Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Ohio State Buckeyes Betting Picks

The 7-0 Ohio State Buckeyes and 11-0 Alabama Crimson Tide will matchup in the NCAA National Championship on Monday, January 11th at 8:00 PM ET. The game will be played in Miami Gardens and there will be a select amount of fans admitted. The Crimson Tide come into this matchup as 7.5-point favorites and we’re looking at plenty of points on the board with a 75.5 over/under. You can tune into the championship game on ESPN. Let’s dive into how this game will go down and who will end up covering the spread. With College Football over for the season after this game, make sure to check out our picks for other sports as we have everything covered here at USsportsbonus. 

• Buckeyes are 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games in January.
• Crimson Tide are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 Bowl games as a favorite.
• Over is 5-0-1 in Buckeyes last 6 games after accumulating more than 450 total yards in their previous game.
• Over is 4-0 in Crimson Tide last 4 Bowl Championship games.

The Ohio State Buckeyes beat the Clemson Tigers as 7.5-point underdogs in the CFB Semifinals to move on to face the Crimson Tide in the championship. It was an incredible performance on both sides of the ball, holding a lead from the first quarter on against the team many thought would win it all. 

The Buckeyes are led by QB Justin Fields, who is possibly the best dual-threat quarterback in the entire country. He was up and down throughout the regular season, but it’s easy to understand why as Ohio State played a shortened season and didn’t have much training camp to work with. Fields is up to 1,906 yards with 21 touchdowns and six interceptions on top of 316 rushing yards and another five scores.

Fields has plenty of weapons to play with and it starts with Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson on the outside. Both are future NFL talents and I doubt either make it out of the 2nd round. Trey Sermon has taken over the RB role with Master Teague III an excellent complementary piece. Sermon has been elite in the last few weeks and has rushed it for 868 yards and four touchdowns on the season. Teague has six touchdowns, though the majority came early in the season and Sermon has taken over more of late.

The Crimson Tide have mowed down all 11 of their opponents this season, and not a single game was really close. The score against Florida makes it look that way, but ‘Bama was never in danger of losing that game. They’re led by QB Mac Jones, who finished third in the Heisman after throwing it for 4,036 yards, 36 touchdowns, and four interceptions.

The Heisman winner is also on this team in WR Devonta Smith, who’s hauled in 105 receptions for 1,641 yards and 20 touchdowns. That’s over 40% of Mac Jones’ passing yards and close to 60% of his touchdowns. Smith is truly one of the best receiving talents we’ve seen in quite some time and he’s impossible to fully shut down. You can only hope to slow him down. HB Najee Harris is also one of the best backs in the entire country and finished 5th in the Heisman voting. This is a stacked Alabama team and the only way to stay in the game is by keeping up with the offense.

I expect the Buckeyes to keep this game close and I wouldn’t be surprised if they won it outright. The Buckeyes have the best defense Alabama has faced all season long and while they won’t stop ‘Bama, they will be able to slow them down. The Crimson Tide defense is far from a shutdown squad and the Buckeyes are going to score around 40 points. Fields was phenomenal against Clemson and the Tigers defense was likely the second best in the playoff after Ohio State. I will take over a touchdown here on Ohio State and I will be sprinkling some moneyline as well.

The over is the only comfortable bet here to make. While the Ohio State defense will do more to Alabama than any other team, that just means they will slow them down. Both offenses will still have plenty of success and I wouldn’t be shocked if the winner approaches 50 points. Both Ohio State and Alabama will be running fast-tempo and whoever is losing will be in a bit of a panic mode. It’s hard not to when the other offense can extend the lead in a matter of seconds.