FanDuel has posted numbers for nine different college football games in Week Zero, Week 1 and Week 2.
We’ll start with Week Zero in Dublin, Ireland, where Virginia will take on NC St. The Cavaliers are listed as 3.5-point favorites (at a -105 price) with a total of 54.5 (‘under’ -115, ‘over’ -105). The Wolfpack are +134 on the money line.
Coming off its 11-win campaign this past season, you would think that UVA would’ve been able to take advantage of that success on the recruiting trail. However, that wasn’t the case at all.
According to the 247Sports Composite, UVA’s 2026 recruiting class is #17 (as in dead last) in the ACC and #81 nationally. The Cavs’ transfer-specific group is ranked #38 in the country.
UVA has only 14 incoming freshmen and 29 transfers. Just 13 of the 29 transfers are from Power-Four programs, but they have combined for 22,953 career snaps (H/T to Jeff White of VirginiaSports). With quarterback Chandler Morris denied a seventh year of college eligibility last month, Tony Elliott brought in a couple of experienced transfers QBs to compete for the starting gig in Eli Holstein (Pitt) and Beau Pribula (Missouri).
Holstein and Pribula started their careers at Alabama and Penn St., respectively. In 2024, Holstein started 10 games for the Panthers. He completed 61.9 percent of his passes for 2,228 yards with a 17/7 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Holstein added 328 rushing yards and three TDs while averaging 4.0 yards per carry.
Holstein lost his starting gig after Pitt started the 2025 campaign with a 2-2 record. He appeared in eight total games, connecting on 77-of-125 throws (61.6%) for 1,081 yards with a 12/6 TD-INT ratio. Holstein had 88 rushing yards and one TD.
Pribula led Missouri to a 7-3 record in his first 10 career starts after appearing in 24 games at Penn St. in a backup role for two seasons. For the Tigers in 2025, Pribula completed 182-of-270 passes (67.4%) for 1,941 yards with an 11/9 TD-INT ratio. He had 297 rushing yards, six TDs and a 3.1 YPC average.
NC St. finished 2025 with an 8-5 straight-up record and a 5-8 against-the-spread mark. The Wolfpack bring back QB CJ Bailey, who completed 68.8 percent of his throws for 3,105 yards with a 25/9 TD-INT ratio this past year.
In 25 career games (22 starts), Bailey has connected on 67.1 percent of his passes for 5,518 yards with a 42/19 TD-INT ratio. He has 494 career rushing yards and 11 TDs.
Per the 247Sports Composite, NC St. has the nation’s #49 overall recruiting class and are ranked #44 in terms of transfer-specific imports. WR Victor Snow (Buffalo) is one of the top transfers. He had 62 receptions for 815 yards and eight TDs for the Bulls in 2025.
In college football’s debut in Brazil, Rio will host a showdown between TCU and North Carolina in Week Zero. FanDuel has the Horned Frogs as 7.5-point favorites (-115 price) with a total of 50.5 (‘under’ -115, ‘over’ -105). The Tar Heels are +255 on the money line.
Sonny Dykes’s team destroyed UNC 48-14 as a 3.5-point road ‘chalk’ in last year’s opener. It was the start of a disastrous debut season for Bill Belichick that saw UNC finish 4-8 SU and 5-7 ATS.
UNC has turned over its roster with 59 new players. The 247Sports Composite has the Tar Heels’ 2026 class ranked #21 nationally (#19 with incoming freshmen and #49 with transfers), including 12 four-star arrivals. There are 19 transfers, including 14 from Power-Four schools.
There are three new QBs who will vie for the starting job, including four-star incoming freshman Travis Burgess, who was ranked as the #9 QB in the 2026 class. Burgess will compete with Billy Edwards (Wisconsin) and Miles O’Neill (Texas A&M).
The Week 1 games are Ole Miss -5.5 vs. Louisville (in Nashville), Auburn -7.5 (-106) vs. Baylor (Atlanta), LSU -11.5 vs. Clemson, California -5.5 (-108) vs. UCLA and Notre Dame -16.5 vs. Wisconsin (on Sunday at Lambeau Field in Green Bay). In Week 2, Texas is -2.5 (-115) vs. Ohio St. and Michigan is -1.5 vs. Oklahoma.
Pete Golding led Ole Miss to a 2-1 record in the College Football Playoff, beating Tulane at home and Georgia at the Sugar Bowl before losing a heartbreaker to Miami. He brought in the country’s #13 overall recruiting class and the #2 group in terms of transfers.
The Rebels are still holding out hope that QB Trinidad Chambliss will win an appeal with the NCAA to be eligible in 2026. If that doesn’t happen, the QB competition will be between Auburn transfer QB Deuce Knight and Louisiana transfer Walker Howard.
Knight is one of nine four-star transfers like CB Jay Crawford (Auburn), DT Michai Boireau (Florida), OT Carius Curne (LSU), DE Blake Purchase (Oregon) and WR Horatio Fields (Auburn).
Louisville’s top returning players include RB Isaac Brown, WR Chris Bell, WR Caullin Lacy and LB Antonio Watts. Brown was third in the ACC in rushing yards (1,173), first in YPC average (7.1) and had 11 rushing TDs as a freshman in 2024. He was limited to nine games this past year, but he still had 884 rushing yards, seven TDs and led the nation in YPC average (8.8).
In 47 games for the Cardinals across four seasons, Bell has 151 career catches for 2,166 yards and 12 TDs. Lacy had 60 catches for 635 yards and two TDs in 2025, while Watts recorded 42 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, three interceptions, three passes broken up, two forced fumbles, two sacks and one fumble recovery.
Ohio St. transfer Lincoln Kienholz is the favorite to be Jeff Brohm’s starting QB.
Auburn went to Waco for last year’s season opener and captured 38-24 win as a one-point road favorite. In the rematch, we’ll have two different starting QBs who faced each other last season.
Auburn’s new signal caller is former South Florida QB Byrum Brown, who led the Bulls to an 18-16 Week 2 win at Florida as 18-point road underdogs. DJ Lagway, the former starter at UF, is now back in his home state with the Bears, who finished 2025 with a 5-7 SU record and a 6-6 ATS ledger.
LSU won a 17-10 decision at Clemson as a 4.5-point road underdog in the 2025 curtain jerker, snapping an inexcusable five-game losing streak in season openers. The Bayou Bengals have a new head coach in Lane Kiffin, who has brought in the nation’s #1 recruiting class that includes 59 new players and 40 transfers.
There are five five-star arrivals and 21 four-star guys. The top transfers include QB Sam Leavitt (Arizona St.), OT Jordan Seaton (Colorado), DE Princewill Umanmielen (Ole Miss), LB TJ Dottery (Ole Miss), DE Jordan Ross (Tennessee), WR Jayce Brown (Kansas St.) and WR Eugene ‘Tre’ Wilson (Florida).
Dabo Swinney has the country’s #26 overall recruiting class and the #68 transfer group. Swinney has set a program record for portal arrivals with 10, as he has finally relented – to some extent, that is, as 10 is still an extremely small number – to the new era of college football.
With QB Cade Klubnik off to the NFL, the new starting QB will probably be Christopher Vizzina if he can hold off Trent Pearman and Chris Denson. Vizzina has played in 14 career games, completing 64-of-105 throws (61.0%) for 596 yards and four TDs compared to one interception. He has 109 career rushing yards, one TD and a 2.9 YPC average.
California and UCLA have new coaches in Tosh Lupoi and Bob Chesney, who comes to SoCal after leading James Madison to a CFP berth. Lupoi played his college ball in Berkeley from 2000 to 2005 and worked at his alma mater as an assistant under Jeff Tedford.
Lupoi also spent five years at Alabama working under Nick Saban before serving as Dan Lanning’s defensive coordinator at Oregon from 2022-25. He did solid work on the recruiting trail for his first class, landing the country’s #14 transfer-specific group.
Most important, Lupoi kept rising sophomore QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who threw for 3,117 yards with a 17/9 TD-INT ratio as a true freshman.
Chesney brought in 10 of his former players at JMU, hoping to duplicate the success that Curt Cignetti had at Indiana with his former players from the Dukes. That’s obviously a Herculean task, though.
Chesney brought in the country’s #58 overall recruiting class and the #33 transfer group. He was able to retain QB Nico Iamaleava, who has 4,858 career passing yards and a 34/12 TD-INT ratio.
Notre Dame was denied a berth in the CFP this past season and chose not to participate in a bowl game. The Fighting Irish return a solid core of players on defense like safety Adon Shuler, LB Drayk Bowen, CB Christian Gray, CB Leonard Moore and DE Boubacar Traore.
QB CJ Carr is back after enjoying an outstanding redshirt freshman campaign. Carr completed 66.6 percent of his passes for 2,741 yards with a 24/6 TD-INT ratio. He also had three rushing scores.
Marcus Freeman brought in the country’s #4 recruiting class that includes four five-star additions and 26 four-star players. There are only seven transfers, but that group is still ranked #9 nationally with six four-star guys per the 247Sports Composite.
FanDuel has Notre Dame as the +650 favorite to win the 2026-27 national championship. The betting shop also has Carr as the +800 ‘chalk’ to win the Heisman Trophy.
The Luke Fickell Era has been a colossal disappointment to date, but it will see a fourth season. The Badgers, who finished 4-8 SU and 5-7 ATS in 2025, did show a little life down the stretch. They went 4-1 ATS with a pair of outright wins (13-10 vs. Washington and 27-10 vs. Illinois) in their last five contests.
Wisconsin only trailed 10-7 at halftime at Indiana and held Oregon scoreless until 1:07 was left in the second quarter of a 21-7 loss in Eugene. Fickell’s incoming recruiting class was disappointing, though, ranking #67 overall and #48 in terms of transfers.
The Week 2 games will be revenge spots for the home teams. Texas lost a 14-7 decision at Ohio St. as a 1.5-point road favorite last year, while Michigan lost 24-13 at Oklahoma as a 4.5-point underdog.
FanDuel has the Longhorns and Buckeyes sharing the second-shortest CFP odds on the board (+700) behind the Fighting Irish. QBs Arch Manning (+850) and Julian Sayin (+1300 or 13/1) have the second and fifth-shortest odds in the Heisman market, respectively. Ohio St. WR Jeremiah Smith shares that fifth-shortest number with Sayin.
Ryan Day landed the nation’s #2 overall class for 2026, while Steve Sarkisian has the #3 group. The Longhorns are ranked #3 in terms of transfer-specific imports, and the Buckeyes are #5.
Texas brought Manning some new toys like RB Hollywood Smothers (NC St.), WR Cam Coleman (Auburn) and RB Raleek Brown, who had 1,141 rushing yards, four TDs and a 6.1 YPC average for Arizona St. last year.
The Kyle Whittingham Era is set to begin at Michigan, and he’s a significant upgrade compared to the previous regime. The former head coach at Utah was able to retain QB Bryce Underwood, who had 2,428 passing yards with an 11/9 TD-INT ratio as a true freshman in 2025. He added 392 rushing yards and six TDs while averaging 4.5 YPC.
Oklahoma returns lots of key pieces from an elite defense like LB Kip Lewis, DE Taylor Wein, safety Peyton Bowen, DT Jayden Jackson, CB Eli Bowen and DT David Stone. QB John Mateer is back to lead the offense and hopefully make up for a brutal performance in a CFP home loss vs. Alabama.