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Never before have the final four teams in the NFL playoff race not had a clear favorite and a significant underdog like this year, when betting odds suggest the Eagles, Chiefs, Bengals and 49ers are almost perfectly aligned.
The two home teams — the Eagles and Chiefs — are slight favorites in Sunday’s conference championship games, and there’s a near-perfect balance between the four teams for odds of winning the Super Bowl.
Sportsbooks currently list the Eagles and Chiefs as slight co-favorites to win the Super Bowl at +260 odds, with the Bengals and 49ers just behind at +275.
This is unprecedented in the history of betting odds: never before has there been such a complete lack of a clear favorites heading in the two conference championship games.
Things can change if there’s a significant injury or a surprisingly one-sided result in one of the conference championship games, but it’s likely that the Super Bowl point spread will be no more than a few points either way.
And it’s likely we’ll see three more close, competitive games between top teams in the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl.