When the NCAA elected to scrap the often controversial BCS system for a four team playoff, it’s likely that this year’s football championship game was what they envisioned. Both #1 Alabama and #2 Clemson looked impressive in their bowl game playoff matchups last weekend, and few would doubt that Monday’s title game pits the two best teams in the country against one another.
The college football championship game also gives researchers at Unanimous AI a unique opportunity to have UNU take a deep dive on one of the most watched television events on the sports calendar. We didn’t just ask UNU to consider the outcome of the game, though, but also wanted to get some Swarm insight on the factors that might play into the final score.
UNU seemed well aware of how both Alabama and Clemson played last weekend. While the Crimson Tide defense may be one of the best in college football history, the swarm was impressed enough with Clemson’s shutout of Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl to give Alabama only a slight nod there. And when it comes to quarterback play, UNU sees Tigers’ signal caller Deshaun Watson as slightly superior to Alabama’s freshman phenom, Jalen Hurts.
Perhaps the biggest story leading up to Monday’s game was Alabama coach Nick Saban dismissing offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin earlier in the week over“distractions” related to Kiffin’s acceptance of the head coaching position at Florida Atlantic. As you can see below, UNU thinks it’s a fairly risky move to dismiss your OC just days before a championship game.
Yet, despite these mitigating factors, the Swarm thinks Alabama is still likely to win yet another national championship on Monday. UNU isn’t nearly as gung ho about that as it might have been, though and recommends a safe, straight up play rather than a riskier cover bet against the spread.
UNU’s Insight Portal allows us to drill down into that decision. Using a Faction Analysis, we can see that Alabama received the lion’s share of support for Alabama right off the bat, and, as the decision unfolded, those who were on the fence came down on the side of the Crimson Tide quite quickly.
Of course that leaves on lingering question about the Swarm’s confidence in Alabama…
Like all big football games, the NCAA championship generates a number of prop bets from the sports books, and UNU took a look at some of them. Perhaps reinforcing the swarm’s belief in Alabama to win the game, they picked the Crimson Tide to take a lead into the locker room at the half. For the most popular prop bet of all, the Over/Under, the Swarm was a bit less confident. At the time of the UNU Swarm, the number for the Over/Under was 51, and UNU clearly felt no confidence in recommending a big bet on their “Over” prediction
With the NCAA Championship Game wrapping up college football for the season, UNU will be turning its attention to college basketball as we head into the heart of conference play. UNU will also provide plenty of predictions for the NFL playoffs as they proceed, right into Super Bowl LI on February 5th. Drop us a line below if you’d like to receive all of the Swarm’s insights and picks!
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