2024 Week 5 College Football Weather: How Hurricane Helene could impact games
College football is a sport that can be significantly impacted by weather, and betting lines on games can change drastically based on an ugly forecast. While it’s nearly impossible to stay on top of the forecast with so many games each week, this article will bring you an early-week look at some games with potential weather issues that could ultimately result in some lines moving one way or another.
Just like we do for the NFL, we’re focusing more on wind than rain. While rain or snow can impact play, especially if it’s heavy enough, it’s tough to pinpoint heavy downpours until moments before kickoff. With wind, we not only see significant impacts on the game itself, especially passing and kicking, but it’s also something that can be reliably forecasted days in advance. You can then use this to your advantage when making your picks on DFS sites and sportsbooks.
2024 College Football Week 5 Spots I’m Watching
- UMD @ IU – Pretty likely we’ll be seeing bands of light rain in the area. Winds will be sustained 10-15mph, gusting around 25mph.
- MINN @ MICH – Scattered downpours are possible. At times it could be dry, at times we could see heavy rain. Winds sustained 10mph, gusting around 20mph.
- NEB @ PUR – Scattered light showers are possible
- Colorado at UCF – Helene is long gone, but storm chances remain.
- UL @ ND – Scattered showers are possible.
- North Dakota State at Illinois State – Sustained winds 15 mph with gusts to 25 mph.
Impact of Weather on Sports Betting
Any games with sustained winds around 20 mph create difficult conditions for passing and kicking and will see a significant drop in the total as we move through the week, so generally speaking, it’s best to hit any windy unders early in the week as this season progresses. Rain can have major impacts to the passing as well as increasing turnovers, but in most cases, it’s hard to know with any real confidence how wet a game will end up until right before kickoff. Temperature is something that generally only matters on the extremes, especially if we’re talking about games played well below freezing temperatures. And even in those cases, the typical impact to scoring is only a slight negative.
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