Fresh off the program’s most successful season in a decade across Arizona sports betting, the Wildcats are looking to take the next step as a program on the gridirons of their new conference under first-year head coach Brent Brennan.
Brennan takes over for the departed Jedd Fisch, who left Tucson for the greener pastures of Seattle to lead the Washington Huskies, who in turn lost their head coach (Kalen DeBoer) to Alabama in the offseason.
Now, the former San José State coach is tasked with taking a team that won seven straight games to close the year (including a 38-24 victory over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl) to finish 10-3.
Luckily for Brennan, the Wildcats were able to keep superstar sophomore quarterback Noah Fifita and wideout Tetairoa McMillan out of the transfer portal, with the former coming off a 2,869-yard, 25-touchdown (to six interception) season while the former snagged 90 catches for 1,402 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2023.
That gridiron productivity has caught oddsmakers’ collective attention, with FanDuel Sportsbook Arizona listing Fifita at +3000 to win the Heisman Trophy in 2024, ranking in a tie for 14th nationally, while McMillan is listed at +15000 to win the honor this fall.
Utilizing FanDuel Sportsbook’s current win total for the 2024 college football season, Arizona was found to be set at 7.5 wins (-110 over). Utilizing SportsReference.com, we found all teams with a 7.5-win total line in the last 3 seasons and how they performed.
Season Performance Of 7.5 Win Total College Football Teams
The information below can be useful while navigating Arizona betting apps. Here are the numbers for teams with an 7.5 win total to begin the season.
Situation | Number of Teams | Percentage* |
|---|---|---|
Under 7.5 Wins | 15 of 28 | 54.6% |
Over 7.5 Wins | 13 of 28 | 46.4% |
College Football Playoff Appearance | 0 of 28 | 0.0% |
Year-End AP Poll Top 25 Team | 5 of 28 | 17.9% |
*Rounded to nearest whole number
Can Arizona Clear 7.5 Win Total in 2024?
Since 2014, 15 of the 28 teams (or 54.6%) that had preseason win total over/under figures of 7.5 wound up clearing that mark, with five of those teams (or 17.9%) finishing in the year-end AP top-25 poll. Since 2000, Arizona’s won eight or more games six times, doing so in 2008 and 2009 (8-5 both years), 2012 and 2013 (8-5 both years), 2014 (10-4) and 2023 (10-3), illustrating a potential path this fall for Brennan and company.
As Arizona begins play in the Big 12, the Wildcats will have to face Texas Tech (Oct. 5), Colorado (Oct. 19), West Virginia (Oct. 26), Houston (Nov. 15) and ASU (Nov. 30) at home in conference play, while squaring off against Utah (Sept. 28), BYU (Oct. 12), UCF (Nov. 2) and TCU (Nov. 23) away from the friendly confines of Arizona Stadium.
Throw in a pre-scheduled “non-conference” game against Big 12 foe Kansas State in Manhattan on Sept. 13 and games against New Mexico (Aug. 31) and NAU (Sept. 7) and you have the full scope of the Wildcats’ slate of games outside of their new conference digs, as Brennan looks to get Arizona over the preseason win total hump in 2024.
Stick with BetArizona for all Arizona Wildcats odds.
USA Today photo by Daniel Dunn.
