Man With Gambling Column Clay Travis Predicts Blowouts In CFP Semis, Goes 0-2

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Clay Travis, the founder of a website whose main two topics (according to their own menu) are “sports” and “betting”, made predictions for the New Year’s Day College Football Playoff semifinals and went 0-2.

Not only did the 44-year-old Travis whiff on his money line picks — Alabama and Texas (real brave there, Clay!) — but he was remarkably off base with his analysis of the spread, saying that he thought both the Crimson Tide and the Longhorns would win by at least a touchdown.

Ultimately, not only did Bama and Texas lose, but they lost by 7 points and 6 points, respectively.

“I’m on Alabama and Texas, both ATS and outright. Think both teams win by 7+. Get rich, kids,” Travis tweeted about an hour before the kickoff of the Rose Bowl Game between Alabama and Michigan.

To be fair to Travis, he did do marginally better with his NFL picks over the holiday weekend as he was able to break even with a 3-3 record by taking the over in the Dolphins/Ravens game, the 49ers to cover against the Commanders and the Chiefs over the Bengals.

Frankly, I also had Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide — because seeing Jim Harbaugh looking angry/sad is something that always cracks me up for whatever reason (maybe because from the neck-up he looks like he’s coaching in the 1960s) — but later doubled down on the Huskies because Michael Pennix Jr. grown-manning the not-back Longhorns was the most obvious outcome of the weekend.

Travis wasn’t the only sports media personality to face plant with their New Year’s weekend college football betting picks, as Darren Rovell also shared what he called the “easiest bet” of 2024, the under in the Wisconsin and LSU game, which was ultimately a loser before the start of the 4th quarter. Always fun when you can get Travis and Rovell in the same sentence together.

Regardless of the ultimate outcomes, both College Football Playoff semi-finals were excellent games of football that highlighted the best that the sport has to offer: the Rose Bowl went to overtime while the Sugar Bowl was decided on the final play of the game.

With their wins over Alabama and Texas, the University of Michigan and the University of Washington will be facing off against each other in the College Football Playoff Final on Monday, January 8, in Houston, Texas. At the time of this writing, Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines are favored by about 4.5 points over Kalen DeBoer Washington Huskies.