UNC Football: Takeaways from the early UNC-Cal betting line

Despite the college football season still being several months away, early betting lines for week one have started popping up.

UNC’s opening game against Cal is one of the lines available at Bet Online, and at least right now the Tar Heels are the underdog. Cal is currently listed at 5.5 point favorite, which is actually down from where it started, at least according to the SBNation College Football post linked above.

While lots can still change in the months leading up to the season, what does this early points spread say about the impression of this Tar Heels team?

For one, UNC being the underdogs isn’t exactly surprising. The game is at Berkeley, and home teams will always get some sort of a bump in betting lines.

It also shows that the Tar Heels still have a lot to prove to people in the coming season. The line makes sense, Cal was a better team last year (not massively, but they were). UNC still has questions about if they have a quarterback they can rely on, and they’re replacing pieces on defense. Cal returns their quarterback, Ross Bowers, and a large amount of their production on offense.

In some regards, the fact that the line started at Cal -6 and has dropped shows that some people have faith in UNC. That could be due to the fact that people are willing to believe that the Tar Heels were injury hampered last year. It also could be that people just think that they’re undervalued.

As said earlier, we’re still a pretty long way off from the season. Lots can change with UNC, or Cal, or any team on the schedule this year. There can and will be shifts in the betting line between then. However, even if it is early, the early line is just another piece of information on what people think of UNC ahead of the 2018 season.