It can be tough for schools to find consistency during the college football betting season. Surprisingly enough, consistency hasn’t been an issue for the Michigan Wolverines. Testament to this is the fact that Michigan entered the season as the nation’s No. 4 team, and after two weeks of extraordinary football, the Wolverines have maintained that same ranking. The importance of this consistency is further highlighted when looking at teams like Clemson.
The Tigers came into this season with huge expectations – which is to be expected when your teams sports the favorite for this year’s Heisman – and even though they won their first two games, their performance was not on par with what is expected of the Nation’s No. 2 team. Therefore, entering Week 3, Clemson finds themselves ranked No. 5, and if the season ended today the Tigers would be excluded from the playoff picture. Such concerns aren’t at the forefront of Michigan’s mind however; they are much more concerned with their next opponent, the Colorado Buffaloes.
The Buffaloes started 2016 by going 2-0, which is a welcomed start to their season after going 4-9 the year before. Though they are a Pac-12 school not too many college football betting experts consider the Buffaloes to be a Top-tier team. Colorado is coming into this matchup with 2-0 record after wins over both the Colorado State Rams and the Idaho State Bengals. Colorado has been impressive in their first two outings, outscoring their opponent 100-14.
The only problem is that the Bengals are an FCS team, but either way, the difference in that margin is impressive. The Buffaloes have been averaging 587.5 yards per game while only allowing an imposing 160.5 yards per contest. Colorado has certainly been unstoppable in 2016 so far, but the opposition they face this Saturday is leagues above their first two opponents.
In his first year after leaving the San Francisco 49ers, Jim Harbaugh led Michigan to an impressive turnaround season. In 2014 the Wolverines went 5-7, one year later with Harbaugh in the mix the same school would go 10-3. Now with a 2-0 start and a No. 4 ranking Harbaugh is ready to answer any questions regarding him or his squad. Coming into this game Michigan is averaging 479.5 yards per game while only giving up 281.5 yards to their opponent.
They opened the NCAA season by pummeling Hawaii 63-3 Down Under and they followed that up with an equally impressive 51-14 routing of UCF. Although they haven’t faced the toughest opposition, Michigan’s performance has been good enough to keep them ranked as No. 4 nationwide. They’ll be looking for another dominating performance against Colorado, and a quick look at the NCAA betting odds reveals that they’ll probably put one up.
Week 3 Saturday September 17th
Colorado +20 ½ (-110) 57 (-110) +900
Michigan -20 ½ (-110) 57 (-110) -1375
Just like fans would expect, the No. 4 team is painted by the college football betting odds as a landslide favorite. The totals line predicts 57 points for the game and it’ll be interesting to see if the final score exceeds that amount; Colorado is averaging 50 points per game while Michigan is averaging 57. Michigan may not cover the -20 ½ spread, but Colorado’s chances in this matchup are slim to none.