With college football season on the horizon, ESPN Chalk's college football experts -- Phil Steele, "Stanford Steve" Coughlin and Chris Fallica -- combine to give you betting previews of the top 25 teams, according to the ESPN College Football Rankings. They break down each team's strengths and weaknesses, along with season win total bets and national title odds.
Odds from Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook as of Aug. 23.
Michigan Wolverines
National title odds: 20-1 (opened 12-1)
Season win total: 9
FPI win total projection: 8.4
Phil Steele
Strengths: Usually when a team has just five returning starters as Michigan does and ranks No. 127 on my experience chart, it would have very few units ranked in my top position groups. Still, Michigan ranks in all eight, showing the quality talent that coach Jim Harbaugh has been bringing in over the past few years. The highest-rated unit is the defensive line, which is led by Rashan Gary and Maurice Hurst. Despite losing all four starters, I rate them the No. 9 defensive line in the country. That unit will try to repeat last year's pressure when they tallied 46.0 sacks, fifth highest in the country.