Caleb Wilfinger
After a long and eventful offseason, the 2025 college football season is finally here. After a wild weekend of action, the final game of the Week 1 slate arrives on Labor Day between TCU and North Carolina at 7:30 pm ET on ABC. This will be one of the most talked-about games of the weekend, as the Horned Frogs are expected to be a contender in the jam-packed Big 12 while there is so much hype and intrigue around North Carolina due to the insertion of Bill Belichick at head coach, along with a ton of new players on the roster. With so much intrigue in this final Week 1 game of the 2025 college football season, a TCU vs North Carolina Same Game Parlay is in order. Here are my favorite parlay picks for this matchup; let’s end Week 1 with a big winner!
TCU -3.5 (-110)
Under 56 (-115)
Davion Gause anytime touchdown scorer (-125)
TCU vs North Carolina Same Game Parlay odds: +787
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TCU Horned Frogs -3.5 over North Carolina Tar Heels (-110)
It’s hard to be 100% definitive when talking about North Carolina, but we believe there’s some value on TCU in this spot given the potential for North Carolina to be significantly worse than its perception in the market, especially in a season-opener with so many moving pieces involved for a largely brand-new team. Much like many teams across the college football landscape, the Tar Heels underwent a complete overhaul in the offseason and are now a completely different team than what they looked like a season ago. While there is reason to believe that North Carolina upgraded in some areas on the roster, this team is still breaking in so many new pieces on both sides of the ball and it would be reasonable to expect some growing pains in the season opener.
On the other side, Josh Hoover returns for his 2nd season under center in Kendall Briles’ offense for TCU, and he will have his top 3 offensive linemen back, along with a number of talented skill position players transferring in to bolster a unit that should score plenty of points this season. It remains to be seen how the North Carolina defense will look in Week 1, so we have to give an edge to TCU’s offense in this matchup. Ultimately, this is a game where handicapping a side is difficult because of the unknown with North Carolina, but we have far more confidence in the Horned Frogs at this point, especially since Sonny Dykes’ team is much more of a proven commodity.
Read our full TCU vs North Carolina prediction
Under 56 (-115)
This is another fascinating handicap based on a number of unknowns. If North Carolina are going to keep this game fairly close, then that likely means that the Tar Heels will have to limit this TCU rhythm offense through the air and turn this game into more of a grind-it-out affair with plenty of 3rd-down situations. It certainly helps matters that the data that we’ve seen from the Week 1 results to this point also supports a lower-scoring contest, with the vast majority of the games staying under the closing total.
It’s also reasonable to expect that North Carolina’s offense struggles in Week 1 against a surprisingly solid TCU defense that ranked inside the top 40 a season ago. However, the game should still be competitive given Belichick’s background as one of the great defensive minds in the history of the sport, and it’s important to remember that he’s had all offseason to prepare for TCU’s veer and shoot offensive scheme. Look for each offenses to start fast in the scripted portion of the game, before eventually settling into a rhythm as game goes along, especially if either defense is able to impose their will on the proceedings.
Davion Gause anytime touchdown scorer (-125)
With the departure of NFL first-round pick Omarion Hampton from the North Carolina backfield, someone is going to have to fill the gaping void left by the All-American running back. It just so happens that Davion Gause has shown that he’s up for the challenge. Gause flashed in brief stretches last fall, and the Sophomore will get to shoulder the majority of the workload in this game against a TCU defense that appears to be susceptible to the ground attack on paper. This means plenty of red-zone carries, especially if Belichick wants to save quarterback Gio Lopez from taking any unnecessary hits. Given the fact that Gause recorded 4 touchdowns in limited action a season ago, let’s take the new UNC featured running back to find the end zone on Monday.
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