Every college football season delivers a surprise tea or two, and fans have a real opportunity to cash in on those teams if they can identify them early on. The latest college football lines show the same old face listed as the favorites to win a National Championship, but there are a few dark horse teams sitting just underneath those teams that may well make a surprise run to the playoffs. In this list you will find programs that have a new head coach and philosophy in place, as well as some teams that look set to take a leap forward after a promising season in 2015. There are a few programs that I think fall into the underrated category, and I am going to share those teams with you now.
Underrated Teams that May Surprise College Football Bettors
100 Days. #CommitToTheG pic.twitter.com/dNKxu6viXq
— Coach Kirby Smart (@KirbySmartUGA) May 26, 2016
Georgia Bulldogs (+3000)
Depending on who you ask, the Bulldogs are a team that are currently straddling the fence between overrated and underrated. I put them into the latter category simply because I believe they have a lot to overcome from last season. Is Nick Chubb going to be the same RB after undergoing major knee surgery? Is new head coach Kirby Smart going to build a defense as dominating as what he had in Alabama? Is Jacob Eason really the answer to Georgia’s QB woes.? If Eason and Chubb can deliver, Coach Smart may not have to pull out any defensive miracles.
Nebraska Cornhuskers (+9000)
Nebraska have finished in the Top 25 in the past 5 seasons, and while their record from last year may look a little disappointing, it’s worth remembering that a number of those losses came in the dying seconds of the game. This could easily have been a 10-win team last year, and with QB Tommy Armstrong Jr. returning to the fold, the Cornhuskers have a chance to make amends for those late slip-ups in 2015.
Washington Huskies (+4200)
This team ended the year with an improbable 7-6 winning record, which is all he more astonishing when you realize that they played the entire 2015 season with true freshmen at the QB and RB positions. Jake Browning and Myles Gaskin will have learned a lot during their first year in college ball, and look set to take a big step forward this year. This is a team that could make a lot of noise in the PAC-12, where they had some nice upset wins last season. A definite dark horse.
Iowa Hawkeyes (+9000)
The ironic thing about having this team in the underrated list this season is that many pundits had them as being overrated last year. Iowa more than loved up to their expectations in 2015, yet they are not getting very much love heading into the 2016 season. The Hawkeyes have an exceptional defensive unit, and that is good news for a team that may not be as explosive on offense as some of their other Big Ten rivals. I think this team will do better than they did last season, and that makes them dangerous.
