Nebraska vs Michigan Opening Line and Early Lean

The Cornhuskers of Nebraska are 3-0 and feeling good about their season. Yes, two of their three wins have been against cupcakes. They beat Akron 68-0 last weekend, and they just defeated Houston Christian 59-7. But they did travel to Cincinnati is week 1 and beat the Bearcats 20-17.

#23 Michigan is 2-1 overall. They beat New Mexico in week 1 by a score of 34-7 before traveling to Oklahoma where they got soundly defeated 24-13. This week they rebounded with a win over Central Michigan 63-3.

Two wins on both team’s schedules were against relative nobodies. You cannot really extrapolate anything from those games. However, beating Cincy on the road was somewhat of an accomplishment. Nebraska was favored by 6.5 points and won by 3, not covering the spread. But they did walk out with the win.

Michigan played an Oklahoma team that is currently ranked #13. But Oklahoma hasn’t played anyone either. Other than beating Michigan, they defeated Illinois State and Temple. Not exactly world beaters.

My initial guess was that Michigan at Nebraska would be a Pick Em’ or maybe the Huskers might even be slightly favored. I was little surprised tonight as the lines started popping up on the board and I saw Michigan -3 and Michigan -3.5 (BetOnline.ag). Sportsbook Draftkings currently is listing Michigan -2.5 points.

Against the only good team they have faced this year, Michigan QB Bryce Underwood went 9/24 for 142 yards passing and no TD’s. He had 3 carries for -1 yard. Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola went 33/42 for 243 yards and 2 TD’s against Cincy. He is the only one of the two who has proven he can move the ball against a non-JV team.

Conclusion

Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola is in his second year as a starter and has looked very good this year in all three games. Michigan QB Bryce Underwood is a new starter with three games under his belt. His overall stat line of 46/70 for 628 yards, 2 TD’s and 1 INT in 3 games are not impressive at all. I am strongly leaning towards taking the Huskers plus the points at home here.

Update: 9/14/25 at 5:30pm EST – The line has moved down to Michigan -1 since this post went live 17 hours ago.

More College Football News