With college football season on the horizon, ESPN Chalk's college football experts -- Phil Steele, "Stanford Steve" Coughlin and Chris Fallica -- combine to give you betting previews of the Top 25 teams, according to the ESPN College Football Rankings. They break down each team's strengths and weaknesses, along with season win total bets and national title odds.
Odds from Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook as of Sept. 1.
Texas A&M Aggies
National title odds: 100-1
Season win total: 8
Phil Steele
Strengths: With Kevin Sumlin as the head coach, you know the offense will be explosive, and they have my No. 4 set of receivers in the country. The defense has a stud up front in DE Myles Garrett (11.5 sacks as true freshman) and plenty of elite recruits for new defensive coordinator John Chavis to mold. They have a top-10 special-teams unit, as well, which is fitting with their 12th Man history.
Weaknesses: The defense has allowed 476 and 451 YPG the past two years, so even if they show dramatic improvement, it might get them into only the top 50 defenses nationally. This will continue to be a weakness.
Over/under: At first blush, the schedule is very favorable, with only three true road games (Arizona State and Arkansas are both neutral-site games in Texas) -- and one of those is versus Vandy! I actually have A&M at seven or eight wins this year. They are 0-5 at home versus SEC West powers Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Ole Miss so they will have to break through versus Auburn.
National title: Walk up to the window and plunk down $10 on the Aggies. If A&M's defense thrives under Chavis, if they take care of business at home and in the state of Texas and if they stay healthy, then they could win the West and make the playoff. Worth a shot.
'Stanford Steve' Coughlin
I'm sure you have all heard by now that my man Chris Fallica, ESPN head researcher for college football and College GameDay TV star, is all-in on the chances for the Aggies to have an extraordinary year. I believe he stated "100-1 is great value" for Sumlin's bunch when the idea of winning the national title this year. I love when Fallica gets fired up, but, let's just back up to last season.
Texas A&M went into Columbia, South Carolina, and torched Steve Spurrier's bunch 52-28, then rolled through three cupcake teams and their QB at the time, Kenny Hill, was looking to trademark the phrase "Kenny Trill." In the next three weeks, they proceeded to give up 48, 35 and 59 points to Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Alabama, respectively. And just like that, the doubters of Sumlin started raising their voices.
Maybe we overreacted when Sumlin started tweeting out, "YESSIR," whenever he got a recruit to sign, but those recruits from the Johnny Football era are growing up, and they look like they can do some damage in the SEC this season. Google images of Myles Garrett and tell me if you don't think he looks like a man. I've changed my mind while writing this: I'm jumping on the "Bear" Fallica's back and riding the Aggies this year. Take those 100-1 odds to win the title.
O/U: With this offense, I like this team to go over.
Chris Fallica
I've been called crazy for picking the Aggies to win the SEC this year, but how crazy of a pick is it? Certainly much more reasonable than picking Auburn to win the SEC in 2013. I think it's a bit more of an indictment on how balanced I think the West is, along with how A&M's schedule plays out. This could be a year in which the Aggies are a little under the radar, as the post-Johnny Manziel hype is gone. There is a big disconnect, too, between analytics and human polls. The preseason FPI from ESPN Stats & Information has the Aggies at No. 6 overall.
O/U: I think over 7.5 is a good play. As bad as things went for A&M last year, the Aggies were 7-5 in regular season. I'm bullish on the Aggies this year, as FPI projects A&M to win nine games with a better chance to win the SEC than Alabama or Auburn.
Title odds: At 100-1, the Aggies possess a ton of value. As Phil pointed out, they have three true road games, Alabama and Auburn visit College Station and there are two marquee neutral site games against Arizona State and Arkansas. Last year, things spiraled out of control after a hot start. Kyle Allen should excel in his first full year as starting QB and Chavis was brought in as defensive coordinator. If you believe recruiting rankings, the talent is there, and this could be the year it all meshes. And if it does, A&M could easily be a top-four team and a ticket you want to hold come December.