College football win totals 2014: Early betting odds released

It's that time of year -- May, to be exact -- when betting odds for various college football things come out in advance of the season (just four months away now). 5dimes released their college football win totals Thursday, with Maryland coming in at a surprisingly high 7.5 (with the Over at +100 and the Under at -140) -- on par with Michigan, Nebraska, Texas A&M and Florida, among others.

The Terps face a notoriously tough schedule in their inaugural Big Ten campaign, following up a relatively easy non-conference slate with a rough six-game stretch from October through November against some of the conference's elite. As a reminder, the schedule:

August 30: James Madison
September 6: at USF
September 13: West Virginia
September 20: at Syracuse
September 27: at Indiana
October 4: Ohio State
October 18: Iowa
October 25: at Wisconsin
November 1: at Penn State
November 15: Michigan State
November 22: at Michigan
November 29: Rutgers

If you're looking for between seven and eight wins in that schedule, you have to start by assuming wins in all four non-conference games as well as the first and last Big Ten contests, as those are by far the easiest games on that schedule. Can the Terps run the table there and then squeeze out one or two wins in that ridiculously hard stretch in the middle? It's possible. Iowa, Penn State, Michigan and even Wisconsin are all beatable, but three of those games are road contests, making the task even harder.

That 7.5 number doesn't tell the whole story, however, as resident self-described degenerate gambler FlaTerp explains:

This is a good sign! The win total of 7.5 looks remarkably high considering what appears to me to be a schedule in which the Terps will definitely be underdogs six times (at Syracuse, Ohio State, at Wisconsin, at Penn State, Mich. State, at Mich) and possibly be underdogs four others (WVU, at Indiana, Iowa, Rutgers). Pete Volk and I had an informal, speculative discussion about the the O/U before it was released, and I guessed it would be 5, while he guessed 6 or 5.5. And we're Terp homers!

This is a number that will stick out to anybody looking up and down a list of win totals, because when was the last time Randy Edsall won 8 games at Maryland? Now factor in the premium of -140 you have to pay to bet the under: this is an acknowledgment by the wiseguys that the betting public is going to be drooling to throw money at the under, so they're making you pay extra to do that.

Any time you see Las Vegas set a line that stacks up recreational gamblers on one side of a bet (in this case, 7 wins or less), it probably means Las Vegas feels pretty good about the other side of it (8 or more). We'll see how this number changes between now and September, but as a starter, it implies to me that the sharps are feeling more optimistic about Maryland than the writers and casual fans are.

The full list, via kegsneggs:

Alabama: 10.5 (Over -140, Under +100)

Auburn: Over 9.5 (Over -155, Under +115)

Baylor: 9.5 (Over -130, Under -110)

BYU: 8.5 (Over -160, Under +120)

Clemson: 9.5 (Over -150, Under -190)

Duke: 8.5 (Over +120, Under -160)

Florida: 7.5 (Over +110, Under -150)

Georgia: 9.5 (Over -120, Under -120)

Indiana: 5.5 (Over +145, Under -185)

Kansas State: 8.5 (Over -130, Under -110)

Maryland: 7.5 (Over +100, Under -140)

Miami: 7.5 (Over -160, Under +120)

Michigan: 7.5 (Over -140, Under +100)

Michigan State: 9.5 (Over -155, Under +115)

Mississippi: 7.5 (Over -140, Under +100)

Missouri: 9.5 (Over +110, Under -150)

Nebraska: 7.5 (Over -130, Under -110)

North Carolina: 7.5 (Over -140, Under +100)

Notre Dame: 9.5 (Over +110, Under -150)

Ohio State: 10.5 (Over -140, Under +100)

Oregon: 10.5 (Over +100, Under -140)

Penn State: 8.5 (Over +100, Under -140)

Rutgers: 4.5 (Over -110, Under -130)

South Carolina: 9.5 (Over -140, Under +100)

Stanford: 9.5 (Over -120, Under -120)

Tennessee: 5.5 (Over -160, Under +120)

Texas: 8.5 (Over -110, Under -130)

Texas A&M: 7.5 (Over -110, Under -130)

TCU: 6.5 (Over +120, Under -160)

UCLA: 9.5 (Over +100, Under -150)

USC: 8.5 (Over -130, Under -110)

Virginia Tech: 7.5 (Over -150, Under +110)

Washington State: 5.5 (Over -165, Under +125)

West Virginia: 5.5 (Over -190, Under +150)

Wisconsin: 9.5 (Over -135, Under -105)