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One popular form of thinking when it comes to setting up a college football preseason Top 25 is to look to the people with the most to lose. The theory goes, that because Vegas oddsmakers have to set the odds in such a way that they not only attract wagers but also push things to work out favorably from their vantage financially, they deliver the closest thing to a balanced, unbiased order of teams...or something.
Of course the person that said that was probably Colin Cowherd. And while I neither subscribe to the ideology above wholesale nor am personally anything close to an ardent gambler, I do find the idea of trying to slap together a hypothetical Top 25 based on odds an interesting offseason exercise, if nothing else.
Per the folks at Bovada, here are the latest odds for college football's 2013 national championship. OSU, which had previously been all intents and purposes #2, now finds themselves tied at 13/2 odds for second best with trendy pick Texas A&M. Betting the field at 20/1 also seems interesting. I wonder when the last time a so-called "Field" team won the sport's highest prize.
| Alabama | 3/1 |
| Ohio State | 13/2 |
| Texas A&M | 13/2 |
| Oregon | 7/1 |
| Georgia | 14/1 |
| Stanford | 16/1 |
| LSU | 18/1 |
| Florida | 20/1 |
| Field | 20/1 |
| Louisville | 22/1 |
| Clemson | 25/1 |
| Miami | 28/1 |
| Michigan | 28/1 |
| South Carolina | 28/1 |
| Florida State | 33/1 |
| Oklahoma State | 33/1 |
| Texas | 33/1 |
| Notre Dame | 40/1 |
| Nebraska | 50/1 |
| Oklahoma | 50/1 |
| UCLA | 50/1 |
| USC | 50/1 |
| TCU | 66/1 |
| Wisconsin | 66/1 |
| Boise State | 100/1 |
| Michigan State | 100/1 |
| Oregon State | 100/1 |
| Mississippi | 125/1 |
| Auburn | 150/1 |
| North Carolina | 150/1 |
| Virginia Tech | 150/1 |
| Washington | 150/1 |
| Northwestern | 150/1 |
| BYU | 200/1 |
| California | 200/1 |
| Cincinnati | 200/1 |
| Georgia Tech | 200/1 |
| Kansas State | 200/1 |
| Mississippi State | 200/1 |
| Pittsburgh | 200/1 |
| Rutgers | 200/1 |
| Arkansas | 250/1 |
| Arizona | 250/1 |
| Iowa | 250/1 |
| Tennessee | 250/1 |
| Missouri | 300/1 |
| West Virginia | 300/1 |
| Boston College | 500/1 |
| South Florida | 500/1 |