College football betting: 2019 LSU will go down in history

There are times in life when we're living through history and we don't appreciate the greatness of what we're going through. The LSU 2019 football season might just be an example of that. The team went 15-0 and dominated their way to winning the national championship. Even that might not capture just how great that team actually was.

The team was littered with stars

In the 2020 NFL season, Justin Jefferson took the league by storm. He rewrote the rookie record books for wide receivers. NFL fans and pundits were enamored by the dominance the former LSU Tiger displayed in his freshman campaign in the big league.

While all of this was going on, I couldn't help but think "this guy wasn't even the best wide receiver on his college team." That perfectly illustrates just how dominant this team was in hindsight.

Speaking of the aforementioned teammate, Ja'Marr Chase entered the league in 2021 and he broke most of Jefferson's records. He's a significant favorite to win offensive rookie of the year.

This doesn't even capture the most important part of that team, the quarterback. Joe Burrow was not a can't miss transfer when he came over from Ohio State. He lost out to Dwayne Haskins in Columbus. Then, with LSU, he had arguably the best season ever for a college quarterback in 2019. Now? In just his second year in the NFL, he has the Bengals one win away from the Super Bowl. He's +1000 to win Super Bowl MVP.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire is the lead back on the Kansas City Chiefs, the team favored to win the Super Bowl. Patrick Queen, Grant Delpit, Jacob Phillips, K'Lavon Chaisson and Kristian Fulton are making plays on defense across the NFL. Lloyd Cushenberry, Damien Lewis, and Terrace Marshall are in the league as well on offense. Derek Stingley Jr. is one of the best prospects in the upcoming draft, currently sitting at 80-1 to be the first player selected.

All of this without even mentioning the biggest star of them all. Coach Ed Orgeron holds a special place in the hearts of all college football fans and it was awesome to finally see him get over the hump and reach the peak of the mountain.

That team was cash money

Entering the 2019 season, LSU was 33-to-1 to win the national championship. Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma, Florida and Texas all had better odds than the Tigers. If you believed in the Tigers heading into that season, you cashed a beautiful ticket.

Not only was LSU a long-shot to win the national championship, they weren't even expected to win the SEC. LSU was 12-to-1 to win the SEC heading into the season. Those odds were worse than Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

Not only was LSU extremely profitable in the futures market, they were profitable on a game-by-game basis. In 2019, LSU went 10-3-2 against the spread which was the best record in the country for bettors.

LSU was an underdog only once during the 2019 season, and they took care of business. Alabama was a 5.5-point favorite over the Tigers, but LSU won the game by a score of 46-41. It was after that game that you realized that LSU team was for real.

Other memorable covers for LSU that season include a 45-38 win over Texas as a 6-point favorite and a 50-7 win over Texas A&M as a 17-point favorite.

LSU's dominance at the betting window continued into the postseason. In the SEC championship game, they defeated Georgia by a score of 37-10 as just a 7-point favorite. In the college football playoff, they thrashed Oklahoma 63-28 as a 12.5-point favorite. In the national championship game, they easily covered as a 4.5-point favorite over Clemson with a 42-25 win.

LSU's average margin of victory that season was 26.5 points. They scored 729 points over 15 games, an average of 48.6 points per game. Ten of their 15 games went over the total, which made them an extremely fun team to watch for even neutral observers.

It might be a while before we see a team as fun and profitable as the 2019 LSU football team. It likely won't be this year, as LSU is 80-to-1 to win the national championship.