FiveDimes recently released over/under regular season win totals for college football teams.

Here is an early-season look at the Stanford Cardinal in the Pac 12.

Over/under

FiveDimes has Stanford at nine regular season wins. Last year, the Cardinal went 7-5 in the regular season. The line features a more favorable over to bettors at +100, while the under is at -140.

The upside

There’s big expectations on the Farm this year. The Cardinal lost three games by three points last season en route to a disappointing 7-5 regular season. However, the Cardinal closed the season with three consecutive wins, catapulting them into the discussion this year as a challenger to Oregon in the Pac-12 North.

Kevin Hogan returns for his third year as a starter. His maturation last year didn’t increase as much as many thought, so Stanford will look to him as the main reason for increased win production. He will get some help from his offensive line where four of the five starters return.

Whenever the Cardinal and head coach David Shaw can return that many offensive linemen, then it’s a good sign the offense will be much improved.

Defensively, the Cardinal will likely be solid again after leading the Pac-12 in total defense again last season.

The downside

Is the glass half full or half empty?

That’s the way bettors have to view Stanford’s schedule this year.

The Cardinal will face a plethora of top-tier teams in USC, Oregon, Notre Dame, Arizona and UCLA. That’s the bad sign. The good part is that Stanford hosts each one of those teams except for the Trojans.

The Cardinal also must address a few issues on defensive line and secondary this year, along with finding consistent weapons at receiver and running back.

The verdict

 

The biggest question mark will reside on Hogan’s development during the past year. Has he developed into the quarterback that many believed he could be after leading the Cardinal to the Rose Bowl in his sophomore season? Or will he take a step back, which happened for most of last year?

Stanford cannot afford for Hogan to lack in his improvement with that many games against quality opponents. The saving grace is that most of the difficult games are at home. However, those teams are capable of winning in any road environment.

The Cardinal must navigate that schedule with only two losses to succeed in the over. There’s a reason that oddsmakers juiced the under, because it will be a tall task for Stanford to compete weekly against this level of competition. Stanford should be improved from a year ago, but the safest bet is the under. Don’t bank on the Cardinal reaching double-digit wins.

 

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