Cal a Slight Underdog in ACC Opener Against Boston College

Cal and Boston College will both be coming off disappointing performances when they meet in the Bears’ ACC opener in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, on Saturday, but betting sites have made Boston College the favorite in that game, although with different point spreads.

On Sunday, FanDuel made Cal a 4.5-point underdog against the Eagles, while DraftKings and BetMGM have Cal as a 6-point underdog for its first game on the East Coast this season.

For the second straight week, Cal (3-1, 0-0 ACC) will face a team that is coming off a bye, and that did not work in the Bears’ favor this past Saturday, when Cal played poorly in a 34-0 loss to San Diego State, which was a 14-point underdog to the Bears.

Boston College (1-2, 0-1 ACC) also has two weeks to prepare for Cal after the Eagles had to travel across the country to play Stanford and lost to the Cardinal 30-20 on September 13.

But it will be Cal making the 3,100-mile trip to the East Coast this coming Saturday, which might be part of the reason the Bears are underdogs.

Last year, Cal went 2-3 in games in which it had to travel across at least two time zones, and it was 1-2 in its three trips to the East Coast. The Bears were competitive in all three of those coast-to-coast trips, losing at Florida State 14-9 and at Pitt 17-15 before winning at Wake Forest 46-36. The Bears went 1-1 in road games in the Central time zone, winning at Auburn 21-14 and losing at SMU 38-6.

The game against Boston College is one three trips to the Eastern time zone Cal will make this season. The Bears play at Virginia Tech on October 24 and travel to Louisville on November 8.

Cal has been an underdog in two of its previous games this season, and the Bears won both by double-digit margins, beating favored Oregon State 34-15 on the road and topping favored Minnesota 27-14 at home.

The immediate concern for Cal is whether it can bounce back from its disheartening loss to San Diego State. Not only did Cal lose to a team that was coming off a 36-13 loss to Washington State, but the Bears were shut out for the first time since 2019. Cal is hoping true freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele can rebound from his first unimpressive performance of the season. He threw two interceptions and no touchdown passes against the Aztecs.

It will be interesting to see whether the point spread for the Cal-Boston College game changes in the days leading up to Saturday afternoon’s game, which will be televised by ACC Network starting at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time.

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