There really is no such thing as an “Opening Line Report” for Week 0 or Week 1 of the college football season, as the lines for the games featuring FBS teams have been up for a few months now. However, now that we have reached game week, limits will go up and bettors will start to take interest in college football after focusing on other sports.
Beginning with Week 1, I’ll be putting together an Early Lines report for college football that will come out on Sunday night. Admittedly, Week 0 kind of snuck up on me, but there are only two FBS vs. FBS games and a couple of FBS vs. FCS contests that saw lines pop up a few days ago. Now that we are no longer owned by DraftKings, I will be using a Consensus line for these based on a sample of several books, both here in Las Vegas and those in other states.
I’ll also be doing my College Football Power Ratings update every week on Mondays after I get a chance to go through the box scores, scan for injuries, and adjust my numbers. We’ve got a ton of great football betting content coming your way, so it’s time to get locked in at VSiN.
College Football Week 0 Schedule | College Football Best Bets | College Football Betting Guide
Here is the Week 0 Early Lines Report:
Florida State Seminoles (-11, 55.5) vs. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (Dublin)
Saturday, Noon ET
The Seminoles and Yellow Jackets open the season across the pond at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland with the spotlight game of Week 0. We’ve seen modest Georgia Tech movement on this line throughout the offseason, as Haynes King and the Yellow Jackets are still catching doubles, but this line was more like two touchdowns earlier in the summer.
Most shops are Florida State -11 here with the total slowly climbing. Many believe that the Seminoles are one of the most motivated teams in the country after getting left out of the College Football Playoff last year, but bettors are going against a rebuilt offense that replaces Jordan Travis with DJ Uiagalelei and also has to replace Keon Coleman and Trey Benson.
SMU Mustangs (-27, 57) at Nevada Wolf Pack
Saturday, 8 p.m. ET
I’ll normally pick and choose the most interesting games and the most notable opening lines/line movement, but with six FBS teams in action this week, this game gets a mention. This line shot up over the summer with a touchdown move at DraftKings and a six-point move at Circa. Opinions are high on the Mustangs and low on the Wolf Pack. Nevada named Brendon Lewis the QB on Monday after Chubba Purdy battled a shoulder injury throughout the summer.
Lewis had a 2/6 TD/INT ratio with a 55.5% completion rate last season and was second on the team with 495 rushing yards on 120 carries. First-year head coach Jeff Choate has a tall task here against Rhett Lashlee’s Mustangs, who return Preston Stone after he suffered a broken leg last year against Navy.
It is a big road number for a team going to play in elevation in the first game of the season. Even though Nevada looks awful this season, we could see a little buyback on this number.
Montana State Bobcats (-10, 53.5) at New Mexico Lobos
Saturday, 4 p.m. ET
Sorry for not going chronologically here, but this is a FCS vs. FBS “Extra Game”, so it goes underneath the FBS tilts. What makes this game so fascinating is that we have a road FCS team laying double digits against an FBS squad. New Mexico did take a monumental step forward on offense last season, but OC Bryant Vincent is now the head coach at Louisiana-Monroe. Bronco Mendenhall is one of 30 new college football head coaches this season and his Lobos debut comes against the No. 4-ranked Bobcats.
Limits are low and not every book has this line up yet, but it will be very interesting to see where this line goes. Depending on where this line goes, Montana State could be knocking on the door as the biggest FCS road favorite of all-time. Old Dominion was -14 against Idaho back in 2013 and won 59-38. Taylor Heinicke threw for 533 yards in that game.
Delaware State Hornets at Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (-38, 57)
Saturday, 11:59 p.m. ET
College football bettors will welcome a late-night Hawaii game with open arms here in Week 0. Delaware State of the MEAC opens the year in Honolulu, some 4,900 miles away from the campus in Dover. Second-year head coach Lee Hull went 1-10 in Year 1 and 0-5 in conference play, including a 57-0 loss to Army and a 62-20 loss to Miami (OH). The Hornets’ lone win came over lower-division Virginia-Lynchburg.
There are 263 Division I football teams. Jeff Sagarin ranks Delaware State 258th. Any line move in favor of Delaware State would indicate some sharper money on the Hornets, but I’m not sure we’ll see that.
