College Football Betting Picks: UCLA Among Week 1 Odds Selections

Motivation plays a key role when handicapping most sports, but especially when it comes to betting on college football. Season openers can be some of the toughest games to wager on because it's simply too early to tell how good or bad certain teams are based solely on the offseason and previous year.

However, you can use public perception against the sportsbooks in hopes of beating them in Week 1.

For example, the No. 13 UCLA Bruins are comparable home favorites against the Virginia Cavaliers on Saturday at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark to what they were on the road when they met in the season opener a year ago. The Bruins edged the Cavaliers 28-20 but failed to cover the spread as 18-point road chalk on the way to going 1-7 against the number to start the season.

They did finish the year strong, though, covering four of five games down the stretch, and have a new freshman phenom quarterback under center in 247Sports 5-star recruit Josh Rosen.

UCLA may have been a disappointment last season, but that does not mean the same will be the case this year. Virginia also covered its first five games in 2014 before going 2-5 against the spread in the last seven games. Look for those most recent betting trends to continue for both teams as the Bruins win by more than three touchdowns this weekend.

Another team coming off a disappointing campaign is the Texas A&M Aggies, who face the No. 15 Arizona State Sun Devils at Houston's NRG Stadium on Saturday. The Aggies find themselves as small favorites in this matchup, and many bettors may just jump on the Sun Devils because they are the Top 25 team getting points.

However, Texas A&M is trying to turn the page and has an outstanding head coach in Kevin Sumlin, who will get the team back on track and into the rankings again with a solid victory here.

Finally, the Nebraska Cornhuskers have a 29-game winning streak in season openers, although most of the opponents during that stretch have been cupcakes.

That will not be the case Saturday when the BYU Cougars visit Lincoln with dual-threat quarterback Taysom Hill looking to pull off the upset. Hill is a dark-horse Heisman Trophy pick and will at least keep this one close in covering the spread at Nebraska.