This is one crazy college football final because Miami really shouldn't be there. Every single game they have played in the playoffs all the way to making it to the championship, has had them as the underdogs. They are ranked number 10 out of the 12 teams that are invited to the playoffs.
When you are ranked lower in the playoffs, you get undesirable positioning in the brackets. You always end up being put against a very high ranking team in the first round. The Hurricanes first game was vs. Texas A&M and Miami was a mere 3-point underdog. A lot of this has to do with the idea that Texas had an easier regular season and I'll leave that to the people in the comments to argue over. But I don't htink that the likes of UTSA, Utah State, Mississippi State, and whatever Stamford is (not Stanford) are exactly top-tier opponents. This lead to A&M getting a higher ranking but I think the bookies realized this schedule being a factor and that is why the 3 point spread.
It was a boring and defensive game, but Miami made it through to their next game where they were pitted against Ohio State and literally everyone, had Miami losing this one badly. OSU was pegged at winning by more than a touchdown, and prior to Miami defeating Texas A&M the spread was more than a dozen in a proposed matchup.
While many can say that OSU lost this game more than Miami won it, a win is a win no matter how you get to it.
I suppose it was because of these surprise victories that when Miami was set to face Ole' Miss in the semi-final that Miami was finally the favorite at -3. Anyone who bet on that did well because they won by 4. I didn't even watch it but was still shocked when I woke up the next day and saw that Miami was headed to the National Championship.
Now in the final, we have a whole different kettle of worms for Miami when they face Indiana, which many pundits are calling one of the best football teams to ever play in college, ever. They are undefeated and absoutely destroyed Alabama and Oregon (two seriously solid teams) in the quarterfinals and semi-finals. These games were not even close and the opponents' point totals are padded a bit because Indiana let off the gas in the 4th when it became clear that victory was imminent.
Oregon was chosen by many as the #1 team in the NCAA at the start of the year but by halftime in this game, Indiana was winning 35-7. You knew that Oregon was desperate when they went for a 2-point conversion in the 3rd quarter.
Indiana is so good in fact, that there has been a lot of conspiracy theories running around about them cheating with recruiting but of course this speculation is completely without any proof and is just raw finger-pointing and confusion about how a team that hasn't really ever been considered a force in this sport has come along and absolutely dominated it this season.
"Hoosiers" are famous for basketball decades ago, not for football. So what gives?
The only game in this season that could even be considered somewhat competitive was vs Ohio State and that was 13-10. The rest of their games? Well they completely destroyed everyone they played. When early in the season they defeated top-25 ranked Illinois by 53 points, people started to realize that this team was the real deal. Prior to that they had played teams that most people have never heard of and their ranking suffered as a consequence. When your team is in the Big-10, it can be rough sometimes to get respect which doesn't make a lot of sense to me when you consider Oregon, OSU, Minnesota, Nebraska, Michigan and Michigan State are all in that same conference. No offense but MSU was absolutely horrid this year.
Anyway, the point is that Miami could be a spoil-sport in this championship game although I have a difficult time identifying how and why. But me and everyone else said exactly the same thing for each and every game they have been a part of in these playoffs up to this point so who knows? Could it happen?
At the moment the Vegas lines have Indiana favored at -8.5 meaning that it is expected that the Hoosiers are going to win by at least 8. This is a tough one to bet on but I am actually going to take Miami for two reasons: I love and underdog story and I also think that Miami, if they play like they have been playing can still keep it close even with a loss.
Thoughts?