Cal opens as 4.5 point underdogs to Washington State. How many times will they be favored?

Early college football lines were released last week by The Golden Nugget. The California Golden Bears are only mentioned once, but it doesn’t bode well for their lines for the rest of the season.

Cal is currently 4.5 point underdogs to Washington State for their Friday night matchup in Memorial. Not so bad, right? That’s a manageable line for Cal to overcome.

Then you look at the other lines that involve Washington State.

• Washington State is 10 point underdogs to USC. At home. You can imagine Cal facing a similar double-digit line to USC.
• Washington State is 5.5 point underdogs to Stanford. At home. With Cal going to Stanford, you can expect that line to be close to the 10+ point range.
• Washington State is 16 point underdogs to Washington. Cal is going to be underdogs by a lot in Seattle.

Looking down the rest of the schedule,

• Cal also sits as eight point underdogs to North Carolina in their season opener.
• Ole Miss is projected to be decent as well, so that will probably be around the same line as the Cal-Washington State perspective (3 to 4 point underdogs).
• Cal should be decided underdogs in all six of their road contests. All of their road foes are projected to be bowl teams.
• That leaves three games that Cal is likely to be favored in: Arizona, Oregon State, and Weber State. But only the Weber State is a sure victory. Arizona and Oregon State are likely to be toss-ups as well.

Tough road ahead for Cal. Can they spring a ton of upsets to get to a bowl game?