Utah is the slimmest of favorites in its season-opener against Florida on Saturday. Though the Utes begin the new year ranked No. 7 in the initial AP poll and Florida opens unranked, Vegas sees little separating the two. Or, maybe it just thinks The Swamp is worth a pretty decent chunk of points. Utah is a 2.5-point favorite as of Friday morning.

But recent history seems to be squarely on the side of the Utes.

ESPN’s betting extraordinaire Chris “The Bear” Fallica blasted out a Twitter thread earlier this week with a ton of bet-centric nuggets about the Week 1 slate of college football games, and Utah fans will probably appreciate the note about the Utah-Florida game.

 

The seven games Fallica referenced:

  • 2001 UCLA at Alabama: 20-17 win
  • 2003 USC at Auburn: 23-0
  • 2006 Cal at Tennessee: 35-16 loss
  • 2006 USC at Arkansas: 50-14
  • 2010 Oregon at Tennessee: 48-13 win
  • 2016 UCLA at Texas A&M: 31-24 loss
  • 2019 Cal at Ole Miss: 28-20 win

Utah has opened a season against a Power Five opponent eight times since the turn of the century. The Utes are 5-3 in those games.

Since joining the Pac-12, Utah is 27-3 in regular season non-conference games. This matchup with the Gators will be only the second-ever meeting between the two teams. It’ll also be the first SEC opponent Utah has faced since its historic Sugar Bowl win over Alabama in 2009 and the first regular-season game against an SEC team since 1984.

The game kicks off at 4 p.m. PT on ESPN.