Las Vegas bookmakers have released an over/under line for win totals for the upcoming football season, and the outlook on Virginia might surprise you. South Point Casino set the over/under for UVA at 5.5 wins. Such a result would mark a major improvement for a Cavalier team that went 2-10 in 2016.
Here are the over/under lines for each ACC team:
- Florida State: 9.5 wins
- Clemson: 9.5 wins
- Louisville: 9.5 wins
- Miami: 9 wins
- Virginia Tech: 8.5 wins
- North Carolina: 7 wins
- NC State: 6.5 wins
- Pittsburgh: 6.5 wins
- Georgia Tech: 6 wins
- Virginia: 5.5 wins
- Wake Forest: 5.5 wins
- Duke: 4.5 wins
- Boston College: 4 wins
- Syracuse: 4 wins
And here are the lines for Virginia’s three FBS out-of-conference opponents:
- Boise State: 8 wins
- Indiana: 6.5 wins
- Connecticut: 4 wins
South Point’s outlook is the rosiest we’ve seen for UVA so far. As we wrote in February, early season rankings and projections from ESPN and SB Nation suggest Virginia will win 3 or 4 games this fall. Athlon Magazine had a similar prediction this week: it ranked Virginia dead last in the ACC Coastal and predicted a 3-9 overall record and a 1-7 conference record.
But that’s enough doom-and gloom. The summer should be the time for fan optimism, and South Point’s outlook gives us a nice dose of it. If we let our imaginations frolic for a bit, we can see the beginnings of a path to a UVA bowl game.
The Hoos will face 3 FBS teams that South Point predicts will win 5 games or less: Duke, Boston College, and UConn. Virginia also gets to play two predicted borderline bowl teams at home: Indiana and Georgia Tech. And, of course, William and Mary visits Scott Stadium in the season opener.
It’s optimistic, but not out of the question, to think that Virginia could run the table of those games to get to six wins.
Of course, none of these preseason predictions will matter a lick once the ball is kicked off on September 2nd. Bronco Mendenhall’s team needs to show tremendous improvement to begin to sniff the postseason. And even with a reasonable schedule, the Cavaliers will need to be able to do something they haven’t done in quite some time: win the games they should.