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 Aug. 22.
San Diego State Aztecs
National title odds: 500-1 (opened 1,000-1)
Season win total: 9
FPI win total projection: 8.9
Phil Steele
Strengths: I rate the Aztecs No. 13 on defense and they have a veteran offensive line and running back Donnel Pumphrey. The Aztecs also have my No. 31-rated special teams.
Weaknesses: San Diego State wins with a solid run game, defense and special teams. The Aztecs do not have great quarterbacks or receivers, and neither of those units rank among my top.
Over/under (9): The total is just nine, and head coach Rocky Long sometimes uses nonconference games like preseason games. They have to face Cal and Northern Illinois outside the Mountain West, which leaves little wiggle room. I do not have them an underdog in any game, so I would play the over here.
National title (500-1): The Aztecs opened at 1000-1 and have gone down to 500-1. Those are some large odds, but save your cash. San Diego State faces my No. 127-rated schedule, so the odds of a 13-0 San Diego State team making the CFB Playoff would be slim, let alone winning the whole thing.
"Stanford Steve" Coughlin
There is a theme to my picks this year in projecting win totals, and that theme is speed. I don't want to be hanging on at the end of the season to see if my pick will be right or wrong; I want to know as early as I can in the season. Say, like, by the end of the first month of the season.
Having said that, the Aztecs face two huge out-of-conference games in September: versus Cal (who will be off a bye) and at Northern Illinois. I don't see the Aztecs losing both of the those games, so I will take the over. SDSU did go 9-0 in conference last year and the Aztecs return one of my favorite names in college football, Donnel Pumphrey.
Chris Fallica
O/U: Nine seems low to me, as how many loseable games do the Aztecs really have? Contests against Cal and at Northern Illinois are 50-50 propositions, but other than those two, San Diego State will be favored in every other game. So even if they lose the two toughest games on the schedule, they will be expected to finish 10-2. Sure, QB Maxwell Smith is gone, but the Aztecs are built to win with the running game and defense. I'd be surprised if we weren't looking at a Boise State-San Diego State matchup in the conference title game with potentially a New Year's Six berth at stake. I'm on the over here.
CFB Playoff odds: I can't see the Aztecs in the CFB Playoff, even if they are undefeated. The schedule will be viewed as too weak and simply can't match anything a one- or even two-loss Power 5 team would have to offer. But there's no reason the NY6 can't be a legitimate goal.