DraftKings Unveils Georgia's 2023 Win Total
After winning consecutive national championships, the Georgia football program has surged past the sport’s recent and traditional powers alike on its ascent to the top of the college football landscape. Exalted air such as that the Bulldogs currently occupy is also accompanied by outsized expectations, as evidenced by the early season win totals recently released by DraftKings. A year after setting Georgia’s regular season win total at 10.5 entering the 2022 college football season, DraftKings - one of the largest online sportsbooks in the United States - has listed Georgia’s regular season win total for the 2023 regular season at 11.5 wins.
With the odds for Georgia to go over 11.5 wins in 2023 set at +130 and the odds to go under set at -150, it is clear that DraftKings believes that the Bulldogs are more likely to fall short of 11.5 wins than they are to exceed that number. Yet, given that Georgia is the only team in the country with a win total over 10.5, the fact remains that the expectations that oddsmakers hold for the Bulldogs entering the 2023 season exceed those they hold for any other team in college football.
While setting an undefeated season as Georgia’s standard entering the 2023 season, may, on some level, appear an unreasonable expectation for any program to live up to, there are a number of factors that support the Bulldogs’ lofty win total. While the defending national champions do have to replace a number of key players off of last year’s team including three first-round draft picks, a Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback, and a host of other players who contributed heavily to Georgia’s consecutive national championships, the Bulldogs also return 14 players that started the national championship game against TCU in January and will supplement that core with a talented collection of other former four and five-star prospects who have been waiting for their time to step into the spotlight.
Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart looks on against the TCU Horned Frogs during the second quarter of the CFP national championship game at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
While Georgia’s tremendous overall talent level is certainly a leading factor behind the considerable expectations oddsmakers have for the Bulldogs this season, its unusually favorable 2023 schedule has only served to reinforce and elevate those expectations. The Bulldogs were originally slated to play at Oklahoma on September 9 before the SEC dictated that the matchup be canceled in light of Oklahoma’s pending jump to the SEC in 2024 that would be consummated prior to the Sooners making the return trip to Athens in 2031. With most programs building out their schedules years in advance, Georgia was unsuccessful in its efforts to replace Oklahoma with another Power Five opponent; instead, being forced to settle on Ball State as its week two opponent. With the road trip to Oklahoma wiped off the schedule, Georgia was left with three lackluster early season non-conference matchups against UT-Martin, Ball State, and UAB to go along with the annual in-state rivalry game with Georgia Tech to close out the regular season.
The Bulldogs are not scheduled to play a game outside of the friendly confines of Sanford Stadium until week five when they travel to Auburn to play a team that is not only coming off of back-to-back losing seasons, but will also be breaking in a new head coach in Huge Freeze. In all, Georgia will only make four true road trips this season with their trip to Knoxville on November 18 being their only road game of the season against a team that ended the 2022 season with a winning record. The top teams in the SEC West are also conspicuously absent from Georgia’s schedule as the Bulldogs avoid Alabama and LSU - the two heavy favorites to win the SEC West in 2023 - in the regular season.
The staggering amount of talent Georgia has been able to accumulate over the course of Kirby Smart’s tenure in Athens along with one of the more favorable SEC schedules in recent memory has influenced oddsmakers to set Georgia’s regular season win total at the highest number possible as the 2023 season continues to draw closer.
