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. 24.
Washington Huskies
National title odds: 20-1 (opened 30-1)
Season win total: 10
FPI win total projection: 10.3
Phil Steele
Strengths: Quarterback Jake Browning, running backs Myles Gaskin and Lavon Coleman, wide receiver Dante Pettis and my No. 17-rated offensive line -- with 97 combined career starts -- are all back. All three units on defense rank in my top 25 nationally, and the Huskies have six starters back from a defense that allowed just 17.7 points per game.
Weaknesses: The Huskies did lose three second-round draft picks
Over/under (10): They avoid USC in Pac-12 regular-season play, and while they do play teams such as Arizona State, Colorado and Oregon State on the road, they will be favored in each of those games. A road trip to Stanford on Nov. 10 will likely determine who will win the North. I have the Huskies in the Pac-12 title game -- so I am going with the over.
National title odds (20-1): The Huskies are a stronger team this year, but they did come up short in the playoffs last year -- and they'll likely have to get past USC in the Pac-12 title game to make the College Football Playoff again. They are accurately priced at 20-1, so no play for me.
"Stanford Steve" Coughlin
O/U (10): What I like to see when I look at where a previously strong team stands is who they have returning from an already successful year. That means their head coach, starting quarterback, running backs, an offensive line with experience and, of course, ballers in the front seven. The Huskies check all of those boxes. While plenty of people will mention how they lost three guys from their great secondary from 2016, they do return guys will experience and plenty of playmaking ability in Taylor Rapp and JoJo McIntosh.
The experts also will wonder how they will replace the 81 catches and 17 touchdowns produced by first-round pick John Ross. That's where you have to trust Chris Petersen and his staff, which I have zero trouble doing, as he has guys like Pettis (53 catches and 15 TDs last year). I can also see speedster Jomon Dotson getting a lot more touches than his 57 rushing attempts last year.
The schedule sets up nicely for Washington, and I fully expect the Huskies to be 9-0 when they travel to Palo Alto on Nov. 10 to face the Stanford Cardinal. We saw quarterback Jake Browning at less than his best in the Huskies' two losses last season, but I will credit that to him not being 100 percent healthy. There also is this sense I get from the Huskies that they got a taste of the big time last year by making the playoff, and now they know what it takes to get the job done. Over 10 wins, and I see them as one of my four playoff teams.
Chris Fallica
O/U (10): If you thought last year's schedule was easy, this one says "hold my beer" in response. The Huskies have a nonconference schedule of Rutgers, which might be the worst Power 5 team in the country, an FCS team in Montana and Fresno State -- a team that's on the longest losing streak in the FBS. And unlike 2016, Washington does not face USC during the regular season. The only game close to a 50-50 proposition is its trip to Stanford on Nov. 10, and it's hard to find where else a loss could come from on this slate outside of that visit to Palo Alto.
There are obviously a lot of losses at wide receiver and in the secondary, but with a solid front seven, two very good backs and Browning, it's hard not to see 11-1 as a baseline for the season. And while an upset would put 10-2 in play, I don't see how 9-3 comes into play. Best case a win, worst case a push for a team that will once again will find itself in the CFP mix.
Title odds (20-1): We saw last year that the committee doesn't care about nonconference schedule ranks: Win all of your games, and it will view you favorably. So while the Huskies' nonconference schedule will once again come under scrutiny from true strength of schedule measures, the CFP won't take any of that into account. If Washington caps a 12-1 season with a win over USC in the Pac-12 title game, there's basically no doubt the Huskies will return to the CFP. At 20-1, they are worth a play.