Week 1 College Football Betting Guide
The first weekend of college football is here! As always, we are here to help guide you to some extra cash coming in. Let’s share an over, an under, a side, and a moneyline play for the Saturday, September 4th, slate.
West Virginia vs Maryland
I’m looking forward to this game because I have a lot of faith in Taulia Tagovailoa, the younger brother of Tua (Miami Dolphins). There have been some very successful games from the younger brother and I think he has a chance to be a difference-maker against West Virginia. This might be a great chance for Maryland to steal a game. West Virginia won’t lay down though – they have a good enough team too. Last year their biggest struggle was on the road, where they lost all four games. Both teams have about the same amount of returning starters. I’m going to play Maryland on the moneyline in this game, I like the home-field advantage and think they have a chance to pull off the upset at +120.
LSU vs. UCLA
A battle of letter schools has us focused on the total. After opening at 70.5, the total has now been bet down to 64.5. This is obviously fairly significant because we are losing a full touchdown scored as an opportunity. In their game last week, UCLA put up 44 points against Hawaii before not really pushing it in the fourth quarter. With nine returning defensive starters, LSU should be in a better position than they were last year when they surrendered 32 points per game. However, they ended last season with three games in the 60s or higher for totals, all three went over. Play the over 64.5 at -114.
Miami OH vs. Cincinnati
This could be some bias here, but I love Cincinnati in this game and as a team this season. Last year they had a top ten defense and a top 20 offense. This year they only have 14 returning starters so there will be work to be done. Desmond Ridder should manage this offense very efficiently again and know when to use his legs to make a difference. While they have 18 returning starters, I think they won’t do enough to keep up with the Bearcats at the end of the game. I don’t love the number, because it isn’t on a key number, but I’ll play Cincinnati -22.5 at -110.
Nevada vs. California
The reason I like this game is because of Cal’s defense. Everything I’ve researched shows that California has the potential to be a difficult team to score on. Their biggest deficiency over the past few seasons has been their offensive prowess. Nevada also is no slouch on the defensive side of the ball. Neither QB in this game is proven enough to make me have much faith in the over, so I’ll take the under 52.5 at -110.