College Football Early Season Bye Weeks

Evaluating Teams with Early-Season September Bye Weeks

Two weeks into the college football season and we’ve witnessed the usual suspects, upsets and adjustments in price by the linesmaker. As we adjust our power ratings on teams and continue to evaluate the players’ performance on the playing field and the supporting statistics, it’s important to not only understand motivation and potential letdown situations for players and teams, but also how scheduling plays a part in the process.

I have outlined the college football September bye week schedule along with each team’s pre and post-bye opponents. In college football, this can be a real benefit to the rested and prepared team, especially later in the season. When playing at home off a bye, there is a solid situational edge when playing an opponent that is not off a bye, and usually a motivational edge especially if a quality or capable team is off a loss.

Plenty of situations and profiles to consider as you evaluate these bye teams, and we’ll review more as the season moves along. But recognize scheduling situations and take note of teams off a bye, and those playing at home that may also have additional motivation that includes significant redemption.

This is another piece to add to your handicapping arsenal, but know that you still must evaluate the match-ups, motivation, injuries, statistical profiles and betting lines at the sportsbooks. The linemaker makes adjustments to early season results, power ratings and to the bye week situation, and especially to rested and ready teams playing with redemption.

Bye	Team	Conference	Pre Bye	Post Bye	Notes
15-Sep	Michigan State	Big Ten	at Arizona State	at Indiana	MSU beat Indiana 17-9 LY
15-Sep	Air Force	Mountain West	at Florida Atlantic	at Utah State	Beat Utah State 38-35 LY
15-Sep	Louisiana Tech	Conference USA	Southern	at LSU	LT is 2-10 in non-conf road since 2013
15-Sep	Rice	Conference USA	at Hawaii	at Southern Miss	Lost to So. Miss 43-23 LY
22-Sep	Northwestern	Big Ten	Akron	Michigan	Last played Michigan in 2015
22-Sep	California	Pac 12	Idahom State	Oregon	Pac 12 opener, lost to OU 45-24 LY
22-Sep	Utah	Pac 12	Washington	at Washington State	Lost to WSU 33-25 LY
22-Sep	Colorado	Pac 12	New Hampshire	UCLA (Fri)	UCLA has lost 10 straight Pac 12 road games
22-Sep	UCLA	PAc12	Fresno State	at Colorado (Fri)	Beat UCLA 27-23 LY
22-Sep	Boist State	Mountain West	at Oklahoma State	at Wyoming	Beat WYO 24-14 LY
22-Sep	Wyoming	Mountain West	Wolford	Boise State	WYO trails series 11-1 (won as DD Dog 2016)
22-Sep	New Mexico	Mountain West	at New Mexico State	Liberty	First meeting vs Liberty
22-Sep	Fresno State	Mountain West	at UCLA	Toledo	Lost 52-17 at Toledo in 2016
22-Sep	San Jose State	Mountain West	at Oregon	Hawaii	Lost 37-26 to Hawaii LY
22-Sep	UAB	Conference USA	Tulane	Charlotte	Lost 25-24 in OT to Charlotte LY as fav
29-Sep	Missouri	SEC	Georgia	at South Caroina	Lost to SC as favorite LY
29-Sep	Maryland	Big Ten	Minnesota	at Michigan	Lost to Michigan 35-10 LY
29-Sep	Wisconsin	Big Ten	at Iowa	Nebraska	Beat Nebraska 38-17 LY
29-Sep	Iowa	Big Ten	Wisconsin	at Minnesota	beat MN 17-10 LY
29-Sep	Minnesota	Big Ten	at Maryland	Iowa	Floyd of Rosedale (pig) trophy
29-Sep	Illinois	Big Ten	Penn State	at Rutgers	Lost to Rutgers as favorite LY
29-Sep	New Mexico State	Independent	at UTEP	Liberty	First meeting vs Liberty
29-Sep	South Florida (USF)	American	East Carolina	at Massachusetts	First meeting vs Massachusetts
29-Sep	Navy	American	at SMU	at Air Force	Beat Air Force 48-45 LY
29-Sep	Houston	American	Texas Southern	Tulsa (Thur)	Lost to Tulsa 45-17 LY as 13′ pt fav
29-Sep	Tulsa	American	at Temple	at Houston (Thur)	Tulsa won 2 games LY include vs Houston
29-Sep	Utah State	Mountain West	Air Force	at BYU (Fri)	Beat BYU 40-24 LY as slight ‘Dog
29-Sep	Colorado State	Mountain West	Illinois State	at San Jose State	Beat SJS 42-14 LY
29-Sep	San Diego State	Mountain West	Eastern Michigan	at Boise State	Lost to Boise 31-14 LY
29-Sep	UNLV	Mountain West	at Arkansas State	New Mexico	Beat NM 38-35 LY as ‘Dog
29-Sep	MTSU	Conference USA	at Georgia	Florida Atlantic	Lost to FAU 38-20 LY
29-Sep	Georgia Southern	Sun Belt	at Clemson	Arkansas State	Lost to Ark State 43-25 LY
29-Sep	Texas State	Sun Belt	at UTSA	Louisiana	Lost to UL 24-7 LY