College football’s opening Thursday night has value: Best Bets for September 1

Each day, one of our experts will offer up a best bet (or two or three) that mobile sportsbooks are offering. It might be a traditional spread bet, a player prop or one of the various odds boosts that books offer.

Here are our best bets for Thursday, Sept. 1:

TOP PLAY

The play: College football, Purdue +3.5 over Penn State

The odds/bet: -110 ($33 to win $30)

The book: Caesars Sportsbook

Time/TV: 7 p.m. (Fox)

Our take: For all intents and purposes, it’s opening night in college football as the real Week 1 begins with the first Big Ten matchup actually being played in a home stadium. That home is at Purdue, where the Boilermakers bring back quarterback Aidan O’Connell, who passed for 3,708 yards and 28 touchdowns last season.

It’s always tough to start a football season by betting against a program that typically wins nine or more games and is in a significant bowl game. However, Penn State is coming off a 7-6 season and was 4-5 in the conference, and lost a majority of its starters and has a freshman running back this year in Nick Singleton – a name we all will know someday soon, but not today.

The Nittany Lions have dominated this series (15-4), which has to be the only reason why they are favored on the road in a game they simply should not be favored in.

VALUE TOTAL

The play: College football, West Virginia at Pittsburgh under 52

The odds/bet: -110 ($11 to win $10)

The book: Caesars Sportsbook

Time/TV: 6 p.m. (ESPN)

Our take: It’s the 105th meeting of “The Backyard Brawl,” and it’s the first since 2011 since both teams were in the Big East (which no longer exists). Also for the Panthers, it’s their first time on the field without Kenny Pickett as their starting quarterback since 2017.

There are interesting storylines here, especially at QB, with JT Daniels moving from Georgia to West Virginia and Kedon Slovis taking over for Pickett, but the defenses should have the upper hand in this opener. Pitt was the second-best team in sacking the opposing quarterback, and the Mountaineers return plenty of pass rushers from 2021.

HOW WE’VE FARED

MLB money line: Orioles over Guardians (WON $45)

MLB total: Cardinals-Reds over 9.5 runs (LOST $10)

Wednesday’s profit/loss: +$35 (1-1)

Total for the week: +$12.60 (3-4)

Final total for August: +$91.30 (32-34)

Total for 2022: -$48.80 (223-249)

NOTE: If a line or odds are minus, it considers the juice one must lay to place the bet. Ex: Team A is -160 on the money line, one would have to bet $160 to win $100 (or $16 to win $10). OR Team B is a 5-point favorite at -110, one would have to bet $110 to win $100 (or $11 to win $10.)

Conversely, on positive lines, if Team C is +140 on the money line, a $100 would bring in $140 (or $10 to win $14).