Week 1 of the college football season is in the books, with the exception of No. 10 Florida State vs. Boston College on Monday night, and what a week it was.
There were a number of terrific games, standout performances and a few upsets.
One of the better games was Sunday night’s Modelo Kickoff Classic in Las Vegas, where No. 23 Southern California outscored No. 13 LSU 14-3 in the fourth quarter for a 27-20 upset.
TRENDS OF THE WEEK
LSU opened as 6 1/2-point favorites but closed as 4-point favorites. At the BetMGM online sportsbook, 64% of the bets and 66% of the money came in on the Tigers. USC coach Lincoln Riley is now 7-1 against the spread as an underdog of more than three points.
One of the biggest matchups of the weekend was Saturday’s game between Georgia and Clemson. Georgia closed as a 12 1/2-point favorite and brought in 68% of the bets and 69% of the money. The game was close at halftime, but Georgia pulled away in the second half to win 34-3 and easily cover.
There were a few bad beats in college football betting. Duke was a 23 1/2-point favorite against Elon and was up 26-0 with 23 seconds left. Elon elected to kick a field goal to make the final score 26-3 and cover. Another was Lehigh as 31 1/2-point underdogs against Army. Up 35-7 with 19 seconds left, Army scored another touchdown to win the game 42-7 and the last-second cover.
The Tour Championship was anticlimactic as Scottie Scheffler won by four shots. Scheffler started at 10 under and finished the week at 30 under. Given his lead, thanks to the starting strokes format, he was +120 to win going into the week. Scheffler brought in 26% of the money and 12.2% of the bets in pretournament betting.
UPSETS OF THE WEEK
USC’s victory over LSU was the only true upset in AP Top 25 action, but Penn State blowing out West Virginia, 34-12, was a surprise to bettors. West Virginia was a 7 1/2-point underdog and the second-most bet team in terms of bets and money on Saturday.
Although Notre Dame (No. 7) was ranked higher than Texas A&M (No. 20), the Fighting Irish were 3-point underdogs in their matchup Saturday night. Notre Dame came away with a 23-13 victory. In the Marcus Freeman era, Notre Dame is now 5-1-1 against the spread when it’s an underdog. The Irish were the third-most bet team on Saturday when it came to the number of bets.
COMING UP
The WNBA is in its final month, and the playoffs are quickly approaching.
The teams are tightly bunched when it comes to championship odds. The Liberty are the favorites at +130 but are closely followed by the Aces (+300), Lynx (+550) and Sun (+600).
A’ja Wilson is a huge favorite to win the MVP at -10000, while rookie Caitlin Clark is +8000.
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This column was provided to The Associated Press by BetMGM Sportsbook.
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