The stadium lights have been dim for too long, but starting Saturday, oddsmaker Ty Gour will switch into regular season mode. He has his eyes out for the Fanatics Sportsbook college football games of the year — and matchups that shape the 2024-25 College Football Playoffs.
“We’re live in both Ohio and Michigan, so ‘The Game’ every year is probably going to be top three for us, especially for regular season action — if not number one,” he said.
South Carolina lacks legal online sports betting, but teams in the Palmetto State seem to draw some robust betting interest at Fanatics Sportsbook.
“South Carolina has proven to be a good market for us,” Gour said. “So Clemson-South Carolina at the end of the year — if both teams are good — could be another really good one.”
No. 10 Florida State vs. Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland, is the only “Week 0” FBS vs. FBS game on Saturday’s light schedule, so we can forgive Gour for skipping to a late-season contest.
August is a good month for college football fans to find Fanatics Sportsbook promo offers in the following states:
- Arizona • Colorado • Connecticut • Indiana • Illinois • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky
- Louisiana • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • New Jersey • New York • North Carolina
- Ohio • Pennsylvania • Tennessee • Vermont •Virginia • West Virginia • Wyoming.
What are the Fanatics Sportsbook College Football Games of the Year?
The AP preseason poll has no practical influence on the 12-team College Football Playoff field, but it can help highlight games on the road to the national championship.
Altogether, 39 games match teams that start the season in the top 25. Nine of the 39 games pair top-10 teams, and three of those games are what Gour calls “big blue blood games.”
“Ohio State-Oregon, in Week 7, is going to be a really good game for us, especially in Ohio,” he said. “There will be a lot of pro-Ohio action, but that comes with the business. And then Georgia-Alabama, Week 5 — just two blue bloods going at it. That’s gonna be a great game.”
Georgia at Texas rounds out the list of top-5 matchups.
“If both teams are coming out pretty good at that point, that’s gonna be a great game for us,” Gour said. “Alabama-Tennessee — that Week 8 schedule as a whole is gonna be really, really interesting. There are so many good games like Colorado-Arizona, Georgia-Texas, Alabama-Tennessee. So it is going to be really interesting to see how action shakes out that week.”
Michigan is a Fanatics Sportsbook College Football Hot Spot
Bettors don’t have to wait for colder weather for big games, however. Gour expects Texas at Michigan to get a ton of action at Fanatics in Week 2.
“I believe both teams will be top 10 by the time this game happens,” he said.
Gour mentions Michigan again in Week 10 when they host the Oregon Ducks.
“I am surprised Oregon is not getting as much action as they are — I do think that’s going to change pretty quickly, though,” he said. “… That team’s going to make a lot of noise, especially playing a lot of teams where we have a market, like Ohio State and Michigan.”
Starting Nov. 5, the sport’s major channels and websites switch to the College Football Playoff Committee top 25 when they display top 25 schedules and scores.
The CFP Committee releases six rankings during the season, culminating in a noon (ET) list on Sunday, Dec. 8.
In the meantime, here’s the preseason list of 39 preseason AP poll “ranked vs. ranked” games.
Week 1
Saturday, Aug. 31
- (14) Clemson vs. (1) Georgia in Atlanta
- (7) Notre Dame at (20) Texas A&M
Sunday, Sept. 1
- (23) USC vs. (13) LSU in Las Vegas
Week 2
Saturday, Sept. 7
- (4) Texas at (9) Michigan
- (15) Tennessee vs. (24) N.C. State in Charlotte
Week 3
Friday, Sept. 13
- (21) Arizona at (18) Kansas State
Week 4
Saturday, Sept. 21
- (23) USC at (9) Michigan
- (12) Utah at (17) Oklahoma State
- (24) N.C. State at (14) Clemson
- (15) Tennessee at (16) Oklahoma
Week 5
Saturday, Sept. 28
- (1) Georgia at (5) Alabama
- (21) Arizona at (12) Utah
- (17) Oklahoma State at (18) Kansas State
Week 6
Saturday, Oct. 5
- (25) Iowa at (2) Ohio State
- (14) Clemson at (10) Florida State
- (11) Missouri at (20) Texas A&M
Week 7
Saturday, Oct. 12
- (2) Ohio State at (3) Oregon
- (4) Texas vs. (16) Oklahoma in Dallas
- (6) Ole Miss at (13) LSU
- (8) Penn State at (23) USC
Week 8
Saturday, Oct. 19
- (1) Georgia at (4) Texas
- (5) Alabama at (15) Tennessee
Week 9
Saturday, Oct. 25
- (11) Missouri at (5) Alabama
- (16) Oklahoma at (6) Ole Miss
- (10) Florida State at (19) Miami FL
- (13) LSU at (20) Texas A&M
- (22) Kansas at (18) Kansas State
Week 10
Saturday, Nov. 2
- (2) Ohio State at (8) Penn State
- (3) Oregon at (9) Michigan
Week 11
Saturday, Nov. 9
- (1) Georgia at (6) Ole Miss
- (5) Alabama at (13) LSU
- (10) Florida State at (7) Notre Dame
- (16) Oklahoma at (11) Missouri
Week 12
Saturday, Nov. 16
- (15) Tennessee at (1) Georgia
Week 13
Saturday, Nov. 23
- (5) Alabama at (16) Oklahoma
Week 14
Saturday, Nov. 30
- (9) Michigan at (2) Ohio State
- (4) Texas at (20) Texas A&M
- (7) Notre Dame at (23) USC
- (16) Oklahoma at (13) LSU
New Fanatics Sportsbook College Football Features
Fanatics Sportsbook closed out its acquisition of PointsBet Sportsbook in April. The transaction gave Fanatics access to new states. It also helped the sportsbook add Banach Technology.
Kevin Hennessy, the Vice President of Communications at Fanatics Sportsbook, said the technology supercharges its entire trading system.
“Customers in particular — like in Ohio or Massachusetts — if they logged in and played last season, they’re going to see almost a supercharged app that they didn’t see last year,” he said. “It’ll have more markets; it’ll have really robust same-game parlay markets that weren’t there when we first launched. We just really hope that customers come back and check it out because I think they’ll be really impressed.”
Hennessy thinks users will like the FanCash loyalty program at the sportsbook as well.
“We’re actually able to build a nice sports ecosystem. So if you come with fanatics, you can place a bet, buy a jersey and get a collectible all through utilizing a thing called FanCash. And now, just recently, you can actually get up to 10% back — win or lose — on your FanCash,” he said.
“We’re basing it on our odds. So the bigger the odds, the bigger the FanCash return.”
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