We’re about five months out from the 2026 college football season, but there are already a handful of futures wagers we can dive into.
You’ve got Heisman futures, championship odds, and we’ve got some markets for teams’ win totals.
I’m always intrigued by the win-total market at this point in the offseason because so much can change between now and August.
However, when deciding whether to wager Over or Under a team’s win total, you can always look at how the squad fared in the previous season and factor in whatever changes could impact the team moving forward.
Here’s what I’m on.
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Utah Over/Under 8.5 wins
I don’t like the Utes this season. There’s so much new in Salt Lake City that it’s going to affect their ability to win games.
Utah’s most successful coach in program history is now coaching at Michigan, while his replacement-in-waiting finally gets the opportunity to coach his alma mater. Morgan Scalley played football at Utah from 2001-2004 and has coached for the Utes since 2007.
Utah was a reliable football program under Kyle Whittingham. You knew exactly what you’ were getting each season, give or take a season with bad quarterback play or injuries. With a coach in waiting, the theory is that the aforementioned trend will continue. But I always have questions about this theory.
Does the new head coach keep the same principles? Does he recruit the same players? What about the staff? It feels difficult to blend all of those together to have success early in your coaching tenure, and it’s even tougher with so much newness in the building.
Scalley has new coordinators, including his replacement at defensive coordinator. He’s replacing respected offensive line coach Jim Harding with first-time offensive line coach Jordan Gross. Gross was my teammate in Carolina. He was my mentor, and he’s a brilliant mind, but he’s still new to coaching at this level.
Scalley does have his quarterback coming back but has to replace his entire offensive line, which includes two first-round offensive tackles. The receiver position has been a wart on the roster for years, so Utah went into the portal to improve there. A handful of the best defensive players either transferred to Michigan or are heading to the NFL.
There’s far more unknown in this program than ever before.
The schedule is likely to give the Utes three wins in the first three games, unless Arkansas is far better than we expect. So does Utah go 6-3 in conference play to get over the threshold of 8.5 wins?
The Utes will host BYU, which beat them last season. They also go to TCU, Arizona and Iowa State. I think Utah will eventually be fine with the program changes, but it won’t be this season.
PICK: Utah Under 8.5 wins
Maryland Over/Under 4.5 wins
Maryland won its first four games last season before losing eight straight games to end the year.
The Terps started a true freshman quarterback in Malik Washington and he played like a true freshman — some excellent, some bad and some bonehead. But that’s normal for a player getting an opportunity at that age. All of those reps are going to pay off this season. Washington will play behind a veteran offensive line with four returning starters. Jalil Farooq returns after 58 catches and four touchdowns. The Terrapins added some other pieces in the portal to help the offense.
Maryland couldn’t stop the run last season, which the Terps will absolutely need to improve in 2026. They added defensive linemen in the portal for that. They do return a pass rush that is nationally underrated. They had two freshmen All-American pass rushers in Sidney Stewart and Zahir Mathis. The defense returns its leading tackler in linebacker Daniel Wingate.
The schedule is always important when figuring out a win total. Maryland doesn’t have many games that you circle as wins, but the Terps do have plenty of 50-50 games.
Connecticut, Virginia Tech, UCLA, Rutgers, Purdue and Wisconsin. You can probably give them losses at Ohio State and USC. They can beat Illinois, and we won’t know about Penn State for a bit, but that game is at home.
I like Maryland to go Over.
PICK: Maryland Over 4.5 wins
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