Mack wasn’t alone
Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale always knows he could lose his enormous sports bets, but he probably didn’t think he’d effectively have no chance to win his wager on the College Football Playoff National Championship game Monday night halfway through the second quarter. Mack had put over $3m on TCU to defeat the defending champ Georgia Bulldogs, but no matter how you slice it, moneyline, spread, or anything else, he and TCU both got walloped, as Georgia won going away, 65-7.
There have been some blowouts in the championship game, but this one is unequaled. In fact, there is only one game in the history of college football in which a top-five team was beaten by a larger margin: in 1944, top-ranked Army downed #5 Notre Dame, 59-0.
In last night’s game, Georgia was #1 and TCU was ranked #3.
Mattress Mack is from Texas – he has a successful furniture store in Houston – so he was likely looking for an excuse to bet on TCU, which is located in Fort Worth. And he found one in the moneyline.
“I woke up and saw Georgia beat Ohio State and then saw the TCU moneyline was like +450 and thought that was crazy,” Mack told Action Network last week.
McIngvale was not the only sports bettor to lose a chunk of change Monday night. According to DraftKings, 57% of the moneyline handle (the dollar amount bet) was on TCU. The spread tilted toward Georgia, who were 13.5-point favorites.
Purely looking at the number of wagers, not the dollar amounts, 66% of the spread bets and 69% of the moneyline bets were on the TCU Horned Frogs.
TCU certainly had a wonderful season, going undefeated until the Big XII Championship game against Kansas State, which they lost in overtime. There was plenty of debate as to whether or not TCU deserved to be in the four-team playoff, as strong teams with two losses like Alabama and Tennessee were seen by many as being better.
Semifinals altered perceptions
Even with the previous doubts about TCU (and make no mistake, they are an excellent team), the results of the playoff semifinal games likely shifted some perception and influenced bets. Georgia, which had been dominant for the past two seasons, squeaked by #4 Ohio State, which had been pummeled by #2 Michigan in the Big Ten Championship. Georgia came back from 14 down in the fourth quarter against Ohio State and still had to dodge a missed field goal at the end of regulation to survive.
In the meantime, TCU went into its semifinal game with Michigan as an 8-point underdog and won by 6, displaying a high-powered offense to go along with two pick-sixes.
That combination of Georgia looking vulnerable on defense plus TCU taking it to an undefeated Michigan made lots of people think the biggest upset in the history of the championship game was possible.
Alas, Georgia ended any hope for TCU bettors and fans very early. The Bulldogs led 17-7 after the first quarter and put the game out of reach before halftime. They intercepted Heisman Trophy finalist Max Duggan twice in the in the final minutes of the second quarter and converted both into touchdowns to take a 38-7 lead into the locker room. It was over. They poured it on in the second half to the point where coach Kirby Smart pulled starting quarterback and Heisman finalist Stetson Bennett toward the beginning of the fourth quarter.
And guess what? Georgia is the favorite to threepeat next season.
