There’s no mystery what game will be the most bet of the Week 1 slate. That honor belongs to Ohio State–Notre Dame. But with a 17-point spread, it’s far from the most interesting. That honor belongs to the North Carolina–Appalachian State game.
On the 15th anniversary of Appalachian State beating Michigan at the “Big House” as a 31-point underdog, the Mountaineers are at home this time and no one takes them lightly anymore.
A lot has changed since 2007 when the Mountaineers won in Ann Arbor. They moved to FBS in 2014 and found themselves ranked in the Top 25 in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Appalachian State was used to playing FBS schools for money, but in recent times, it has asked for the big schools to play at its place, Kidd Brewer Stadium in Boone, N.C.
Although the Mountaineers have gone 34-4 at home since 2016, two of those losses came when the big guys – Miami and Wake Forest – showed up at their 30,000-seat stadium.
The line for this game opened at UNC -3 and has since been bet down to -1.5 or -1 depending on where you get it. The personnel certainly backs up the Mountaineers' side.
At quarterback, they start sixth-year senior Chase Brice and have 13 starters who are fifth- or sixth-year players. And they get the Tar Heels, who have lost their last seven games on the road and underperformed last year with Sam Howell at the helm, in what should be one of the craziest atmosphere they've ever had.
Appalachian State sold out season tickets for the first time this year and the cheapest seat on for this game on ticket reseller TickPick is currently $247.
That being said, it’s possible bookmakers give them too much credit for playing at home. Appalachian State is only 21-25-2 against the spread at home since joining the FBS in 2014.
For this game, most of the money is on App State at the time of this writing, including 62 percent of the handle at PointsBet, 58 percent at Caesars and 56 percent at DraftKings.
And as the odds get shorter, bettors are getting more comfortable with just betting the moneyline, with 69 percent of the money at BetMGM on the yellow and black.
