After escaping with a 23-17 overtime win, No. 1 Florida State would be an underdog to at least three teams and is no longer the favorite to win the national championship at multiple Las Vegas sports books.
The Seminoles, without suspended starting quarterback Jameis Winston, pulled out an overtime win over Clemson on Saturday. But their odds to win the national championship fell from 4-1 to 6-1 at the Westgate SuperBook. Alabama, at 5-1, is now the favorite at the SuperBook.
"Right now, I'd have Oklahoma, Auburn and Alabama favored over Florida State," Westgate head football oddsmaker Ed Salmons said. "Maybe Baylor, too, although I'd like to see Baylor play someone with a pulse first."
William Hill's sports book moved Oklahoma into the role of favorite at 7-2, followed by Alabama at 9-2 and Florida State and Oregon at 5-1. The Seminoles (4-1) were still the favorites at the Wynn, and other books were updating their futures Monday. But most agreed: Florida State just hasn't looked much like last year's juggernaut, which finished with what Salmons called a "historically high" power rating, after going 14-0 -- 11-3 against the spread -- and winning the national championship.
Bettors also are losing respect for the Seminoles. Florida State opened as a 27.5-point favorite over North Carolina State at the Wynn. By Monday morning, the line had been bet down to Florida State minus-23. The Seminoles' prime-time game against Clemson featured a 10-point line move with the Winston suspension, but didn't generate as much betting action as other prime-time games at the SuperBook.
"The one thing the public made clear was that it didn't want anything to do with Florida State," Salmons said.
The MGM and William Hill sports books both said they had more action on Clemson than Florida State. William Hill director of trading Nick Bogdanovich said he wasn't discounting the Seminoles too much, however. "Maybe they're still overpriced," Bogdanovich said, "but I wouldn't sell them short yet. They still could be the team to beat come January."
CFB title risers and fallers
Odds to win CFB national championship (courtesy of Westgate SuperBook)
Bettors battle back in Week 3
The first two weeks of the NFL season went to the books, but bettors battled back this weekend. Sunday afternoon reports from Las Vegas sports books ranged from "a bad weekend" to a "bloodbath for the books." "It wasn't a good weekend for us," Bogdanovich told ESPN on Sunday afternoon. "Nothing disastrous, but the players are the winners this weekend."
The situation was worse at Caesars sports book.
"This weekend has been a complete turnaround from the last couple of weeks," David Pemberton, director of specialty games for Caesars Entertainment, who works out of the Rio sports book, said. "I knew the pendulum was going to swing back the other way from the last two weeks, but I didn't know it was going to chop our heads off."
The Dallas Cowboys were behind a losing day for the MGM sports book. The Cowboys, favored by two points, rallied back from a 21-0 deficit to defeat the St. Louis Rams 34-31.
"The Rams not being able to hold that lead was a monumental swing for us," Jay Rood, MGM vice president of race and sports, said. "Everybody standing at any of my books seemed to have a ticket with the Cowboys on it."
The Wynn, CG Technology and Aliante sports books also reported losing weekends, a drastic change from the first two weeks of the NFL season, when underdogs went 19-12-1 against the spread. But Sunday was full of covering favorites. The chalk went 7-3 ATS in the early games, with nine of 10 favorites winning outright. That put several books in precarious situations with parlay cards, heading into the afternoon games. The Arizona Cardinals' upset of the San Francisco 49ers and the Pittsburgh Steelers' upset of the Carolina Panthers prevented things from getting much worse for the books.
Saturday's college football action set the tone for the weekend. Heavily bet favorites, like Wisconsin and Boise State, and popular underdogs, like Utah and Mississippi State, came through for bettors. Wisconsin opened as low as a 17-point favorite over Bowling Green. By kickoff, the Badgers were favored by as many as 27 at some shops. Wisconsin easily covered in a 68-17 win. Utah opened as high as a 7-point road underdog at Michigan. The line shrunk down to around a field goal at kickoff, and the Utes won outright 26-10.
"If Washington State wouldn't have hung with and covered against Oregon, it would have made a bad day a really bad day," Rood said. "It was ugly, but on the heels of the last two weeks, it's bearable."
Early Week 5 college football action
Arkansas vs. Texas A&M, 3:30 p.m. ET, Saturday (CBS)
The Aggies have outscored opponents 221-47 and have seen their odds to win the national championship improve from 100-1 to 12-1 in the season's first four weeks. But the early action was on the Razorbacks in Saturday's intriguing prime-time SEC showdown at Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
A&M opened as a 15.5-point favorite at the Wynn, but bettors jumped on the underdogs and bet the line down to minus-11.5 as of Monday morning. Vegas book CG Technology also took money on the Razorbacks. After opening at A&M minus-13.5, the book was offering Aggies minus-10.5 on Monday.
Arkansas is 3-6 ATS in SEC play under coach Bret Bielema.
Odds and ends
• An eight-team, $100 parlay hit at William Hill sports book at Boomtown Casino, paying $20,800.
• Auburn's streak of covering the spread in 13 consecutive games was snapped Thursday. The Tigers failed to cover as 7-point favorites in a 20-14 win at Kansas State. Virginia now owns the longest such streak in the nation. The Cavs covered the spread in their sixth straight game in Saturday's 41-33 loss to BYU.
• Biggest "lock" of the weekend: Congratulations if you took over 66.5 in the East Carolina-North Carolina game. The teams combined for 111 points, eclipsing the total by 44.5 points, the biggest "lock" of the week.