5 betting tips for college football's Championship Week games

One final week of the college football season before bowl games means one last look at situational edges and tips.

Here, we provide five, as Week 14 is loaded with championship games and rescheduled matchups from earlier in the season.

Alabama dominates in neutral-site games under Saban

The Alabama Crimson Tide meet the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC title game Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. It'll be a neutral-site game, and Bama head coach Nick Saban has thrived in that situation over the last decade.

Taking out non-national-championship scenarios, the Crimson Tide are 22-3 straight up, 17-8 against the spread, and have hit their team total over 19 times in 25 neutral-site games. A 13.5-point favorite for Saturday's matchup, Alabama is outscoring teams in neutral-site games by nearly 20 points, with an average score of 36.2 to 17.2.

However, if any coach is capable of at least keeping things close, it's Georgia's Kirby Smart - the only former Saban assistant who hasn't lost to Alabama by double digits.

UAB is the ultimate rebound team

If it's tough to beat a team twice in the same season, how difficult is it to beat a team twice in the span of seven days? Middle Tennessee State will find out when it faces UAB in the conference championship game a week after rolling the Blazers 27-3 in Murfreesboro.

UAB couldn't have played much worse in Round 1; the Blazers accumulated fewer than 100 yards of total offense, didn't score in the final three quarters, and watched quarterback A.J. Erdely get sacked seven times. This puts UAB in a bounce-back spot, though, and the program's had no trouble with in the past.

Head coach Bill Clark has rebounded with ease, going 7-1-1 against the spread following a straight-up loss in the last nine situations. And the last three times UAB was a 'dog following a straight-up loss, the Blazers won outright in all three - including victories when getting 9.5 and 11.5 points.

Another bad matchup for Pittsburgh's offense

Pitt's got an above-average offense. It's a one-dimensional unit that relies on the running game, but S&P+ puts the Panthers in the top half of the country at No. 51.

The problem is that they haven't generated anything against elite defenses. Check out their splits from this season.

Four games against teams in the top 30 of S&P+ defense: 23 total offensive points, minus-25.5 average point differential.

Seven games against teams outside the top 30 of S&P+ defense: 38 points per game, plus-11.3 average point differential.

That spells trouble for the Panthers, who face the No. 4 scoring unit and S&P+'s top defense in Clemson on Saturday in the ACC championship game.

Marshall can hang with the Power 5

If Marshall actually gets up to play Saturday - the Thundering Herd have a rescheduled game against Virginia Tech, which earned the opportunity for bowl eligibility with last week's win over Virginia - then we're in for a treat. Herd head coach Doc Holliday has been able to get his teams up for big games against Power 5 teams in the past, going 5-1-1 against the spread versus the ACC specifically since taking over in 2010.

Again, this comes down to whether Marshall can find any motivation in Week 14. The Thundering Herd have been one of the most underrated mid-majors this season and certainly have the talent to spoil the Hokies' postseason dreams - they're 44 spots ahead of Virginia Tech in overall S&P+ rating.

Fade East Carolina getting double digits on the road

We mentioned last week that East Carolina can't hang with good teams, and the Pirates promptly got blown out by Cincinnati 56-6 on the road as 15.5-point underdogs. That moved head coach Scottie Montgomery to 2-10 against the spread the last 12 road games as a double-digit underdog. The Pirates fall into that spot once again Saturday, catching 24 points at North Carolina State.

Alex Kolodziej is theScore's betting writer. He's a graduate of Eastern Illinois who has been involved in the sports betting industry for 11 years. He can quote every line from "Rounders" and appreciates franchises that regularly wear alternate jerseys. Find him on Twitter @AlexKoIodziej.