2024 National Championship ATS Betting Pick

No. 2 Washington plays its final game as a member of the Pac-12 on Monday night as it faces No. 1 Michigan of the Big Ten in a matchup of 14-0 teams in the College Football Playoff national title game from Houston. 2024 CFP National Championship Odds to Win & Expert Analysis #2 Washington vs. #1 Michigan | MyBookie Sportsbook College Football Game Lines

Those schools will be Big Ten rivals starting next season and will play in October in Seattle. For Monday, the Wolverines are solid favorites to win their first national title since 1997.

How to Bet Washington vs. Michigan NCAA Football Odds & TV Info

When: Monday, 7:30 PM ET
Where: NRG Stadium, Houston
TV: ESPN
Stream: ESPN+
Radio: ESPN Radio
Opening NCAAF Lines: Michigan -4.5 (total 56)

Last Meeting

As noted above, these schools will be Big Ten rivals starting next season and will play on Oct. 5. In 2021, Washington visited Michigan for an early-season non-conference game and lost 31-10. UM running back Blake Corum ran for 171 yards and three touchdowns. He’s still a key piece of this year’s team. Hassan Haskins had 155 yards rushing and a score for the Wolverines and is in the NFL now. Washington was scoreless until Peyton Henry made a 28-yard field goal with 5:54 left in the third quarter. By the time Dylan Morris threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Bynum early in the fourth quarter, the Huskies were down by two touchdowns.

This year’s title game — the last in a four-team playoff before the field expands to 12 for the 2024 season — will feature two undefeated squads making their first appearance in the championship game in the CFP era.

Why Bet on Washington Huskies?

There have been three times previously that a No. 2 seed has played a No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff national title game. The No. 2 seed won all three, although each game involved Alabama vs. Clemson.

The Huskies (14-0) got here with a 37-31 win over No. 3 Texas on the Sugar Bowl semifinal to extend UW’s winning streak to 21 in a row, the longest active streak in the country, and the third-longest in Husky history (longer UW streaks: 40 straight wins 1908-16; 22 straight wins 1990-92). UW has now amazingly won its last 12 games that have been decided by one score or less.

QB and Heisman runner-up Michael Penix was stellar in throwing for 430 yards and two scores. When targeting the Huskies’ top three playmakers – Rome Odunze, Jalen McMillan and Ja’Lynn Polk — Penix was 16-of-17 for 305 yards. Texas had no answer for arguably the most talented receiver corps in the country. Penix, who came into the game as the national leader in passing yards, eclipsed the 4,500-yard mark for the season to become the first FBS quarterback to achieve that in back-to-back seasons since Patrick Mahomes in 2015-16.

Prior to this season, Washington had had two receivers total 100 yards in the same game just eight times in program history. It happened in the national semifinal for the seventh time this season as Polk had 122 yards and Odunze had 125. Running back Dillon Johnson scored two touchdowns to give him 16 for the season. That total is fourth in UW single-season history. Johnson, who suffered a lower leg injury in the fourth quarter of the Sugar Bowl against Texas, is expected to play Monday.

Johnson has racked up 1,162 rushing yards while averaging 5.2 yards per carry. Coach Kalen DeBoer said Johnson has been a physical player for the Huskies who has established himself in the second half of the season and has excelled in his pass protection.

“He’s a big piece to [the offense],” DeBoer said. “I don’t think I’d be able to sell it any other way. I think everyone would see through that, but we have other guys that are ready to go if he’s not able to step out there, but I know Dillon’s going to do everything he can because he’s put his heart and soul into this season, this team all year long.”

This season, UW has never trailed by more than seven points. The Huskies never trailed at all in eight of 14 games, including tonight vs. the Longhorns. Over a total of 840 minutes this season, the Huskies have trailed for just 101 minutes, five seconds. Washington has allowed a total of just 41 fourth-quarter points over its last nine games, and just 27 points in the fourth over the last six.

DeBoer is now 104-11 as a head coach, and is 25-2 at UW. He is also 18-2 as a head coach in playoff games and 10-0 vs. ranked teams.

Bet Washington to Win
MyBookie Betting Lines for NCAAF

Why Bet on Michigan Wolverines?

Michigan (14-0) had won the Big Ten title each of the previous years to reach the College Football Playoff only to lose in the semifinals, but Jim Harbaugh’s club finally broke through with a 27-20 OT win over Alabama in the Rose Bowl semifinal. On fourth down at the U-M three-yard line in OT Alabama needed a scoring play to extend the game. U-M defensive lineman Josaiah Stewart came up with a tackle, holding Tide QB Jalen Milroe short of the goal line to secure a theatrical Rose Bowl win.

Down seven points with 4:41 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Wolverines put together their most important scoring drive of the season, marching 75 yards on just eight plays. Three straight plays of at least 16 yards took the Wolverines the length of the field and set up a four-yard passing touchdown from quarterback J.J. McCarthy to wide receiver Roman Wilson, tying the game at 20 apiece with 1:34 on the clock after a converted extra point attempt.

In overtime, the Crimson Tide won the coin toss and chose to defer. It took running back Blake Corum only two plays to go the allotted 25 yards and score a touchdown on a 17-yard rush which included three broken tackles near the goal line, giving the Wolverines a 27-20 advantage.

In the program’s first bowl game victory since 2016, Michigan shined in the trenches, with six sacks and 10 tackles for loss — both season highs — proving to be a difference maker in the game. Edge rusher Braiden McGregor led the charge with two sacks.

The Rose Bowl was Michigan’s first overtime game of the year and the program’s first since 2020, when the Wolverines defeated the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, 48-42. All-time, U-M has won 14 of its 17 total overtime games. It also marked the first CFP game to go to overtime under the new rules, which force teams to go for two after the first set of scores.

Corum (25 this season, 56 in his career) added to his program single-season rushing touchdown record and passed Anthony Thomas (55) to own the outright career rushing touchdowns record at Michigan. Corum’s first-quarter receiving touchdown was the third of his career and put him at 150 points scored during the 2023 season, setting a new single-season record for most points scored (previous: Jake Moody, 147 in 2022).

In quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s 27 career starts, U-M is 26-1 for a winning percentage of 96.3, the best mark by any starting quarterback in at least the last 20 years. McCarthy (2,851) eclipsed his 2022 season passing total (2,719) and passed both his coach Jim Harbaugh (2,729, 1986) and Chad Henne (2,743, 2004) to advance to sixth all-time for passing yards in a season. With three touchdown passes in the Rose Bowl, McCarthy (49) passed Rick Leach (48) and tied Denard Robinson (49) for fourth in career passing touchdowns at Michigan.

With Alabama’s loss, this will be the first CFP national championship game since Ohio State faced Oregon in the inaugural 2014 season that won’t feature an SEC team. If there was one qualm about U-M’s Rose Bowl win, the Wolverines muffed a punt in the first quarter, missed an extra point in the second quarter because of a botched snap and missed a field goal wide left in the fourth quarter.

Bet Michigan to Win
MyBookie Betting Lines for NCAAF