The college football season concludes Monday night with the BCS Championship Game between the LSU Tigers and the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Tigers are the first team to play in the title game after losing twice during the season. Ohio State also failed to get through the season unscathed after losing to Illinois. In the year of the upset even that was enough to secure the No. 1 ranking for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State earned the No. 1 spot last year as well, but they were routed by Florida 41-14 in the championship. The Buckeyes would have no problem with people questioning their No. 1 ranking if they came away with a national championship this time. The Buckeyes’ strength is their defense, which was tops in the nation after allowing only 10.7 points and 225.3 yards per game during the season. The top-ranked defense is led by linebacker James Laurinaitis, who had a team-high 103 tackles, and defensive lineman Vernon Gholston, who led the Buckeyes with 13 sacks.

On offense the Buckeyes got a solid season out of junior quarterback Todd Boeckman, who had big shoes to fill after taking over the job from Heisman winner Troy Smith. In his first season as starter Boeckman passed for 2,171 yards with 23 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Running back Chris Wells was second in the Big Ten with 1,463 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns.

The Tigers should feel right at home in this game considering it’s practically a home game at the Louisiana Superdome. The Tigers were 11-2 during the season, but they’ve been a bust for bettors throughout the year and are 1-7-2 ATS in their last 10 games. LSU’s defense might not be as good as Ohio State’s statistically, but they rank among the best units in college football after allowing 19.6 points and 283.8 yards per game during the season. The Tigers’ defense struggled somewhat late in the season with defensive leader Glenn Dorsey hurting. After having a few weeks off Dorsey, the defensive player of the year, is practically 100 percent and should give the Tigers’ defense a big lift.

If the Tigers’ defense holds up, their offense could easily lead them to victory. LSU’s offense ranked No. 9 this season after averaging 38.7 points and 448.2 yards per game. The Tigers used two QBs throughout the season, with Matt Flynn and Ryan Perrilloux splitting the snaps. Flynn passed for 2,233 yards with 17 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, while Perrilloux passed for 694 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions. Jacob Hester led the Tigers’ running game with 1,017 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns, while LSU’s receiving corps in incredibly deep with Brandon LaFell, Demetrius Byrd, and Early Doucet all possessing great speed and hands.

The oddsmakers at BetUS expect a much closer game than last year’s championship rout after they set LSU as a 4.5-point favorite, while the total has been set at 47.5 points . Some interesting trends bettors may want to know is that the underdog has won four of the last five championships games, and four of the last five national title games have played OVER the total. This game is also overloaded with props bets, with just a few of them including who will record the first 1st down (Ohio State -115, LSU -125) and which team will punt first ( Ohio State -125, LSU -115). The game kicks off at 8:15 pm ET on FOX.