College Football Week 1 Predictions & Highlights of 3 Games

Biggest Three Games in Week 1 at T-minus 1.5ish Months Until the NCAAF Season Starts!

The 2023-2024 college football season will kick off before you know it and PointSpreads.com has everything you need to know including the entire NCAAF schedule at your fingertips. Let’s circle the biggest three games for College Football Week 1 predictions and reveal the current college football matchup odds.

Florida at Utah

  • Date: Thursday, Aug. 31
  • Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

These NCAAF teams exchanged unpleasantries nearly a year ago in Week 1 of the 2022 season and they will run it back again this year. Florida fashioned a 29-26 come-from-behind victory but as you may know, the Utes wound up having a successful college football season and were ranked No. 10 in the nation in the final week of the season.

Meanwhile, the Gators were lucky to get a college bowl bid with a 6-6 record but when they did, they were blasted, 30-3, in the Las Vegas Bowl by Oregon State.

This NCAAF season, specifically with our College Football Week 1 predictions, the preseason pollsters have Florida at No. 18 which is hard to fathom considering they just watched one of the most electric quarterbacks, Anthony Richardson, enter the NFL Draft only to hear his name called as the Colts selected him with the fourth overall pick.

Now the Gators have a transfer from Wisconsin, Graham Mertz, whose spring performance was so underwhelming that it seems head coach Billy Napier is welcoming any and all portal transfers who can toss a pigskin.

That’s not a ringing endorsement of the most important player on the field and we won’t see Anthony Richardson scampering for three touchdowns as he did last season against Utah in the friendly confines of The Swamp. But this year the Utes will be at home and are highly touted as a team to beat in the Pac-12, currently ranked No. 15 in the nation and gunning for their third consecutive conference crown. The Utes will also see the return of quarterback Cameron Rising and his rugged offensive line. That’s our College Football Week 1 predictions layout for this game

The current NCAAF moneyline on this game is Utah -9 but we don’t believe it’s high enough. Let’s bet it early before it drifts north.

Free Pick: Utah -9

LSU at Florida State

  • Date: Sunday, Sept. 3rd
  • Location: Orlando, Florida

Here we have another NCAAF rematch from a year ago in which the Seminoles traveled to the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans to battle the Tigers. When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, the Noles escaped with a 24-23 victory after LSU’s point-after attempt was blocked with no seconds remaining on the clock.

Those who backed FSU were rewarded as the Seminoles were 4 ½ point road underdogs and returned a healthy +170 on the moneyline.

That was a nail-biter to be sure and we expect nothing less this time around. The venue will shift to the Camping World Stadium in Orlando giving Florida State a bit of a hometown edge but those shops that are hanging early college football odds reveal that the Tigers are one-point favorites.

College Football Week 1 Predictions for this Game: According to ESPN’s preseason Football Power Index (FPI), Florida State checks in at No. 14 while LSU has been placed at No. 4 in the nation. This will be a barn burner, as both teams return their talented college football quarterbacks with boatloads of weapons on both sides of the ball.

But let’s not forget the magic that LSU head coach, Brian Kelly, worked in his debut season with the Tigers, bringing them from a last-place 6-7 team in 2021 to a 10-4 SEC West championship when he took the reins in 2022. As the strongest of our college football Week 1 predictions, we advise you to lay the point and cash a ticket with the Tigers.

Free Pick: LSU -1

Colorado at TCU

  • Date: Saturday, Sept. 2
  • Location: Fort Worth, Texas

This is an intriguing NCAAF matchup for several reasons. First and foremost, it will allow us to determine just how far the Horned Frogs will have fallen from last season’s Cinderella story when they were selected as the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff and proceeded to stun Michigan, 51-45, in the semifinals before being torched in the final, 65-7, by the national champions from Georgia.

Even TCU’s most ardent supporters don’t anticipate a return to the CFP but their preseason ranking of No. 17 in the nation is a good sign that this team will be competitive in the Big 12 and may even compete for a title again. But they did lose eight players to the NFL Draft and the key losses were quarterback Max Duggan, running back Kendre Miller, and wideout Quentin Johnston.

On the other hand, we see that the inimitable Deion Sanders landed on the campus of the University of Colorado with a mandate to overhaul what has been a moribund football program. Sanders did a yeoman’s job at Jackson State and his mere presence will attract a better caliber of recruit and transfer portal candidates.

Our College Football Predictions for this Game: The oddsmakers have set the line at around 21 and that is simply too many points to give to a team like Colorado that will be salivating at the prospect of delivering an impressive performance for coach Sanders’ in his debut at the Buffaloes helm.

Free Pick: Colorado +21

Feel free to browse, enjoy and take advantage of our PointSpreads news section. Or any other section for that matter! Together with our Betting Academy, we cover everything sports-related!

For added value, info and tidbits, check out these 60 best NCAA blogs and websites to widen your college football scope: https://blog.feedspot.com/ncaa_football_blogs/

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Sniper-PhotoAuthor: Sin City Sniper

“Busting bookmakers and taking their money is his greatest joy in life. He’s been around the block more than once, knows the players both on and off the field of battle, and uses his experience to serve the bookies a heaping plate of humble pie washed down by a warm glass of their salty tears. You can find him in any number of Vegas books, sniping weak lines and getting paid to do it.”


The opinions and view here expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Point Spreads or any of its affiliates. Point Spreads is not responsible and does not verify for accuracy any of the articles and content pieces included herein; moreover, besides being solely the opinion or views of the authors, these content pieces are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, anyone or anything.


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