College Football Betting
Is college football betting something you like to do? You may be thinking to yourself that college and pro football betting is the same. There isn’t that much difference, right? Well, let me ask you this: When was the last time you saw an NFL team favored by more that 14 points? Ok, maybe a few times. How about 17? A little less right? Now how about 35? I’m going to take it by the silence that you haven’t. Well, I have never seen a spread like that in the NFL and until the Umpa Loompas get an NFL team, I don’t think we will see a spread like that. But, in the college ranks, you see those types of spreads all the time. This is where betting college and pros differ and here are a few more options to think about when you are going to bet in the NCAA ranks.
HUGE POINTSPREADS AND
RUNNING UP THE SCORE
Miami minus 37… how many times have you seen that? In recent years, probably quite a few times. Are big point spreads a good bet? Well, it will depend a lot on the team. What I mean by that is there are quite a few teams out there that like to run up the score. Ever since they started the new bowl system (BCS), more and more teams want to run up scores to run up their BCS rankings. These are usually pretty good teams to bet on. There are a few teams that are given a huge point spread but won’t run up the score, but those teams that do are the ones you want to look at and possibly bet on. Is it a for sure bet, no, but teams such as Miami or Minnesota are known for running up the score. Now I’m not saying they do it every time, but the bigger the point spread and the bigger the blowout margin, the higher you BCS rankings go!
TOTALS
Totals in College football are a lot different from the NFL. You may be thinking to yourself why, both teams score points right? Well, yes that is right but in the college ranks, totals can and usually are a whole new ballgame. I’ll give you one example. In college football, the home team usually dictates the pace of the game. This happens in the pros as well but more so in the college ranks. If the home team is a run and gun team, they will make the other team run and gun as well. Example number 2: The clock stops after every first down. More time, more points! In the pros, the clock is always running even when they go out of bounds. Not in college though, go out of bounds stop the clock. Again, the more time you have the more points you can score. The last example deals with overtime. In the pros, first one to score in overtime wins and if no one scores, it’s a tie. Not in college. Each teams gets a chance to score. Both teams’ score, we go to another overtime and so on and so on. You could have as many overtimes as it takes to win. There are no ties in college. The team with the most points wins no matter how long it takes! One problem with totals in college though is sometimes they are hard to find. It’s not like NFL where every game has a total. In college there are quite a few totals, but not all of them have them. This is where the next sections dealing with trends will come into play!
TRENDS
In college they have trends and in the pros they have trends. There is one difference between the two though: NCAA teams stay truer to trends than the pros. If a team is
1-11 against the spread (ATS) on the first Saturday in October, most of the time that trend holds true. It's funny sometimes because it's like both teams know that trend and it turns out to be a massacre on a Saturday morning. The scary part is that there are trends on anything and everything! First Saturdays, last Saturdays, morning games, night games, afternoon games, temperature trends, color trends, if the quarterback or running back had so many yards the game before trends, you name it, they have a trend for it…and the real scary part is a lot of times they hold true. In the college ranks, studying the trends is a great way to bet.
RIVALRY GAMES
Rivalry games play a huge part in a point spread. A lot of times the teams are of equal talent and other times one team is really good and the other is rather crappy. But if it’s a rivalry game, the point spreads are usually pretty low no matter how good or bad the teams are. A quick example: In 1996, when Jake “The Snake” Plummer was playing for Arizona State and had that great team, they played their rival Arizona at Arizona. At the time, Arizona State was ranked in the top 3 while Arizona was struggling to win 5 games. I was figuring the point spread to be in the minus 20’s for Arizona State. My mouth dropped when I saw the opening line: Arizona State -7. I said to myself that can’t be right but in fact it was. I thought to myself, even being alumni of the University of Arizona, this was a no brainer bet, Arizona State all the way. Arizona State had a chance to be National Champs and even though Arizona was their rival it should be a blowout. For the first half, it was a close game; I actually believe it was tied at halftime. But in the end Arizona St. did blow them out 56-14. A minus 7-point spread just shows how big a rivalry game is to a point spread. If you look at the rest of the games in that series since that 1996 game, not one game is decided by more than 10 points! Rivalry games usually stay rather close. Look at Florida/Tennessee, those games are usually real close and those point spreads are just as close. Be careful with rivalry games, even though a team is much better than the other, doesn’t mean a for sure victory.
TEASERS: A BIG NO-NO IN COLLEGE!
When it comes to teasers in the NCAA, it’s really not a good thing. A 6-point or even a 7-point teaser doesn’t do you a lot of good in college football. The games just don’t seem to stay as close as the NFL where a 7-point teaser is a real good thing. I see teasers in college like this: If the point spread is single digits then it’s a possibility, but if the spread is double digits, just say no like my prom date said to me after the prom in the hotel room! Teams in college like to run up the score remember? A 30-point favorite wants to win by way more than 30 especially for the BCS standings. Adding an extra seven points to the underdog really won’t do any good. Teasers are just really too hard in college football with the amount of points scored in a game, and the high point spreads and running up of the scores, etc… The best advice I can give you about teasers and college football is this: be that prom date that doesn’t want to put out and JUST SAY NO!
NCAA football and NFL football are both a blast to watch as well as to bet on. Just make sure you look at all there is to offer when it comes to betting both. Look at the trends, rivalry games, everything you can to make sure you are making the best picks possible. Some bets you do in the NFL games, you wouldn’t do in the college games and vice versa. The best part about it all is: college football bets happen on Saturdays and NFL is on Sundays, double the fun!
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