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The only matchup between Top Five teams in Week 1 of the college football season will pit Notre Dame against Ohio State. The Buckeyes are seen as national title contenders this season, while the Fighting Irish are expected to take a step back after Brian Kelly left for Baton Rouge.

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The first week of the college football season is finally upon us. We had a little taste of what’s to come over the next three months with Week 0 last Saturday, but this will be the first full week of action. There will be games on five straight days starting on Thursday night, and there’s no better way to spend Labor Day Weekend than with college football.

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The 2022 college football season gets underway for real this week with a plethora of games and some colossal matchups dotting the Week 1 schedule. Fans got a taste of the pageantry and excitement last weekend, but nothing compared to what’s on tap with all of the preseason top-25 squads in action.Arguably the biggest game of the week takes part on Saturday night ... 

The Nebraska Cornhuskers and Northwestern Wildcats will visit Ireland. But it’s not a vacation. Instead, it is the Big Ten Conference opener for each team at Aviva Stadium in Week Zero CFB action on FOX.Normally college football teams feast on a cupcake to start the season. Certainly, they do not want to open up with a league game against a difficult opponent, especially in the increasingly tough Big Ten Conference. But TV rules, and if the networks say, “play in Ireland in Week... 

After three bad years, Chip Kelly finally had a breakthrough season in 2021. The UCLA Bruins went 8-4 last year, but Kelly still has yet to lead this program in a bowl game as they had to cancel their Holiday Bowl appearance due to a COVID outbreak. Now, the question is whether or not Kelly can continue to move this program forward. The Bruins are seen as the third-best team in the Pac 12 South by most analysts, behind a strong Utah and a resurgent USC under Lincoln Riley.... 

Lincoln Riley is looking to take the Pac 12 by storm. USC has had a very difficult time reaching the heights that Pete Carroll took the Trojans to in the mid-2000s, but Riley has the potential to change all that in a hurry. Unlike Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, and Clay Helton, Riley has already proven himself on a national stage, dominating the Big 12 during his time with Oklahoma. The Trojans enter the year as slight favorites to win the Pac 12 ahead of Utah and Oregon, as expectations are high... 

Jimbo Fisher has laid down the gauntlet in College Station. Texas A&M signed the best recruiting class in college football back in February, landing eight five-star recruits and 20 four-star recruits. Expectations are high for the Aggies coming into the 2022 season after Texas A&M beat Alabama last year, but it might take a season or two for the Aggies to put it all together. The Aggies are very young on both sides of the ball and return just 10 starters from 2021.... 

The most overrated program in college football over the last 12 years has been Texas. The Longhorns have not finished the season with a higher ranking than their preseason ranking since 2008, and they have just one 10-win season since they lost to Alabama in the 2009 BCS National Championship Game. Although Texas went 5-7 and 3-6 in Big 12 play last year (including an embarrassing home loss to Kansas), the Longhorns are once again being heralded as one of the favorites to win the Big 12. Obvious... 

The Michigan Wolverines won their first Big Ten title in 17 years last season. Jim Harbaugh was finally able to beat rivals Ohio State, and the Wolverines made the College Football Playoff for the first time. This team is going to take a step back in 2022 though without standout defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and star linebacker David Ojabo. Hutchinson and Ojabo combined for 25 of Michigan’s 34 sacks last year, so this defense won’t be nearly as disruptive as it was in 2021.... 

After five straight 10-win seasons, Brian Kelly departed South Bend. Kelly leaves Notre Dame as the winningest coach in program history, and he was easily the most successful coach the Fighting Irish have had since Lou Holtz. Former Cincinnati defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman has some big shoes to fill in replacing Kelly, and this is the first time the 36-year-old has been a head coach. We will find out just how far along Notre Dame is early in the season when the Fighting Irish head to Colu... 

No program has seen a bigger shakeup this offseason than Oklahoma. Lincoln Riley left Norman for USC in November, and he took starting quarterback Caleb Williams and several other players with him to Los Angeles. Riley took some of Oklahoma’s top recruits from this last cycle too, leaving a very bitter taste in the mouths of fans that had rooted for the Sooners over the last five years.Brent Venables is the new head coach of Oklahoma. Venables was the defensive coordinator here under Bob Stoops ... 

We saw the Clemson Tigers come back down to Earth a little bit after a disappointing 2021 campaign. Clemson made the College Football Playoff six straight years from 2015 to 2020, and the Tigers played for the national championship four times in that stretch. That put the program on the same level as Alabama, but the Tigers took a big step backwards last year with a 9-3 record i... 

The Georgia Bulldogs are coming off their first national championship in over four decades. Georgia rode one of the best defenses in the history of college football to the title last year, and the Bulldogs finally knocked off Alabama when it mattered most. Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs have the third-lowest odds to win the national championship this season behind Alab... 

Nick Saban has built the center of the college football world in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Crimson Tide have played for the national championship nine times over the 15 years that Saban has been in charge of the program, and Alabama has won six national championships. They have played in six of the last seven College Football Playoff National Championship Game... 

College football is a supremely unique sport to bet on. In a College Football season, one loss can ruin a team’s season. There is not the margin for error that pro sports teams enjoy. Or college basketball programs, for that matter.For some schools, there is honor in simply making a bowl game or winning one of the lower-tier bowls. For others, the only acceptable goal is makin... 

Week zero kicks off on Saturday, August 27, 2022, with the full week one to follow starting on Thursday, September 1 and running through Monday, September 5, 2022. With that in mind, this is the perfect time to assess the trends of the teams. And then relate them to their motivational and personnel advantages or disadvantages. We can then evaluate the value of these trends against the betting line.... 

For the first time in a decade, neither Clemson nor Florida State come into the season as the reigning ACC champion. Kenny Pickett led Pittsburgh to a surprising ACC title last year, as the Panthers hammered Wake Forest in the ACC Championship Game. However, Clemson is still the odds-on favorite to win the conference in 2022 after a disappointing 2021 campaign. The Tigers continue to recruit at a higher level than everyone else in the ACC, so they are considered the team to beat until proven oth... 

The East Division continues to reign supreme in the Big Ten. No West Division team has won the Big Ten since the conference split into its current alignment after the 2013 season. Ohio State has been the dominant program in the conference, winning the Big Ten in four straight years from 2017 to 2020, and Michigan, Penn State, and Michigan State have all claimed conference titles. That’s why the Buckeyes are the overwhelming favorites to win the Big Ten in 2022, and they have three legitimate Hei... 

The college football landscape is in upheaval once again. At this time last year, we found out that Oklahoma and Texas were heading to the SEC, and it sounds like the Pac 12 is about to be gutted even worse than the Big 12. USC and UCLA are reportedly very close to terms in joining the Big Ten in two years, and Oregon and Arizona are rumored to be on the way out too. That will fundamentally change the way we look at college football, but if you are looking for a constant in this turbulent time, ... 

The Fourth of July Weekend sent shockwaves throughout the Pac 12. USC and UCLA are reportedly set to join the Big Ten in two years, and that has other schools looking for an exit. As many as four schools may join the Big 12 as a result of the two Los Angeles schools moving on to greener pastures, and the Big Ten could add two more Pac 12 schools too. If all that were to come to fruition it would likely mean the death of the conference as the remaining schools would probably be forced to seek ref... 

It’s a two-horse race in the SEC yet again. Alabama and Georgia are the overwhelming favorites to win the conference, and the only other team that the oddsmakers are giving a chance to win the best conference in the country is Texas A&M. Every other program is at least 50-1 to win the SEC as the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs have been overpowering and are recruiting at a much higher level than everyone else but the Aggies. That means there is exceptional value in finding the right underdog to ba... 

Oklahoma has long dominated the Big 12, but the departure of Lincoln Riley has made the conference more competitive than it has been in several years. The Sooners have won eight of the last 10 Big Ten Championship Games, yet they are only a slight favorite to win the conference title this season. Riley and Caleb Williams left for USC, and Spencer Rattler, Jadon Haselwood, and Austin Stogner transferred to the SEC, so there are a lot of questions surrounding Oklahoma in 2022.... 

The College Football National Championship Game between Georgia and Alabama on Monday is a great opportunity to bet props. The Super Bowl has the most props of any game and gets the most attention, but the College Football National Championship also gets a lot of attention and it presents some good betting opportunities. There are not as many prop bets ... 

In the SEC Championship Game on December 4, 2021, the Georgia Bulldogs were solid 6-point favorites over the Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama seemed to be down a notch, at least by their standards, in 2021. By contrast, the Georgia defense was touted as perhaps the greatest of all time. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was being hailed as the best recruiter in college football, surpassing Alabama’s Nick Saban in that category. But the game showed that Georgia was not quite ready to reach the summit. Alabama earned a convincing 41-24 that left gamblers and fans shaking their heads. Indeed, there was plenty of regret on the part of those who were fooled into betting against Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide. Now comes the wagering question of whether anyone has the nerve to step into the rolling Tide. ... 

Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart is indeed quite smart. During his time as Nick Saban’s defensive coordinator with the Alabama Crimson Tide, Smart learned the importance of stacking raw talent. Smart alluded to this after this year’s win over the Florida Gators at the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. He said good players would beat good schemes every time. The remark was taken as a thinly veiled shot at then-Florida head coach Dan Mullen, who was not an enthusiastic recruiter. Yet,...