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With three months until kickoff, it’s high time to start betting on college football. National title and Heisman odds have been out for a while, and now we have some Week 1 lines to work with.
Via Bet Online (and you can check Odds Shark’s collection for lines from other books as they release):
Saturday, Aug 25
Wyoming -4 at New Mexico St
Colorado St -14 vs. Hawaii
Thursday, Aug 30
Central Florida -20½ at Uconn
Purdue -4½ vs. Northwestern
Minnesota -14½ vs. New Mexico St
Wake Forest -9 at Tulane
Friday, Aug 31
Michigan St -27 vs. Utah State
Syracuse -4½ at Western Michigan
Wisconsin -33 vs. Western Kentucky
Colorado -6 vs. Colorado St
Stanford -14½ vs. San Diego St
Saturday, Sep 1
Oklahoma -23 vs. Florida Atlantic
Houston -21 at Rice
Ohio St -38 vs. Oregon St
Penn St -27 vs. Appalachian St
Duke -10½ vs. Army
Nebraska -18½ vs. Akron
Boston College -20 vs. Umass
Illinois -14½ vs. Kent St
Rutgers -13½ vs. Texas St
Indiana -13 at Florida International
Iowa -13 vs. NIU
Texas -10½ at Maryland
Boise St -10½ at Troy
Louisiana Tech -10 at South Alabama
Marshall Pick’EM at Miami Ohio
North Texas -1½ vs. SMU
Vanderbilt -6 vs. MTSU
Arizona -14 vs. BYU
Arizona State -17½ vs. UTSA
USC -27 vs. UNLV
UCLA -15½ vs. Cincinnati
Auburn -3½ vs. Washington
Kentucky -20 vs. Central Michigan
Mississippi -1½ at Texas Tech
South Carolina -31½ vs. Coastal Carolina
West Virginia -7 vs. Tennessee
California -6 vs. North Carolina
Washington St -4 at Wyoming
Oregon -28½ vs. Bowling Green
Old Dominion -5½ at Liberty
Notre Dame -2 vs. Michigan
Alabama -28½ vs. Louisville
Navy -15 at Hawaii
Sunday, Sep 2
Miami Florida -3 vs. LSU
Monday, Sep 3
Florida State -6½ vs. Virginia Tech
It’s not as noisy a Week 1 as the year prior, when Alabama and Florida State met in the biggest opener ever, which really fizzled out on us by the end of the month, due to FSU’s calamities.
But there are still plenty of big games — Auburn-Washington, Miami-LSU, FSU-Virginia Tech, West Virginia-Tennessee, and more, plus this year’s noisiest opener, Michigan-Notre Dame — and smart gamblers know college football is a sport where knowledge about some of the lesser teams can go a really long way, since there are so many of them.
Just at a glance, I think FAU can score enough to stay within shouting range of Oklahoma, Boise State’s getting a lot of points at a pretty tough Troy very far from home, and ... sigh ... I’d probably take Bama to cover that gigantic spread against Louisville.
These numbers will change a lot by mid-August, but what odds are you eying for starters?