BCS National Championship 2012: Betting Odds Signal a Crimson Tide Victory

The Alabama Crimson Tide (11-1) and LSU Tigers (13-0) are set to play a Southeastern Conference rematch in the 2012 BCS National Championship Game, and almost every large wager in Las Vegas is expecting Nick Saban to gain revenge.

In speaking with nearly every major sports book manager on and off the strip Sunday, over 60 percent of the straight-bet wagering is landing on the underdog Tigers, but the type of money that moves a line of this magnitude has landed squarely on the Crimson Tide.

Alabama opened as one-point neutral-site underdogs on Dec. 4, with that number rising to as high as 2.5 points at some of the sharper outfits in town.

Saban has earned a great deal of respect from major players in the sports betting industry over the years, as many were left holding a losing ticket in the Crimson Tide's 9-6 loss to the Tigers as 5.5-point home favorites on Nov. 5 in Tuscaloosa. 

It's certainly hard to ignore the type of success he's had when playing with conference revenge, posting a 15-3 straight-up record while covering 14 of those contests for the betting public.

From a betting perspective, the Crimson Tide are definitely the sharp play in town for this prime-time affair inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, but the Tigers are a dangerous 4-1 against the spread as bowl underdogs.

I'm personally staying away from actually wagering on a team and electing to play a proposition wager that offers a ton of value.

Good luck in playing college football's biggest game.