FiveDimes recently released over/under regular season win totals for college football teams.
Here is an early-season look at the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the ACC.
Over/Under
FiveDimes has Georgia Tech at 7.5 wins. Last year, the Yellow Jackets went 10-2 in the regular season. The line features a more favorable under for bettors at +120, while the over is at -160.
The upside
Oddsmakers are pretty much daring bettors to take the under. That’s quite a difference between odds and the Yellow Jackets won’t get to eight wins by facing an easy schedule.
Instead, oddsmakers are likely attributing the juiced over on the Yellow Jackets returners. Most importantly, Georgia Tech returns quarterback Justin Thomas. He is just one of 13 starters returning off a team that won the Orange Bowl last year and represented the Coastal Division in the ACC title game.
Four starters return on the offensive line to offset losses at running back and wide receiver. Also, the defense should be much better than last year, which ranked near the bottom of the ACC.
The downside
The juiced over is because Georgia Tech is a good team. However, the reason why the line is at 7.5 is because the schedule is daunting.
There are two games in which the Yellow Jackets should be heavily favored. The first two games are at home against Alcorn State and Tulane, which should be wins. The other 10 games are up in the air.
Georgia Tech must travel to Notre Dame, Duke, Clemson, Virginia and Miami, and also will play Georgia on a neutral field. Home games include North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Florida State and Virginia Tech.
That road schedule is about as tough as any team outside the SEC, and the Yellow Jackets may only be favored in two to possibly three of those games. The home schedule won’t be easy either.
The verdict
There are two rules of thought when looking at Georgia Tech. On one hand, the Yellow Jackets should be a better team than the unit that won the Orange Bowl last year.
On the other is the schedule that will feature difficult assignments each week. Despite the schedule, sometimes bettors just have to trust the team. Georgia Tech should be better than the majority of teams in the ACC, and by the time last year had ended, no team was playing better offense than the Yellow Jackets.
If that continues this year, Georgia Tech should go over the 7.5. The over is heavily juiced, but it’s worth depending on the Yellow Jackets being better than its conference opponents.
