College football is on the horizon, and pointspreads for Week 1’s games have been showing up at sportsbooks everywhere.
While LSU-TCU, Alabama-Virginia Tech, and Clemson-Georgia remain the marquee Sportsbook games, the Rice-Texas A&M game has become more intriguing with the never-ending Johnny Manziel story. The NCAA is reportedly investigating Manziel to see if he took money in exchange for autographing memorabilia
Sportsbook has two betting options open on the game:
If Manziel starts, the Aggies are 28-point favorites. If he doesn’t, A&M is a 22.5-point favorite. Most books were keeping the game off the board heading into the weekend.
While the Johnny Football reality series plays out, bettors have been taking aim at a few other games on the Week 1 slate, which kicks off on Thursday, August 29 and runs through a Monday night game between new ACC rivals Florida State and Pittsburgh.
You can follow the lines at six sportsbooks on OddShark's live odds feed.
Advertisement: No one has more college football betting options than Sportsbook.
Big Week 1 Line Movements
Tulsa at Bowling Green (-4), Thursday, Aug. 29
Tulsa actually opened as a 3-point favorite, but bettors pounced on an experienced Bowling Green team getting points at home. The line climbed to as high as Bowling Green -5 at some shops.
Mississippi (-3) at Vanderbilt, Thursday, Aug. 29
The Rebels have emerged as field-goal favorites after starting out as short underdogs to the Commodores. There’s a lot of momentum surrounding Hugh Freeze’s Ole Miss program, which landed one of the top recruiting classes in the nation. This is a matchup of two of the best ATS coaches in the game right now, too. Freeze is 20-6 ATS, and Vandy’s James Franklin is 18-8 ATS.
Texas Tech (-6) at SMU, Friday, Aug. 30
The Red Raiders opened as only 2.5-point favorites, but have quickly shot up to touchdown favorites over the Mustangs. Neither team was picked to finish highly in their respective conferences, but bettors seem to believe there is still a significant talent advantage for Texas Tech. There’s a lot of excitement about first-year Red Raiders coach Kliff Kingsburry.
