The Westgate Las Vegas Sportsbook published odds for who it believes has the best chance to win the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship. 

And, well, the picks range from spot on to downright nonsensical. 

I took a look at each of the odds, did the math, showed the payout on a crisp Benjamin Franklin, and will now advise you on exactly whose mouth to stick your money in.

Michigan State, Texas A&M — 60/1

Implied Odds: 1.64 percent

$100 Bet Payout: $6,100

If you’re willing to bet on Sparty or Ampersand U to win the national title, I’ve got some ocean front property for you in Oklahoma right up against the Guymon border. Make me an offer.

Notre Dame, Stanford — 50/1

Implied Odds: 1.96 percent

$100 Bet Payout: $5,100

Notre Dame is a sexy pick here. So is Stanford, what with some guy named Bryce Love returning at running back. Each of these programs has an outside shot to win the national title if they get past each other.

The Fighting Irish and Cardinal—the tree, not the priest—are slated to play on Sept. 29 this season. 

While Stanford’s schedule softens after it plays Notre Dame, the Irish are gonna need to summon a mighty monotheistic deity—Rudy, not the other guy—to get past Virginia Tech, Florida State, USC, and a Syracuse team that knocked off Clemson last year. 

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly won’t even bite on this pick.

Miami, USC, Virginia Tech, West Virginia — 40/1

Implied Odds: 2.44 percent

$100 Bet Payout: $4,100

Virginia Tech looks the part to challenge for the ACC title. So does Miami. I like them both. 

Unless West Virginia quarterback Will Grier and wide receiver David Sills turn their game up to All-Madden in a Big 12 Conference that is owned by Oklahoma, you're setting your money on fire by taking a Mountaineers team that still doesn't seem to understand the meaning of the word "defense."

LSU, Texas, Wisconsin — 30/1

Implied Odds: 3.23 percent

$100 Bet Payout: $3,100

The Texas Longhorns know they're being given too much credit here. Neither Sam Ehlinger nor Shane Buechele has been named the starting quarterback this spring—so apparently we're doing that whole song and dance down in Austin yet again. And, more to the point, neither of them look like they could lead the Longhorns out of a broom closet if the door was left wide open.

LSU will have to figure out how to fill the void at running back left by Derrius Guice. While senior Nick Brossette is the favorite to win the job, he’s never carried the ball more than 19 times in a season for a team that prides itself on smash-mouth football. The Bayou Bengals will be reaching.

Wisconsin boasts Heisman front-runner Jonathan Taylor, who returns after a freshman season during which he rushed for 1,977 yards and averaged better than 6 yards per carry. In a Big Ten that features favorites Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan, it’s not out of the question for the Badgers to end up a conference title game win from the College Football Playoff—again.

Auburn, Florida State — 25/1

Implied Odds: 3.85 percent

$100 Bet Payout: $2,600

Coach Gus Malzahn’s Auburn Tigers just celebrated losing the Southeastern Conference title game by showing off a shiny West Division ring. While I’m sure Auburn fans affectionately refer to this as their national title ring—their We Beat Bama ring—the rest of the college football nation puts this kind of chicanery into the same category as Central Florida’s national title ring.

I wouldn’t bet on a team that takes a ring for losing the league title to win the national title.

Meanwhile, Florida State fans know these odds are generous, too. The Seminoles are breaking in a new head coach, still reeling from being left by the guy who pushed Bobby Bowden out the door, and the knowledge that 50 schools—including Appalachian State—have put more wide receivers into the league than the Noles lately.

Oklahoma, Washington — 20/1

Implied Odds: 4.76 percent

$100 Bet Payout: $2,100

Oklahoma will start Not Baker Mayfield for the first time in three years, and that’s a tough gig. Not only was Mayfield must-watch entertainment on and off the field, but he was also the most efficient passer in college football history.

However, Sooners coach Lincoln Riley is a quarterback whisperer and boasts a loaded receiving corps as well as Heisman hopeful Rodney Anderson at running back.

Bet the Sooners if you believe outscoring folks and praying the defense just gets in somebody’s way is one way to win football games. I’ll bet the Sooners. They’re my team. But I’ll do it knowing their defensive coordinator is likely to run three-man fronts against a full-house backfield.

The Huskies are a nice sleeper pick. They return a quarterback, in Jake Browning, who will be in the conversation for the Heisman just by winning games. And he’ll have the help of a stout defense that returns nine starters. 

If Washington can thump Auburn in its 2018 opener, you could look really smart with this pick until the Pac-12 title game, where you’ll probably just end up watching Washington burn your Ben Frank on national (late night) television.

Michigan, Penn State — 12/1

Implied Odds: 7.69 percent

$100 Bet Payout: $1,300

Michigan picked up one of the most widely heralded transfers of the offseason in quarterback Shea Patterson. He feels like the missing link to a Wolverines squad that had almost everything but decent quarterback play in 2017.

Penn State lost the most explosive player in college football to the NFL and its offensive coordinator, Joe Moorhead, to Mississippi State. But the Nittany Lions gained another year of quarterback Trace McSorley. 

His second year was a great improvement from his first as a starter, culminating in a 66.5 percent completion rate. If running back Miles Gardner is half as good as his predecessor, it’s not hard to see Penn State in a New Year’s Six Bowl if not the playoff.

Ohio State — 8/1

Implied Odds: 11.11 percent

$100 Bet Payout: $900

Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa is in position to follow his brother, Joey, as the next great defensive lineman to run roughshod over the Big Ten. If quarterback Dwayne Haskins can run like J.T. Barrett, I expect Urban Meyer to lean hard on the zone read with Heisman favorite J.K. Dobbins at tailback and win the conference title. 

The Buckeyes will be set up nicely to compete for the national championship.

Georgia — 7/1

Implied Odds: 12.5 percent

$100 Bet Payout: $800

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has shown he can recruit and scheme when separated from Nick Saban. While Smart has something of a mini-quarterback competition on his hands, his defense is still sound without the likes of Roquan Smith in the middle of it. 

It’s Smart’s SEC, even if this is Nick Saban’s college football.

Clemson — 5/1

Implied Odds: 16.67 percent.

$100 Bet Payout: $600

I know Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables has put defenses on the field that could shut down the NFC South. I also know he doesn’t coach quarterbacks.

With quarterback Kelly Bryant looking a lot like Not Deshaun Watson last season, punctuated by a national semifinal showing where he completed just 18 of 36 passes for 124 yards and two picks, I wouldn’t go near this pick.

Alabama — 7/4

Implied Odds: 36.36 percent.

$100 Bet Payout: $175

Sure, bet them.

The College Football Playoff Selection Committee did.

RJ Young is a former Oklahoma Sooners football and basketball beat writer, investigative journalist, essayist, novelist, and Ph.D student. His memoir "LET IT BANG" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) hits shelves and earbuds in October. His YouTube channel is fire if you're into storytelling and topics ranging from Baker Mayfield to The Rock's early wrestling career to this one time when a guy got a little too interested in RJ's "Black Panther" cup at a urinal inside of a movie theater.