College Football Betting: Week 1 Odds, Picks & Predictions

In today’s NCAAF write up we will take a look at the Week 1 opening lines and college football betting odds and see where can find the most value and give you teams to back, so you can cash in some tickets and make some money.

Often in the early weeks of college football the lines are soft and ripe for the picking. We are going to do our best to give you the best college football betting value on the board for Week 1.

Marshall vs. WVU

WVU has opened a three touchdown favorite, and for good reason.

This is always a heated rivalry game, but I'm sorry, Marshall stands absolutely no chance in this game. The last time we saw West Virginia they were hanging 70+ points against the Clemson Tigers in a bowl game. In the 2011 season QB Geno Smith had a break out year, passing for 4385 yards, 31 TDs and 7 INT and finished with a 152 QB rating in his first year in the explosive Dana Holgerson offense. 

We can only imagine what this man is going to do in his 2nd year under center. Smith could have easily went to the NFL Draft but he knew what type of insane numbers he could put up this year and hype up his draft stock even more. In the Orange Bowl, Smith passed for 407 yards with an awesome completion percentage of 75% while passing for 6 TDs. 

Marshall lost their beast of a defensive player in Vinny Curry to the 1st round of the NFL, and they really don't have much of a recruiting class coming in. This game should be an absolute drubbing, with WVU looking to tell the entire college football world to look out for them.

Auburn vs. Clemson

Clemson has opened as a 2.5 favorite at home and we will be all over this.

First and foremost Gene Chizik, the Auburn head coach is a complete fraud and cheat. He will never come close to winning an SEC or a National Championship ever again in his life time at Auburn. The guy has been slime ever since he entered college football and has been known for many shady antics. It showed on the field last year, after Auburn lostCam Newton. The Tigers finished 8-5 overall and just 4-4 in SEC play. Their defense was an absolute mess, letting teams walk up and down the field on them and that is exactly what Clemson will do. 

Granted, Clemson got destroyed in their final game in the Orange Bowl, but they had a magnificent season. Break out WR Sammy Watkins returns after he put up insane numbers as a freshman with 82 receptions for 1219 yards and 12 TDS. Watkins has been considered the fastest WR in the game and when he gets into the open field no one is touching him. The combo of Watkins and Tahj Boyd was lethal. Boyd will also be returning, and just like Watkins, Boyd had a break out year. He passed for 3828 yards, 33 TDs and 12 INT. The offense was so explosive that they hung more than 35 points in 9 out of their 12 games.

With the Auburn defense getting no help in their recruiting class, we just don't see any improvement here. Clemson should be able to move the ball at will up and down the field and be out for blood in this match up. Look for a double digit victory by the Tigers in this game. 

Week 2 Bonus Pick

Washington vs. LSU

LSU has opened a three touchdown favorite and in our eyes this is way too much value on the Huskies to pass up.

Everyone forgets about the Huskies performance against Baylor in their bowl game last year, and they are only going to get better this year with a total of 13 starters returning. In that bowl game QB Keith Price racked up a total of 7 touchdowns, 4 throwing and 3 running. If you remember correctly this was one of the wildest games we have seen in years, and the pace was incredible.

The young Price was able to remain so calm and keep his wits about him. That is a sign of a mature QB who has complete control over his team and knows his offense to a tee. In my eyes this kid is a serious dark horse for the Heisman Trophy.

In what was already a putrid offense, LSU will lose both of their starting QBs they rotated last year, so they will certainly be relying heavily on the run game. We mentioned in our other NCAAF write up that we just feel LSU is going to be a really mediocre team this year. Yes, their defense will still be ferocious, but there is only so much a defense can take when an offense constantly goes 3 and out. I am predicting that this becomes a problem that will cause the LSU defense to wear down and constantly test their conditioning and will.

The Huskies offense and Keith Price will be more than able to keep this game within three TDs, and in fact there could be a major upset here with the Huskies winning straight up. Anytime you have a team like Washington who is returning all of their pieces and is very high powered going up against a team like LSU, who is still trying to work all the kinks out, we could see an upset. The Tigers are going to get off to a slow start in their first few games and Washington could take the lead and never look back.

Roundup