I couldn’t help but chuckle this offseason when I first heard that Vegas sportsbooks were taking a lot of bets on Michigan to win the national championship.

The Linemakers on Sporting News reported in September that the famed Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook’s largest liability in college football futures was the Jim Harbaugh-led Wolverines. According to Linemakers, the SuperBook opened the Wolverines with 100-to-1 championship odds and took a lot of money thanks to the Harbaugh Hype.

“I mean, if he couldn’t win a championship at Stanford, it’s hard to think his first year at Michigan he’s going to go win the national championship,” Westgate SuperBook manager Ed Salmons told Linemakers. “But people are more than happy to bet it at 100-to-1. We wrote a lot of money on Michigan at 100-to-1, and we were happy to do it.”

Well, I am not laughing anymore. And neither, I’m sure, are the Vegas oddsmakers.

Behind three consecutive shutouts, Michigan has vaulted to second in our team efficiency -- or Johnny Manziel teams, specifically. It should be more of the same this year. The Aggies come into the game with the 17th-rated pass offense. And don’t be fooled by the Tide’s second-rated pass defense: Alabama has dominated pro-style offenses run by Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arkansas, not the spread attacks that have historically torched Saban.

Ironically, just a couple of years after comparing the dangers of up-tempo offenses to smoking cigarettes, Saban hired Lane Kiffin to pick up the pace and bring the stagnant Tide offense into the 21st Century. This year, Alabama ranks 31st in plays per game, and against Ole Miss, the Tide ran 100 plays.

But Texas A&M has an answer for that too: new defensive coordinator, John Chavis. No coach has had more success against the up-tempo spread than Chief, whose defenses at LSU stifled Johnny Football and A&M.

The Aggies will travel to Ole Miss on October 24 and then to LSU on Thanksgiving weekend to close out the season. Those are tough-but-winnable SEC West games. Winning even two of three against Alabama, Ole Miss, and LSU could be enough to get A&M into the Final Four.