The Clemson Tigers and the Tennessee Volunteers will face off at the end of the year in the showdown to win the Orange Bowl. Here we look ahead to the match and give you our big game verdict in our free NCAAF betting picks.
The game is still a few days away, but already the best NCAAF Vegas odds setters have made the Tigers their betting favorites. The best college football betting sites have Clemson to win at -250, with Tennessee at +205.
On the handicap line, Tennessee is getting a start of 6.5 points. With the points start, the Volunteers are at -110, with the Tigers also at -110. Finally, on the total points line, 64 is the marker.
BetUS go -110 on both over and under, but BetOnline has over 64 at -105 and under 64 at -115. Not huge differences, but it’s worth knowing if you are betting on this market.
Now, let’s look at the form before making our NCAAF betting picks for the matchup.
The Tigers finished their regular season with a 39-10 win over UNC, ending with an 11-2 record. The two losses were to South Carolina and Notre Dame.
The South Carolina defeat was just by one point and was in the Tiger’s penultimate match of the regular season. The 31-30 loss was also at the Memorial Stadium and is the Tigers only home loss of the season.
The defeat at the hands of Notre Dame came on the road in early November. This setback was more convincing, with the Fighting Irish scoring 35-14 winners. Often a team is best judged on how they react to a loss, and the Tigers did bounce back from the defeat with back-to-back wins.
Home victories over Louisville (31-16), and Miami, FL (40-10), were to be expected, though.
These two wins preceded the South Carolina defeat, followed by those above 39-10 win over UNC. But when you break it all down, it was a pretty unspectacular finish to the season by the Tigers, with two defeats in their final five games.
Significant wins throughout the campaign were the 34-28 win over Florida State in mid-October and the 10-point victory over NC State (30-20) in early October.
But considering Clemson was amongst the favorites to win the NCAAF championship for most of the season, the two losses will have come as a disappointment.
As for the Volunteers, they had the massive high of losing their goalposts in mid-October. Yes, we all remember the remarkable scenes of the goalposts being taken from the ground and dumped in the Tennessee River after the Volunteers’ remarkable win over the Alabama Crimson Tide.
At the time, Tennessee was ranked 6, the Crimson Tide was 3, and the Volunteers hadn’t defeated their great rival since 2006. The 52-49 win was sealed by a last-gasp 40-yard field goal from Chase McGrath, which gave the Volunteers their first win over Alabama since before Nick Saban joined the university.
Ultimately, the Volunteers ended up losing 27-13 away to Georgia at the start of November, and then they suffered a second defeat, this time to South Carolina two weeks later. The loss to Carolina was a horror show, and the Volunteers went down 63-38 at the Williams-Brice Stadium.
South Carolina did for both of these teams this season!
The Volunteers did follow that defeat up with a decisive 56-0 win away to Vanderbilt in their final regular season match, which left them with a 10-2 season record, but out of the championship.
The win over Alabama will live long in the memory, though, and this should serve as a building block for next season.
Onto our Orange Bowl betting picks, and as we’ve already seen, the Tigers are the favorites with the best college football betting sites. Despite having a ranking of 10, the Tigers have had a great season with 11 wins and an ACC Championship, yet it feels almost like a failure.
The Tigers didn’t have the greatest end to the season. But they’ve shown enough throughout to suggest the future is bright. Expectations are now high, and Dabo Swinney has created a great team ethic, and they will be a team to watch next season.
As for the Volunteers (ranked 6), they’ve also had a decent campaign. This is the first time since 2003 they’ve won ten times, and there was also the win over Alabama.
The South Carolina defeat wasn’t just a bad loss on the scoreboard, though, it was also the day that the Volunteers lost Hendon Hooker. And although Joe Milton III is a decent replacement, he’s not Hooker.
All of these things are swaying me toward a win for the Tigers. And with a handicap of just 6.5 to overcome, I’m making Clemson Tigers my pick to win the Orange Bowl.
Please check out our BetOnline sportsbook review for even more great betting offers that can be used for college football betting.
