With the 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.
Ohio State Buckeyes
National title odds: 8-1 (opened 10-1)
Season win total: 9.5
FPI win total projection: 8.8
Phil Steele
Strengths: Ohio State has had the No. 1 recruiting class in the Big Ten for five straight years, and has the most overall talent of any team in the conference. The Buckeyes have a veteran quarterback, J.T. Barrett, who now is the clear-cut starter. He was No. 5 in the Heisman voting in 2014 as Ohio State's main QB, until he was injured.
Weaknesses: Experience. The Buckeyes rank No. 128 out of 128 in the country on my experience chart and suffered some record-breaking losses to the NFL.
Over/under (9.5): The Buckeyes are an underdog in only one game this year. After plugging my nine sets of power ratings into the schedule, my computer comes up with 9.81 wins for Ohio State. I have them winning the Big Ten East as they get Michigan and Michigan State in Games 11 and 12, when their young team will be have the benefit of almost an entire season of experience. I have a slight lean toward the over, as Urban Meyer has lost only one Big Ten regular-season game in four years as the Buckeyes' head coach.
National title (8-1): The Buckeyes are priced at 8-1 despite their inexperience, so no play for me here.
"Stanford Steve" Coughlin
O/U: I don't think there's a head coach in college football who had a more pleasant offseason than Meyer. After being in Chicago to see five of his guys drafted in the first round of the 2016 NFL draft -- and 12 of his players off the board in the first four rounds -- he had a big, proud smile on his face. That, combined with another great recruiting season, helps make a coach like Meyer a nicely focused and even-keeled guy going into this season. Most importantly, I think Meyer isn't actually all that upset to have all those players off his roster and into the NFL because to me, it looked like the Buckeyes almost held back a little, knowing they all had such bright futures ahead in the league. Now Meyer gets to work with a ton of talented young players competing for spots, each getting a chance to make his own name in the rich tradition of this program.
Meyer thrives on the ability to lean on the underdog role to inspire his players, and with the offseason Michigan has had, he has to be feeling great about where his team is. It was interesting to hear Meyer at Big Ten media day saying that Barrett didn't start the season opener last year because he didn't win the QB job in summer camp. This year, there's no question who the guy at QB is in Columbus. I like the Buckeyes to win the conference and gain a spot in the College Football Playoff, easily hitting their 9.5 win total for the over.
National title odds: I think the Buckeyes are more talented than Michigan, and they get to play the Wolverines in Columbus. If OSU can get to the CFP, we know Urban can coach when it comes to the playoff, so I'm intrigued by Ohio State at 8-1.
Chris Fallica
O/U: Talk about a complete 180 entering the season after last year. Gone are 16 Buckeyes starters, but don't let that fool you -- there is plenty of talent in Columbus. Barrett is back at QB, and there is no controversy this year as to who will be under center. He should get a huge boost with WRs Corey Smith and Noah Brown back from injuries that caused them to miss all of last year; look for a huge improvement in the passing game. The defense is young, athletic and unproven. Could that hurt them in Norman on Sept. 17? Sure. Make no mistake, though -- Sam Hubbard, Raekwon McMillan and Tyquan Lewis are players.
Meyer has lost only one regular-season Big Ten game in four years. If you give OSU a loss at Oklahoma, the Buckeyes would have to double their regular-season Big Ten loss total under Urban Meyer to fall to 9-3, and I just don't see it. I think 10-2 is the bottom of my expectations for the Buckeyes, and it wouldn't surprise me to see Ohio State go 12-0.
College Football Playoff odds: I wrote about this earlier this year -- I would play Ohio State at 8-1, because if the Buckeyes go to Norman and win, that price will be long gone. If you're holding an 8-1 ticket with a 3-0 Ohio State, you'll be feeling pretty good about that, I think. In Urban Meyer's three national championship seasons, his teams began the season at fifth, fifth and seventh in the preseason AP poll and didn't reach No. 1 until at least December. This could be another one of those years.