College Football Week 0 Picks, Predictions, and Odds

It’s here, it’s here, it’s finally here! After months of discussion over recruiting, coaching changes, and conference realignment, we have honest to God football once more. The fact that we only have 12 regular season games is part of why college football betting is so anticipated, and a handful of teams are set to start their seasons this Saturday. Only two ranked teams will be in action (No. 13 Notre Dame and No. 6 USC), but that matters little for diehard college football fans that will tune in to watch unheralded teams like New Mexico State, Vanderbilt, and Louisiana Tech play on national television.

College Football Week 0 Betting Odds at BetRivers Sportsbook

Navy +21
Notre Dame -21
Total 49.5

The 2023 college football season will not start in America. Instead, the first college football game of the new campaign will take place in Dublin, Ireland as the Navy Midshipmen and Notre Dame Fighting Irish meet in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. All eyes will be on this game as these two rivals kick off at 2:30 p.m. ET, and there won’t be another game until three hours later.

Notre Dame is a three-touchdown favorite per the CFB betting odds in this game. The Fighting Irish are significantly more talented than Navy, and the Midshipmen brought in Brian Newberry to replace Ken Niumatalolo after three straight seasons of four wins or less. Sam Hartman is expected to thrive in Notre Dame’s offense, but he might have some hiccups in his first game at the helm.

As the great Jason Kirk of SB Nation’s former college football site Banner Society pointed out back in 2019, the service academies have a fantastic record as a three-touchdown underdog by the college football betting line. At the time of his article, Army, Navy, and Air Force were a combined 41-11-1 ATS as an underdog of 21.5 points or more since 1995. There are a few reasons behind that as 1) the triple option offense keeps the clock running and the opposing offense off the field and 2) no one wants to blow out a service academy. That’s why I’ll roll with Navy even though the Midshipmen are going to have another losing season in 2023.

Play: Navy +21

UTEP -1
Jacksonville State +1
Total 54

After more than two decades of dominance in the FCS, Jacksonville State is finally making the move to FBS. The Gamecocks are now a full member of Conference USA, and they will be playing their home opener against UTEP this Saturday. There’s no doubt that the fans in attendance will be pumped, but it may take some time for the Gamecocks to have real success at this level.

Jacksonville State was blown out by 37 points when the Gamecocks faced Tulsa last season, but this is a team that should score some points in its second season under Rich Rodriguez. In each of Rodriguez’s nine wins in 2022, the Gamecocks scored at least 35 points, and they have a ground game that can move the chains. That’s enough for me to back them against a typically moribund UTEP team.

Play: Jacksonville State +1

Hawaii +17.5
Vanderbilt -17.5
Total 55.5

It’s very uncommon to see Vanderbilt installed as this much of a favorite per the CFB betting odds, but Hawaii is in real bad shape. The program is still recovering from a mass exodus after Todd Graham’s 2021 campaign, and former star quarterback Timmy Chang was brought in to clean up the program. It’s going to take Chang quite a while to rebuild the program though, especially since there is no stadium and little funding for recruiting and the like.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt is at the bottom of the SEC, but the Commodores are in the SEC nonetheless. Clark Lea showed real improvement in his second season with the Dores, taking Vandy from a 2-10 mark to a 5-7 record. They blew out Hawaii by 53 points on the Big Island in the 2022 season opener, and they were also able to knock off Kentucky and Florida. This is a program moving in the right direction, so I’m comfortable laying the juice.

Play: Vanderbilt -17.5