Week 5 of the 2024 college football season brought us a ton of thrills and close games, but no game had more eyes on it than the Georgia Bulldogs visiting the Alabama Crimson Tide in a battle between No. 2 and No. 4. Any time you have two top five teams facing each other, especially rivals like those, the viewership is going to be through the roof, and the handle on the game is also going to be huge for the sportsbooks. Everyone was betting on this game, and it ended up delivering in what was quite possibly the game of the year.
Alabama got off to a terrific start, going up 30-7 at halftime, and just destroying Georgia in every way imaginable. However, the Bulldogs woke up after halftime, outscoring the Tide 27-11 in the second half of the game. They even managed to take the lead in the fourth quarter at the very end, before Alabama scored on the very next play, the two teams exchanging long touchdown passes in the closing minutes. In the end, Alabama won 41-34 in a shootout slugfest.
As a result of the loss, the Bulldogs have fallen from +350 to +650 to win the National Championship game at BetMGM. Meanwhile, Alabama has taken a ton of cash since the first half of that game, as BetMGM Trading Manager Seamus Magee explains: "There was definitely plenty of action coming in on 'Bama during that big first half that they had. Alabama is one of our bigger liabilities."
Georgia has some really difficult matchups coming up on their schedule moving forward, so this number is going to either jump or fall considerably as we move forward. They will travel to No. 2 Texas on October 19, travel to No. 12 Ole Miss on November 9, and get a home date with No. 4 Tennessee on November 16. Two back to back games against ranked SEC opponents there, and of course, Texas at home is a beast.
It is certainly possible that Georgia wins all of these games. Yes, they lost to Alabama, but they came back from a huge deficit when they could have just thrown in the towel. People have to remember that they had not lost a regular season game before this past Saturday for like three years. It was one game, and this is still one of the best teams in the country. Texas, Ole Miss and Tennessee have not faced anyone that is even close to as good as the Bulldogs are.
Right now at BetMGM, 11.1 percent of the tickets and 16 percent of the handle is on Georgia to win the National Championship. (They opened as the favorite to win the title.) While this schedule coming up is extremely tough, it is possible they win all three of them. Of course, they could lose as well. It is tough to judge, and it depends on what you think of Georgia moving forward.
Personally, I think they will win at least two of those games, if not all three. Getting +650 might be the best price you see for them this season after that loss.
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