FWST: TCU tabbed as state’s best bet for national title run in 2016

Roughly one week of fall practices for the nation’s college football teams has triggered some updated odds about the most likely contenders to win this year’s College Football Playoff.

But here’s the bottom line, per today’s update from Bovada Sports Book: TCU, with 40-1 odds, is your most likely champion to emerge from the Lone Star State. The Horned Frogs head into their season opener with better odds than Baylor (50-1), which checked in as the state’s top CFP hopeful at the close of fall drills (16-1) before the May dismissal of coach Art Briles amid a sexual assault scandal at the school.

Curiously, Baylor still has the second-best odds among Texas college teams of earning this year’s CFP title despite the loss of 16 players from the Bears’ active roster since the close of spring drills. The odds-maker placed Baylor ahead of Houston (66-1), a team posted a 13-1 record last season and returns standout quarterback Greg Ward Jr. and other key playmakers. Houston received the same odds to claim this year’s national title as Texas (66-1) and Texas A&M (66-1). Texas Tech, at 500-1, was the only other school from Texas that received individual odds.