- The 2026 college football season opens Thursday, Aug. 27, with FCS games; the FBS Week 0 marquee is in Dublin on Saturday, Aug. 29.
- TCU is a 7.5-point favorite over Bill Belichick’s North Carolina in Saturday’s Aer Lingus College Football Classic.
- Notre Dame is the +600 championship favorite at Bovada, with seven teams priced shorter than +1000.
- Week 1 brings Miami at Stanford on Sept. 4 and Clemson at LSU on Sept. 5, with Ohio State at Texas the following Saturday.
DUBLIN, Ireland – College football opening week begins Thursday, Aug. 27, with FCS openers, the FBS Week 0 slate lands Saturday, Aug. 29, and the betting markets open the 2026 season without a runaway team at the top. Notre Dame’s +600 championship price at Bovada is the shortest on a board where seven programs sit inside +1000.
A Thursday Start And A Dublin Headliner
The FBS calendar opens with a limited Week 0 slate, and its centerpiece comes Saturday when TCU meets North Carolina at Aviva Stadium in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. TCU went 9-4 last season and won the 2025 meeting 48-14. North Carolina went 4-8 in Belichick’s first year.
A 7.5-point spread against a team that lost by 34 in the same matchup a year ago says the market expects the gap to close but not disappear. A total of 47.5 prices the noon-ET kickoff as a modest-scoring game.
A Title Board Seven Teams Deep
Notre Dame at +600 leads a championship market with no separation at the top. The gap from the favorite to seventh-choice Miami at +950 is smaller than the usual distance between first and third, and none of the seven is priced with room to absorb a bad Saturday – one September loss reshuffles the shelf.
The full market and its season-long movement live on the legal college football betting page.
| Team | Odds |
|---|---|
| Notre Dame | +600 |
| Ohio State | +650 |
| Texas | +675 |
| Oregon | +775 |
| Indiana | +875 |
| Georgia | +900 |
| Miami | +950 |
The Early Slate Sorts The Board Fast
The board gets its first real test in Week 1: Miami at Stanford on Friday, Sept. 4, Clemson at LSU in prime time Saturday, Sept. 5, and Notre Dame against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field on Sunday, Sept. 6. The following Saturday, Sept. 12, stacks Ohio State at Texas – a meeting of two of the three shortest title prices – alongside Oklahoma at Michigan.
With two of Bovada’s three shortest-priced teams meeting inside the season’s first three weekends, the flat top of the board starts sorting itself almost immediately. Season-opening boards across every sport are tracked at legal sports betting. The first full lines for those games post after Week 0 clears.
