BAMANEWSBOT
Staff
Alabama will have a new quarterback this fall. It will have a new offensive coordinator. It lost team captains on both sides of the ball. There are issues in the secondary, too.
The oddsmakers in Las Vegas, the most nonpartisan experts of all, don't seem to mind.
And so far, bettors don't either.
Jay Rood, the vice president of race and sports at MGM Resorts, has set Alabama's odds to win the 2015 national championship at 6-1, which is tied with Ohio State and Oklahoma with the second lowest odds to win just behind the betting favorite, defending national champion Florida State (5-1).
It's not that Rood - who oversees the betting lines at 12 Nevada sportbooks including the MGM Grand, Mirage, Bellagio and Mandalay Bay - and his colleagues are unaware of the question marks surrounding the Crimson Tide this season. It's just that with Alabama, they know better than to react to annual roster turnover.
Because of Alabama's track record, a talent-rich roster and Nick Saban, its decorated head coach, sportsbooks believe that no team in the nation is more immune to a few preseason concerns than the Crimson Tide.
"Alabama totally overrides everything," Rood said. "Saban knows how to recruit, he knows how to develop talent, and they have quite a few returning starters on offense. That's where most of (Alabama's high regard in Vegas) comes from; it's the foundation that is already in place and what's built on top of that."
The betting public has reinforced his belief: The team with the most money backing a title run at Rood's sportsbooks this offseason? Alabama.
- See more at: https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1658038#sthash.R1yMiM4L.dpuf
