National Champions Crowned – January 9

The Michigan Wolverines are your college football national champions after a 34-13 victory over Washington last night. Michigan finished the season with a perfect 15-0 record. It was the only loss of the season for Washington (14-1). Now, we have to wait another seven to eight months for college football to start over again.

For the new national champions, it was their first national championship since 1997. It’s been an outstanding run for head coach Jim Harbaugh, who took over at his alma mater in 2015. Harbaugh had three 10-win seasons in his first four years, but never came close to sniffing the title of national champions. That all changed after the 2020 COVID season.

Road to National Champions Began in 2020

On the heels of a 9-4 season in 2019, Michigan went just 2-4 in the COVID season of 2020. For the winningest program in the history of college football, it just wasn’t enough. Harbaugh knew it and he carefully constructed a plan to get the Wolverines to become national champions again. 

The road to becoming national champions started with an emphasis on defense. Michigan’s recruiting changed slightly as they sought big, strong, physical, and fast defensive linemen. That group showed up big time last night, forcing Washington QB Michael Penix Jr. to throw much sooner than he wanted. The Michigan defensive line and front seven also made sure Washington couldn’t run the ball. The Huskies had 46 yards rushing. 

Harbaugh also toyed with the offense and built a running game that is one of the best in the country. For Harbaugh, earning the title of national champions means a commitment to running the football. That is something Michigan did in grand fashion last night. The Wolverines had not one, but two 100-yard rushers last night and totaled 303 yards on the ground. It was a dominant display and, in the end, the combination of defense and running game earned Michigan the title of national champions.

Unbeatens Rule the Leaderboard

If there were national champions in handicapping, our Sports Hub experts would take the cake every year. Yesterday, it was our own Mike Hawk (no relation to Mike Hunt) and Sean Kuchman who topped the board, each with perfect 4-0 records. Sports Hub’s own Tonny Ricci and Al Grant were also perfect yesterday and finished in the top-5. 

Let’s see how our cappers did yesterday.

• Perfect pair: As mentioned, it was Mike Hawk and Sean Kuchman at the top of the board. Each went 4-0, but it was Mike that took the top spot as he nailed the Indiana Pacers at +130 pulling the upset over Boston last night. That gave Mike a total of $430. Sean went 4-for-4 on all NHL picks and earned $400 last night.
• Big Tonny: Our own Tonny Ricci is back in the mix. He’s struggled for a few weeks, but went 3-0 last night and picked up an extra $300 in the process.  For the year, Tonny has been one of our most consistent cappers. In fact, he’s No. 3 on the 365-day leaderboard with nearly $3000 in winnings.
• Rest of the top-5: Scott Wetzel (Premium Picks from Scott) hit both of his picks yesterday and earned $200. SportsHub’s Al Grant did the same – 2-0, $200 – to add to his 30-day total of $1233. Over the last 30 days, Al has won 59.5 percent of his picks and ranks No. 7 over the last month. All of these cappers have what it takes to be national champions.

Michigan, National Champions & Ja

It was interesting early last night with the score in last night’s CFP title game 17-10 at the half. But, you got the feeling that Michigan was in complete control…and they were. They held the high-powered Washington offense to just 13 points and 301 total yards. Penix attempted a season-high 51 passes and completed 27 for 255 yards. Michigan ran for over 300 yards and got two touchdowns each from Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards. They can now call themselves national champions until we start again next August.

Here’s what’s trending today.

• National champions: Michigan is college football’s national champions this year after a 34-13 win over Washington last night. The win capped off a perfect season for Michigan, which faced numerous distractions – Connor Stallions anyone? – and overcame them all.
• Running game: Donovan Edwards had 497 rushing yards heading into the game last night. He ended up with 104 on just six carries last night. Blake Corum, the Wolverines leading rusher, carried 21 times and had 134 yards last night. Each running back scored two touchdowns for Michigan last night as the Wolverines racked up 303 yards on the ground.

• Defense: National champions typically play pretty good defense. Michigan’s wasn’t just pretty good. It was outstanding. The Wolverines finished No. 1 in scoring defense for the season and allowed Washington just 13 points. The Huskies were averaging over 37 a game before last night. Washington ran for just 46 yards and Michigan picked off Penix twice.
• Morant out for the season: Memphis star Ja Morant is done for the season. He suffered a shoulder subluxation in a practice. An MRI revealed a labrum tear which will require surgery. That will end Morant’s season after just nine games. He missed the first 25 due to suspension.

What to Wager on Today

As we get ready for the weekend’s NFL playoffs, we’ve got plenty of basketball and hockey to get us through the week. The NBA and college basketball will provide us with numerous basketball betting opportunities tonight. It’s a pretty solid night for hockey too with 10 games on the schedule. Don’t worry, Sports Hub has you covered. Check out our members’ area and see where our cappers are finding value tonight.

Here’s the Tuesday schedule.

1. NBA: The NBA gives us five games tonight. Memphis at Dallas is the NBATV game. The Grizzlies will be without Morant who will miss the rest of the season.
2. CBB: The Tuesday college basketball schedule is full of action featuring ranked teams. Twelve ranked teams will play tonight, including No. 1 Purdue and a matchup of ranked opponents – No. 18 BYU at No. 14 Baylor.

3. NHL: There are 10 games on the ice tonight. Edmonton is at Chicago in the ESPN+/Hulu game. The two hottest teams in the league – Florida and Winnipeg – are both on the ice tonight. Florida, winners of seven straight, play in St. Louis. Winnipeg, which has won six in a row, hosts the Columbus Blue Jackets.
4. Soccer: It’s another light day for international soccer. There are, however, seven international friendlies all over the world today. 
5. Tennis: The ASB Classic and Adelaide International for both men and women continue today. The Hobart International also continues for the women today. The preliminary rounds of the Australian Open for both men and women continue today.

Stay up to date with all of the latest sports news, trends, betting tips and strategy by visiting Sports Hub as often as possible. If you like cashing winning tickets, get yourself over to our picks database. You’ll need a member account, which is easy to get. With it, you’ll gain access to picks from the best sports handicappers in the world. 

Sports Hub is the only place you’ll find some of these cappers like Seth Cohen and Bill Blatt, each of whom is currently winning at a 60 percent or better clip and has accumulated at least $2100 in winnings over the last 30 days. I don’t know about you, but I like those numbers. I’ll see you back here tomorrow to see which cappers were big winners.