Las Vegas has doubts about Cardale Jones

By Marcus DiNitto, Sporting News	@TheLinemakers


The College Football Playoff selection committee has faith in Cardale Jones. Las Vegas has its doubts. After Ohio State's 59-0 shellacking of Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game, the Buckeyes moved from fifth to fourth in the playoff rankings, a high enough standing to secure a spot in the Sugar Bowl, a national semifinal date against Alabama on New Year's Day. Ohio State has been as high as a 10-point underdog against the top-seeded Crimson Tide since betting opened in Vegas on Sunday. Why such a big spread for a national semifinal? "The reason that game is getting pushed up is because of that quarterback," said The Wynn's John Avello, who hung Vegas' first lines on the college football final four. "He played Wisconsin. How good is Wisconsin? ... "Now he's going up against Alabama. It's a whole different thing for this kid. ... I'm not sure how much weight I put on that game. Do you think beating Wisconsin 59-0 is as good as beating Kansas State by 12 points? I don't think it is. Kansas State would blow Wisconsin off the map." Kansas State is the third best team in the Big 12, a conference that had a pair of playoff hopefuls heading into the last weekend of regular-season action. TCU, in fact, was ranked No. 3, beat Iowa State 55-3, and still dropped to sixth. Baylor, which beat TCU earlier in the season, moved from No. 6 to No. 5 after taking care of Kansas State. "They poured the score on to get style points, which I hate," Avello went on about the Buckeyes' win over the Badgers. "So Ohio State went out in impressive fashion, on purpose, to get into that spot. Now, is that the way it's supposed to be done? Absolutely not. "In one respect, the committee had to hold Ohio State back because of this (inexperienced) quarterback. He's not proven enough to be in a big game. And that team lost to Virginia Tech, who's not even in the top 50! And you look at the rest of their games – they struggled with Indiana, they struggled with Michigan, they struggled with everybody that wasn't a good team. So where's the push to get them in there?" Hypothesizing about these Big Ten and Big 12 teams, Avello said, "TCU's probably the favorite over Ohio State, and Baylor-Ohio State's probably a pick." Should TCU had been invited to the Sugar Bowl, Alabama would be favored by less than a touchdown, according to Avello. Our full report on the opening lines for the 2014-15 college football bowl season is right here at The Linemakers on Sporting News.