Week 0 of college football is almost here. The Inside the Lines team conceived of, developed and powers the SportsLine model. The Inside the Lines betting system combines 1) our strongest projected values, 2) with relevant supporting trends and 3) pinpointed best lines and prices to identify our Best Bets. In a majority of cases lines move in our direction so you will want to ACT NOW before lines move and you lose value.
College Football Week 0 Best Bets
Iowa State +3 (-110, FanDuel) vs. Kansas State
In our latest simulation, we actually have Iowa State with just over a 50% chance of winning this game outright. When looking at a Neutral site game, its important to look at both team’s road splits to see how well they travel. Iowa State went 5-2 SU on the road last season, while Kansas State went just 3-3 SU and 1-5 ATS. Iowa State had a positive turnover margin on the road last season, while K State did not, and that could be a key factor here. K State coughed the ball up twice in their 21-29 loss to Iowa State last season.
Kansas -6.5 (-120, DraftKings) 1st Half vs. Fresno State
It’s easy to forget that Kansas had several first place votes in the BIG12 preseason poll last season before going just 5-7. Kansas’ major problem was on the road where they went just 1-5. They started to turn things around late in the season, but much of that had to do with winning two games outright (Iowa State and Colorado) as home underdogs. Kansas was around +8 in point differential in their FBS home games last season compared to -6.5 on the road.
Fresno State also had big home/road splits. Fresno was +11 in home games and -11 in road games. Fresno has a new coach and ranks over 100th in both offensive and defensive returning production. While we don’t have value on the game spread, we like the first half spread with the idea its going to take Fresno a little bit to gel together.
DeShawn Hanika (Kansas) O 17.5 Receiving Yards (-114, FanDuel)
Hanika has had a long journey. He started of at Butler Community College before transferring to Iowa State. He then transferred to Kansas and has missed the last two seasons with an injury and a sports betting suspension. Hanika last played in 2022 and had a solid season with 244 receiving yards. Hanika did that as the #2 TE on Iowa State behind Easton Dean. He recorded at least one reception in 8 games in 2022, and he went over the 17.5 receiving line in 6 of those 8 games. Hanika is now TE1 on the Jayhawks and represented the team at BIG12 media days. Kansas involves the TE quite a bit in its offense, and we have Hanika with close to 40 yards in this game.
More Picks at Our Blog
The picks above are based on the lines posted so far, but as new lines post and move, we’ll keep putting out best bets free at our blog.
