Through two full weeks of college football, no team has generated as much hype as the Miami Hurricanes. As you can probably imagine, there has been a commensurate reaction in the college football betting markets.
Last year’s national runner-up replaced outgoing Miami quarterback Carson Beck by nabbing Darian Mensah from ACC champion Duke. And with Mensah at the helm, Miami currently ranks second nationally in points per game (61) and first nationally in total offense (702 yards per game).
Miami doesn’t have the top-end pocket breakers that it did last year, and with apologies to Stanford and Florida A&M, the Hurricanes haven’t been tested all that much yet, either.
But none of that matters at BetMGM, where money is already rolling in on some major Miami outcomes.
As of Sept. 14, Miami is now the No. 6 most popular team to win the national championship at BetMGM, accounting for 7.2% of tickets and 9.1% of handle. The Hurricanes have mostly closed the gap on ticket share with popular preseason teams like Texas (8.3%) and are now a whopping -600 to make the College Football Playoff – the shortest price of any team in a P4 conference.
The real juice has been in the Heisman Trophy odds market, where both Mensah and star wide receiver Malachi Toney have taken huge adjustments to open the season.
Mensah is now a significant favorite to win the award after being adjusted from +1300 in the summer to +450 right now. His 18.6% of current handle is almost double the next-best player – Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr, who took money all summer and was the preseason favorite to win the award as a result.
Toney has taken a dramatic adjustment from 40-to-1 down to 13-to-1. At BetMGM, he is currently a more popular Heisman ticket than Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, and USC quarterback Jaydem Maiava, among many other notable names.
Eventually, the market will decide it prefers one player to the other, and their individual price point will probably collapse. But for now, everyone wants a piece of the Miami Hurricanes football odds market, which is why the sportsbook is shortening up so fast.
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