Among those anxiously awaiting Monday’s College Football Playoff (CFP) championship game between No. 3 TCU and the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs are bettors who had the foresight to bet on the Horned Frogs to win the title before the season started.
The Horned Frogs were ranked +20,000 (bet $10 to win $2,010 total) at FOX Bet to win the national title before the season. TCU, after all, was coming off a 3-6 Big 12 season (tied for sixth) that cost coach Gary Patterson his job in his 22nd season in Fort Worth. To former SMU coach Sonny Dykes, son of former Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes (1986-99), who has led an epic turnaround for TCU.
After the Horned Frogs beat No. 2 Michigan 51-45 in the CFP semifinals in the Fiesta Bowl, TCU (13-1) is one win away from one of college football’s most improbable national championships.
The Bulldogs and Horned Frogs will play Monday night for the national championship at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
With the national championship game less than a week away, let’s take a look at how TCU’s title futures have moved throughout this college football season (current odds are via FOX Bet).
No. 3 TCU vs. no. 1 Georgia (7:30 p.m. ET Monday, SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, Calif., ESPN)
Distribution of points: Georgia -13.5 (Georgia is favored to win by more than 13.5 points, otherwise TCU covers)
Moneyline: Georgia -500 favorites to win (bet $10 to win $12 total); TCU + 300 underdogs to win (bet $10 to win $40 total)
Total Over/Under Score: 62.5 points scored by the two teams together
The Horned Frogs were not listed among the national title contenders for the first month at FOX Bet. But after bothering-No. 18 Oklahoma 55-24 on Oct. 1 to improve to 4-0, Horned Frogs championship odds cut to +10,000 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total).
As TCU kept winning, its odds dropped: +8000 after beating No. 19 Kansas 38-31 on Oct. 8, +5000 after beating No. 8 Oklahoma State 43-40 in the doubleheader extension on October 15, +6000 after beating No. 17 Kansas State 38-28 on Oct. 22.
Despite beating unranked West Virginia and Texas Tech to stay undefeated, the Horned Frogs’ odds stretched to +6000 before beating No. 18 Texas 17-10 on Nov. 12, dropping the odds of TCU’s title at +2200.
Even losing to No. 10 Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game 31-28 in overtime did little as the Horned Frogs went from +1500 to +1600 heading into bowl season.
TCU was +1100 at FOX Bet to win it all before the CFP semifinals.
After beating the Wolverines, the Horned Frogs are within two touchdowns of the defending national champions.
According to FOX Sports Research, this is the largest point spread for any college football playoff or BCS championship game. The previous high came when Miami was a 12-point favorite over Ohio State in the 2002 BCS championship game.
Do you think this worries the horned frogs?
TCU’s all-time record is 668-565-57 (54%), meaning the Horned Frogs have more wins in football than Stanford (665), Maryland (662), the Miami Hurricanes (652), Kentucky (640), North Carolina. State (622), UCLA and Oklahoma State (621 each), among other big-name schools.
The Horned Frogs claim three unsanctioned national titles.
Under Patterson, TCU went 13-0 in 2010 behind quarterback Andy Dalton, winning the Rose Bowl over Wisconsin 21-19. The Horned Frogs finished second in the Associated Press and coaches polls, but were declared national champions by the Congrove Computer Rankings.
TCU went 12-1 in 1935, capped by a 3-2 (yes, 3-2) win over LSU in the Sugar Bowl. The Horned Frogs went 11-0 in 1938, winning the Sugar Bowl over Carnegie Tech (yes, the Carnegie Tech Tartans, known as Carnegie Mellon since 1967) 15-7 in the Sugar Bowl.
The Horned Frogs have produced quarterback Davey O’Brien, the 1938 Heisman Trophy winner; eight College Football Hall of Fame players; 18 conference titles; and 17 consensus All-Americans.
So are you ready to lock in on TCU to continue this meteoric rise to hoist the trophy in Los Angeles? If so, get in on the betting action right now at Bet FOX!
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