Clemson Football: Tigers open as sizable favorites over UNC

With neither team impressing last weekend, the ACC Championship Game between Clemson football and North Carolina has lost most of its sizzle and all of its College Football Playoff implications.

The Tar Heels have lost two straight and the Tigers got punked by South Carolina at home to excuse themselves from playoff consideration.

But there’s still a conference championship on the line when the two teams meet Saturday night at 8 p.m. on ABC.

Clemson opened as an 8-point favorite according to CBS Sports, but that is now down to 7.5 per ESPN.

Where the line ends up is anyone’s guess, but 8 is a dead number and one that is really no different from 7.5 as far as bettors go.

When you consider the situation – a disappointed Clemson team that’s struggling mightily on offense, missing a key defensive piece for the first half (R.J. Mickens) against a North Carolina team with a superstar quarterback my mind immediately thinks “North Carolina is the pick here.”

That said, Drake Maye and the Tar Heels have struggled for consecutive games and the Clemson defense can be stout at times.

The elephant in the room is what Clemson football does at quarterback

There’s also the curiosity of what Clemson does at quarterback moving forward after the putrid performance put forward by D.J. Uiagalelei in the South Carolina debacle.

My guess is D.J. starts and plays the majority of the game with a few sprinkles from Klubnik.

What I really expect is a lot of running plays, not only because of the ineptness of the passing game in general, but the injury to Beaux Collins, who has been the only Tiger deep threat.

The SEC and Big Ten Championship Games are less appealing as Georgia (-16.5) and Michigan (-16) are huge favorites.

The Big 12 is worth a look as undefeated TCU is a slight, 2.5 point favorite over Kansas State.

RubbingtheRock.com will have more on the spread as the week goes on, but my first thought is it’d be hard to pass up North Carolina as an 8 point underdog against a Clemson offense that is struggling to score.