Early College Football Playoff First Round Preview

The Early Edge: A Daily Sports Betting Podcast

CBS Sports

Fantasy Sports, Sports, Football

3.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our panel of college football experts Mike McClure, Emory Hunt, and Tom Casale break down their picks for the College Football Playoffs, who has the hardest path, which teams can upset, and MORE! 🎙ABOUT THE SHOW Get your daily bets here FIRST! The No. 1 sports betting show and podcast—powered by SportsLine + CBS Sports—delivers the day's best bets in a fast-paced, fun environment, first thing in the morning. Starting at 10 a.m. ET every weekday, The Early Edge goes live on YouTube, breaking down the day’s action across the NFL, college football, NBA, MLB, NHL, college basketball, soccer, and more! The Early Edge is here to talk sports betting for everyone—from first-time bettors to sharps, and everyone in between. From point spreads to totals, player props to parlays, and so much more, we're here to win. Together. 🎧 LISTEN • Stream and follow & leave a 5⭐️ rating on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3URc49a • Download and follow & leave a 5⭐️ rating on Apple: https://apple.co/4hLfVhP • Other CBS Sports podcasts: https://cbssports.com/podcast 🎥 WATCH • Subscribe to this channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SportsLine • Watch CBS Sports HQ: https://cbssports.com/live • Watch CBS Sports Network on your TV or the CBS Sports App with your cable provider 📱FOLLOW • Twitter: https://twitter.com/SportsLine • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sportsline • TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@sportsline 📖 READ • More betting news: https://www.sportsline.com/ 🛍️MERCH • Shop our merch: https://www.paramountshop.com/collections/the-early-edge 💵BETTING Head to https://www.sportsline.com to find best bets, picks and props. Any league. Any game. Any time. Both from the sharpest sports bettors in the business as well as the SportsLine Advanced Model, where we simulate each game 10,000 times and provide projected scores, graded bets, plus player prop projections. If you like it, use promo code EARLY to get your first 30 days FREE! #SportsBetting #collegefootballpicks #Betting #collegefootballplayoffs #Earlypicks To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	A very happy Wednesday, everyone, and welcome to the Early Edge. My name is Cia Najat,
0:07.4	otherwise known as the counselor of cash. And this show is brought to you by BetMGM, Make It
0:12.5	Legendary. This show is going to be amazing. I mean, we are covering it all. We're going to have
0:16.7	some college football reactions, some early picks to some bowl games, some soccer with
0:21.0	Champions League, NBA, college basketball.
0:24.4	I should stop talking because we have too much to cover.
0:27.1	Let's bring in some of the heavy hitters from Sportsline.
0:30.3	It's none other than Tom Casale, Emery, Emery Hunt, and Mike McClure.
0:33.7	And with you three on screen, there's no way I'm not getting some college football reaction before we actually get into lines that we might like for playoff season.
0:42.7	Emery, I'm going to start with you.
0:43.8	You look at the college football playoff bracket.
0:46.1	Which team, and maybe we can bring that bracket up as well, which team do you think has the hardest path here?
0:53.1	I would say Texas A&M, guys, because you have to face Miami in the first round who has a
0:57.4	really good defense in the office that has the ability with Malachi, Tony, to strike quick
1:02.0	in the passing game.
1:03.2	And then your next game would be against Ohio State, who is arguably the number one team
1:07.9	in a country, especially for the longer part of the season, a reigning national champion. So if you want to get to the semifinals, I think A&M, to me, has two of the more tougher games right out of the gate. All right. Tom Casale, talk to me about maybe a team with the hardest path or a team with the easiest path or both. Yeah, I think Ohio State has a tough path. You look at that
1:30.0	first game, Texas A&M or Miami, either one of those teams is a tough matchup. I mean, Texas A&M
1:34.9	was undefeated in the SEC for the whole year. We kind of remember them losing to Texas, but
1:39.3	they're a really good team. Then win that, and it's most likely Georgia, who that's my pick to win it all.
1:45.2	So I think Ohio State has two really tough games in front of them.
1:49.7	Mike, talk to me about a hard path or an easy path here.
	...

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