College Football Underdog of the Week (Utah is Primed for an Upset in Week 1)

If we have learned anything from the Pac 12 over the past few years it is that they will blow their opportunity to make the College Football Playoff as soon as they possibly can. Eliminating themselves from contention and doing the rest of the country the favor of not having to stay up till 1 a.m. because most of their games will be irrelevant. 

Utah has a fantastic opportunity to wreck their preseason hype and No. 7 ranking right off the bat, so let’s take a look at the odds for the Week 1 underdog of the week. 

Utah vs. Florida Odds, Spread and Total

Best College Football Underdog Pick of the Week

Florida is in their first year under Billy Napier and finally committing to Anthony Richardson at quarterback. He is incredibly talented and should have started all of 2021. Richardson will have his coming out party on Saturday at home against a top 10 team in the country. Utah’s defense got shredded by C.J. Stroud in the Rose Bowl last season, and Richardson is considered a first-round NFL draft pick just as Stroud is. 

More importantly in this is how cursed the Pac 12 is. A year ago we watched as Oregon knocked off No. 3 Ohio State in Week 2 and then a few weeks later, lose to Stanford in overtime -- eliminating themselves from the playoff picture. In 2020, the conference refused to play games for much of the season, thus eliminating themselves again. Then in 2019, Utah looked poised to be in playoff contention and then they lost in the conference championship to Oregon. No matter what, the Pac 12 finds a way to be left out of the Final Four.

The conference has not made the playoffs since 2016. In some years, a team builds itself up just for them to lose in a crushing fashion like 2019 Utah. In other years, a team will just trip on itself and crush their dreams early like 2021 Oregon. This year Utah has enough preseason hype that they are primed for an upset in Week 1. 

PICK: Florida ML

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