​Cover Photo: Wesley Hitt/Getty Images


Even though Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovaioloa's knee injury in Saturday's game against Missouri wasn't enough to keep his Week 8 Heisman odds from improving, the bookmakers certainly didn't like the way it affected Alabama's College Football Playoff odds.


That's right folks, the seemingly unstoppable Crimson Tide actually sustained a slight drop in their Week 8 odds to win the College Football Playoff, while many other contenders moved up the board. 

Sure, Alabama may have only regressed by 20, going from -155 to -135, but a drop is a drop for a team of Alabama's caliber.


In the meantime, a Week 7 college football slate full of upsets did the heavy lifting in clearing the runway for perennial CFP challengers like Michigan and LSU to solidify themselves as legitimate threats outside the top four slots.


Thanks to losses by teams like then-No. 2 Georgia, then-No. 7 Washington and then-No. 8 Penn State, new No. 5 Notre Dame and No. 6 Michigan have catapulted themselves into the conversation of those that control their own destiny while chasing a playoff bid and CFP title.
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​NC State has become the poster child for CFP sleeper teams, and remaining at +8000 during the team's Week 7 bye has now earned the Wolfpack the eighth-best odds of any team in the country to win it all. However, their battle with now-No. 3 Clemson on the road this weekend will either make or break that line.

Who would have thought the NC State Wolfpack would have better odds to win the College Football Playoff in Week 8 than preseason favorites like Penn State (+10000), Wisconsin (+10000), Washington (+10000) and Auburn (+23000)? It's truly been a strange college football season so far, with more twists and turns surely to come.  

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David Hayes is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, David Hayes also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username DavidWHayes. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.