While pro football is still dragging their behinds with preseason, college football will be in full swing this week with some awesome Week 1 opening games. Today we will take a look at what’s on the table for your Labor Day weekend NCAAF action and what the sportsbooks have in store for the college football season this year.
Naturally, the first college football game to mention would involve the current champs, Clemson, who will face off Georgia Tech, in what is to be one (if not the) top game of the opening week. Everyone is excited to see how Clemson will open the season and most importantly, whether this NCAAF team looks like they got what it takes to do a back-to-back, after whopping on Alabama earlier this year. And while Georgia Tech is not in the same category as ‘Bama (Clemson are -37 point against the spread for the Thursday game), it would still be interesting to watch how the team is gelling. At the popular sportsbook Bookmaker, the Tigers are the favorite to win the title once more, listed with odds -220, by the way.
Speaking of Alabama, who are lagging in the National Championship odds department at -235 to win this season, fans of the Crimson Tide will have to wait until Saturday to see them play Duke. Another game where a blowout is expected by the sportsbooks, Alabama sitting pretty on a -33.5 point spread. Money line is not even posted on this game yet, the same as the Clemson game, obviously the odds makers are erring on the caution side, when it comes to how much money to offer to the bettors for the “W” of these two games.
Another interesting game this Saturday is the college football opener between Oregon and Auburn. The sportsbooks are expecting a nice, high-scoring game, but the spread is quite tight. Advantage goes to the home team, Auburn being listed -3 points favorite against the spread and paying out on -161 to win outright.
Georgia, Oklahoma and Ohio round up the top 5 at the start of the NCAAF season, unfortunately, all their games appear to be an open and shut cases. Very high point spread numbers and the odds are not really worth betting. Definitely advisable to wait further into the season or look at some of the outliers, if you are jonesing for some college football action this weekend.