Tony Elliott heads into a crucial third year leading the Virginia Cavaliers football program. The longtime Clemson assistant is 6-16 in his first head coaching job. A daunting season looms in Charlottesville, though. Oddsmakers at FanDuel Virginia Sportsbook have set the Cavaliers’ season win total (or over/under) at just 4.5 for the upcoming season, which starts on Aug. 31 with a home game against Richmond.
BetVirginia.com wanted to know how recent college teams have fared when oddsmakers gave them that exact projection. We used SportsReference.com to identify such teams over the past three years and see whether they hit or missed their mark.
Season Performance Of 4.5 Win Total Teams
Situation | Number of Teams | Percentage* |
Under 4.5 Wins | 18 of 31 | 58.1% |
Over 4.5 Wins | 13 of 31 | 41.9% |
*Rounded to the nearest number
Over the past three seasons, teams with preseason over/unders of 4.5 wins are extremely close to that 4.5 mark: The 31 teams fitting that description have averaged 4.58 victories and 18 of them hit the over by winning at least five games.
Sports bettors may find the information provided below helpful as they consider what futures bets to place for the upcoming college football season. (NOTE: Virginia sports betting laws prohibit sportsbooks from offering odds for in-state college teams, including the Cavaliers and their rival Virginia Tech.)
2024 Virginia Football Schedule
Luckily for Virginia, the schedule does not include ACC favorite Florida State. It does include Wake Forest and Boston College – two conference rivals which also have 4.5-season win totals at FanDuel – and a Pittsburgh team with a total of 5.5 victories. Only the BC game is a home game this season.
The Cavaliers, though, must play Clemson and Louisville, two teams that have goals of not just making the conference championship game but winning it.
For bettors using the best Virginia sports betting promo codes, FanDuel offers odds of +270 on Florida State to win the conference for the second year in a row. Clemson, which has won the ACC a record 21 times, is the second choice at +340. Miami is at +450; all three of those programs have win totals of 9.5 for 2024. Louisville and North Carolina State are tied for fourth on the board at +600 odds.
In addition to Louisville and Clemson, which Virginia will play on consecutive weeks in October, UVA will also travel to Notre Dame in November. That’s not a conference game, but the Fighting Irish might be the Cavaliers’ toughest test. Their preseason total at FanDuel is 10.5 wins.
Of the 12 teams on the regular-season schedule, FanDuel has set preseason win totals for 10 Cavaliers opponents. Those teams have a combined projected record of 72-48.
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USA Today photo by Geoff Burke
