability ahead of showdown with Georgia
Sportsbooks are probably hoping for a Bulldogs win this week.
At the start of the college football season, if you had told even the most optimistic Tennessee supporter they’d be undefeated going into November and their meeting with Georgia would be the biggest game of the season, they probably would have checked a calendar to make sure it was still 2022.
Tennessee’s odds at BetMGM to win the College Football Playoff national championship opened at an incredibly long 100-1 before the season. Those odds only received 3.2% of the preseason bets. The Vols simply weren’t supposed to be this good.
Now, at 8-0 and ranked No. 2 in the country, their odds are down to 11-1 and 16.5% of bets have them winning it all. That makes Tennessee the biggest championship liability at BetMGM.
.@Vol_Football open +10000, now +1100 to win College Football Championship.
In the preseason only 3.2% of bets were on Tennessee to win it all, now 16.5% (most).
Vols biggest liability to win championship at @BetMGM.
— John Ewing
(@johnewing) October 31, 2022
Saturday’s game against No. 1 Georgia won’t completely decide the fate of those bets, but it will go a long way in answering just how good the Vols stack up against the presumed best team in the country. And if they lose, sportsbooks facing large payouts on Tennessee will probably sleep a little easier.
Georgia is favored at home by 8.5 points, and Caesars has already received a massive $50,000 bet on the Bulldogs to cover.
The first big bet @CaesarsSports took on Tennessee-Georgia was $50,000 on the Bulldogs -8.5.
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) October 31, 2022
Only Georgia (+200), Ohio State (+200) and Alabama (+300) have shorter odds than Tennessee to win this year’s title.
If Tennessee can find a way to cover, let alone win, their bettors will have to feel pretty good about the team’s chances going forward. A close loss probably won’t eliminate them from the CFP picture, and it would boost the confidence in their ability to win a potential rematch down the line — or beat any of the country’s other top teams.