For the first time since 2019, the California Golden Bears are 3-0, having knocked off their UC rivals from Davis, Auburn and San Diego State in successive weeks to bring newfound hope to Berkeley this fall across California sports betting.
Through three weeks, sophomore QB Fernando Mendoza has emerged as a bona fide star under center, with 589 passing yards and five touchdowns, while posting the 34th best QBR in the nation, at 71.1.
Throw in the ground and pound action out of the backfield that sophomore Jaivian Thomas out of Oakland has provided, with a team high 241 rushing yards and a touchdown in three games, and you have a bold era for Cal football in their new conference home.
While we’ll know a lot more about Cal’s potential after they play winless Florida State in Tallahassee on Saturday, we do know that Bet365 has the Golden Bears ninth in their ACC championship odds board, directly behind NC State (+2800) and ahead of SMU (+3500).
As for Saturday’s game at FSU, Bet365 has Cal as a 2.5-point road underdog with a +115 moneyline on the Golden Bears (to -135 for the Seminoles), speaking to the difficulty that awaits opposing teams inside Doak Campbell Stadium.
While inevitable, penalties in college football can greatly impact the end result of each game. At BetCalifornia.com, we wanted to know how penalties impact a team’s chances of making the CFP. Using Sports-Reference.com, we found how many penalties each current ACC team received over the past three seasons and final records. We then took the top five most penalized teams over each season, found the average penalty count, average record and percentage of times one of those teams made it into the CFP.
The current penalty count for 2024 teams is as of Sept. 18.
Winning % | Average Penalty Count | Made Playoff |
.620 | 183 | 0.0% |
Over the last three years, the most penalized teams in the ACC have posted a year-end winning percentage of .620, while none of them have made the CFP so far, which is a direct result of the east coast conference not having a team in the CFP field since Clemson in the 2020 season.
Overall, the ACC team with the most on field infractions has committed 183 penalties per year on average, which is a figure that this year’s teams in the conference will look to avoid.
Rank | Team | # of Penalties/Game |
1 | Cal Golden Bears | 9.3 |
2 | North Carolina Tar Heels | 9.0 |
T3 | SMU Mustangs | 8.0 |
T3 | Pitt Panthers | 8.0 |
5 | Miami Hurricanes | 6.0 |
In 2024, the Bears have been less than golden when it comes to avoiding penalties, with Cal ranking atop the ACC with 28 penalties committed through three weeks of play, averaging out to 9.3 a game.
The rest of the ACC penalty leaderboard includes fellow first-year member SMU, which ties for third with 8 infractions a game with Pitt and then the Miami Hurricanes (6.0 penalties a game) round out the top five in the conference this season.
For coach Justin Wilcox and the Golden Bears, the task at hand is to head to Tallahassee and pull off the upset, which would mark Cal’s second road win inside the country’s southeastern quadrant through four weeks of football in the East Bay.
USA Today photo by Gabe Mayberry.
Author
Christopher Boan is the lead writer at BetCalifornia.com, specializing in sports betting issues in the western United States. He's covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
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