College Football Futures: Best Win Totals Over Bets (2020)
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Assuming a return to normalcy over the summer, the 2020 College Football season is now just over three months away. Games are set to kick off on August 29th, but sports bettors can get action ahead of the season courtesy of team futures odds. Team season win totals are a popular form of futures wager, and with 130 teams at the FBS level, there are certainly plenty of lines to choose from. Here are my best team win totals over bets, courtesy of the odds available at PointsBet Sportsbook.
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Illinois Fighting Illini | OVER 5 (+110)
Illinois enters 2020 off of one of the best seasons in recent program history. 2019 saw the Fighting Illini finish 6-7 overall, 4-5 in Big Ten play (including a win over Big Ten West Division champ Wisconsin), and earn their first bowl appearance since 2014. Coach Lovie Smith has mostly dealt with frustration during his tenure in Champaign, but there is reason to believe the Illini will cash win total over tickets and perhaps once again be bowl bound.
In theory, Illinois should have no trouble with the non-conference portion of their schedule. They should also kick off Big Ten play with a win against lowly Rutgers. If they take care of business early, they will be 4-0 and only need to pick up one more win the rest of the way to push a ticket. Nebraska, Purdue, Northwestern, and Indiana all afford tremendous opportunities to do just that and more.
Illinois will also have experience on their side this season. The team ranks 12th in returning production, and those coming back will undoubtedly be hungry to build off last season and get back to the postseason.
Houston Cougars | OVER 5.5 (+120)
The idea to have several key players play only four games in 2019 in order to gain an extra year of eligibility backfired in a way on Dana Holgorsen and his staff when quarterback D’Eriq King chose to transfer to Miami rather than return. The strategy worked with several others, however, and Houston will look to get back in the AAC picture after a down year in which they won just 4 games.
The AAC is one of the tougher conferences to get a read on, particularly in the West Division where any number of teams could rise up to challenge defending champion Memphis. The Cougars will get their chance to do just that in the third week of the season. If they can even manage to earn an even split between their two tougher non-conference games against Washington State and BYU and a tough two-week conference stretch against UCF and Cincinnati, 6 wins will be well within reach.
Houston ranks 3rd in the country in returning production, speaking to the level of youth Holgorsen inherited last year. Expect a major rebound in 2020, with a double-digit win total being the ceiling, but also a possibility.
New Mexico State Aggies | OVER 3.5 (+110)
There’s nowhere to go but up in 2020 for a New Mexico State program that is coming off a miserable 2-10 season. Playing as an FBS Independent, the Aggies get the opportunity to test their metal against teams from several different conferences. The variety in the schedule is promising this year and should afford a relatively young team several opportunities to earn wins.
The key stretch of the Aggies season for those looking to back the over 3.5 wins comes from Weeks 3-6. In that stretch, NMSU will take on Akron, New Mexico, UTEP, and Texas State, all of whom are very beatable, to say the least. Furthermore, with the exception of UTEP, all of those games will be at home in Las Cruces. The Aggies will then have two more great opportunities against UMass and FCS foe, Texas Southern, later in the season to officially go over the win total threshold.
New Mexico State was without a doubt, one of the five worst FBS teams in 2019. Many likely aren’t racing to back them at the betting window, but with a rush of young talent and a schedule that offers opportunities, the Aggies are an interesting plus-money play to the over.
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Henry John is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Henry, check out his archive and follow him @HankTimeSports.