It was a typically warm day on June 24 in Arizona, when one bettor strolled into BetMGM sportsbook at State Farm Stadium in Glendale and decided to place a staggering $615,000 on three college football futures wagers.
The likely line of thinking: Bet on three highly-ranked college football powerhouses (excluding Ohio State) to win the national title, and at worst have an opportunity to hedge off of one (or more) of them in the College Football Playoff. Potentially, two of the teams could even end up playing each other in the CFP semifinals or title game.
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Unfortunately, the season didn’t quite go as planned for the bettor.
The first bet was $300,000 on the preseason AP No. 1 Texas Longhorns to win the CFP at +500 odds. The Longhorns, led by then-preseason Heisman Trophy favorite Arch Manning, were the co-favorites with Ohio State at BetMGM to win the national championship.
The Longhorns went 9-3 in the regular season — losses at Ohio State (14-7), at Florida (29-21) and at Georgia (35-10) — but missed out on the CFP, finishing 13th in the final ranking.
The second wager was $200,000 on the preseason AP No. 2 Penn State Nittany Lions to win the CFP at +750 odds. Penn State had its best preseason title odds since at least 2001, but shocking back-to-back losses as a 25-point favorite at UCLA and 21-point favorite against Northwestern led to the firing of head coach James Franklin. Starting QB Drew Allar also suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the Northwestern game. The 6-6 Nittany Lions weren’t a serious contender to make the CFP this season after those early upsets.
The third wager was $115,000 on the preseason AP No. 4 Clemson Tigers to win the CFP at 13-1 odds. Clemson was a popular futures bet this offseason at several books. Head coach Dabo Sweeney had won at least nine games in every season since 2011 at Clemson, but fell short of that number this campaign. The 7-5 Tigers lost three of their first games (including as 17.5-point home favorites against Syracuse) to quickly fall out of the CFP conversation.
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Any of the three bets would have won roughly $1.5 million on its own — instead, they are all part of a donation to BetMGM.
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