College Football Handicapping Articles

Weekly Big Ten Football Betting Report: Expert Predictions and Analysis
by Chris Vasile - 9/4/2018

College football is back, and what a first weekend it was. There were several highlight-reel catches, a few bone-crushing hits, some awful play calling, and some upsets that are just too hilarious to take seriously. Looking at you Kansas. Oh, and you too Texas. We had Nick Saban losing his mind on a reporter after his team trounced Louisville and Braylon Edwards going off on a rant about how Michigan football is terrible. He's since been suspended by the Big Ten Network, but he did bring up some valid points.

College Football Betting Advice: Replacing Top-Tier QBs
by Trevor Whenham - 8/30/2018

College football is very much a quarterback-driven sport. A top quarterback can hide so many flaws for a team, and the absence of a top-tier QB can be a program killer. But no team can have a good situation forever, and the better a guy is the sooner he is going to leave for greener, and much more lucrative, pastures. Let's look at seven programs that lost high-profile quarterbacks in the NFL Draft this year and how they are working to replace them. Some will be sorely missed, and others quickly forgotten.

College Football Betting Advice: Handicapping Early-Season NCAA Mismatches
by Trevor Whenham - 8/24/2018

September in college football typically means nonconference games. And nonconference games often mean mismatches. Brutal mismatches. Major conference teams need games they can play without much risk of losing or doing costly damage that will impact them in conference play. Lesser teams see the big games as a road to a big payday. Losing to an Alabama or Clemson once a year can fund most of a smaller program. For handicappers, these games can be a bit of a headache. The spreads are massive, and the level of interest for the better teams is not always easy to determine.

Handicapping College Football Teams With NFL-Caliber QBs
by Trevor Whenham - 8/20/2018

I look at college football as the most interesting form of football available. It's just better - certainly more enjoyable than the NFL. But I know that that is not a universal belief. For a lot of people college exists primarily as a farm system for future NFL stars. I don't worry too much about what NFL guys are thinking about college players - for the most part their opinions don't matter much because they aren't very accurate until the Combine and the draft process really gets rolling.

Expert NCAA Handicapping Advice for College Football Neutral-Site Games
by Trevor Whenham - 8/18/2018

The opening couple of weeks of college football comes as a relief to fans and bettors dealing with a long case of withdrawal. But they bring plenty of handicapping challenges with them - new coaches, new QBs, and all sorts of other changes. And, uniquely, those first few weeks also include neutral-site games. These types of games are growing in frequency as stadiums that don't have a team of their own are willing to pay big money for games, and TV is looking for high-profile spectacles to launch their broadcast season.

NCAA Football Betting Advice: Under-the-Radar QBs for Wagering Profits
by Trevor Whenham - 8/18/2018

Football is very much a quarterback-driven game, and that is especially true in college where an outstanding QB can mask a whole lot of issues and make a team a winner - or at least a team that is bettable. We know who the big-name quarterbacks are - they certainly get enough attention. It's the highly-competent guys who don't get nearly as much attention, though, that can provide real opportunities for bettors. Here are seven guys who fly under the radar but are very much worth paying attention to heading into the 2018 season:

Early Bird Football Betting Packages Available from Doc's Expert Handicappers
by Doc's Sports - 7/20/2018

We are less than two weeks away from the first NFL Pre-Season Game. We are less than a month away from the first college football game. Our clients are getting excited for the 2018-19 football season, and we've already had a tremendous amount of signups for our early bird football package.

College Football Week 1 Betting Odds and Expert Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 5/23/2018

You know you are getting closer to the start of the college football season when the first lines for the opening week of action start to appear. Several Nevada books released lines this week, and it has been interesting to see what the opinions are and which lines have moved. It's way too early to bet on these games in most cases, but it is very worthwhile to look at where the lines are set, and if there appears to be any nice value to be had at this point. This is far before the general public pays any attention to these numbers, so it's the closest to a pure number we are likely to see. Here are six lines that stood out as interesting:

College Football National Championship Game Expert Betting Advice: Keys for Alabama
by Trevor Whenham - 1/7/2018

It seems bizarre to say, but even though Alabama has won four national titles under Nick Saban they probably should have won more. They have let a couple of opportunities slip away - none more than last year against Clemson. They almost didn't get another chance this year, but now that they have one they seem determined to make the most of it. But to win a title against a very good opponent they are going to have to be on top of their game. Here are four big keys to success for Alabama as they seek to make the most of being 3.5-point favorites and win their fifth national title of this era.

College Football National Championship Game Expert Wagering Advice: Keys for Georgia
by Trevor Whenham - 1/7/2018

There was no one who would have argued that the Georgia Bulldogs made anything other than a great hire two years back when they moved on from Mark Richt and hired Kirby Smart to guide their program. Even the most optimistic of fans, though, would have to admit deep down that the team is well ahead of schedule as they prepare to play in a National Championship Game just down the road from home.

College Football National Championship Game Expert Picks: Alabama vs. Georgia
by Trevor Whenham - 1/5/2018

So, we go through the whole College Football Playoff process - the rankings, the debates, the drama, and the semifinals - and what are we left with? A regular-season SEC game. Georgia and Alabama didn't play in the regular season, and they didn't play in the SEC Championship Game, but they could have. Fans of the SEC will tell you that this just shows you which conference tops them all. For everyone else, that thought makes you feel sick. While it may not be the most exotic or inspiring matchup, there is no shortage of storylines. So, which team is going to be the fourth champion of the CFP?

College Football National Championship Game Betting Trends
by Trevor Whenham - 1/5/2018

This is the fourth year of the College Football Playoff. I was skeptical about the concept before it started, and some of my issues still exist - mostly that it is moronic to have a four-team playoff when you have five champions of major conferences. But there is no denying that the playoff has led to some great games, and you can never complain about seeing another game each year between the top teams in the country.

2018 Rose Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions Georgia vs. Oklahoma
by Trevor Whenham - 12/22/2017

It's a crime that the Rose Bowl isn't the Big Ten vs. Pac-12 showdown that it is supposed to be, but at least this is a great matchup. In fact, It's the best matchup of this year's bowl calendar, and I don't think that it's particularly close. It's got everything you could want. A ridiculously potent offense from Oklahoma headed by a Heisman winner vs. a Georgia defense that is every bit as elite. A very one-dimensional Georgia offense that is great on the ground, against an Oklahoma defense that often views stopping their opponent as optional.

2018 Citrus Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions: Notre Dame vs. LSU
by Trevor Whenham - 12/22/2017

The Citrus Bowl really should be called the Deja Vu Bowl this year. This is the second year in a row that we have seen LSU in this game. It's also the second time in four years, and the third time in 12 years, that these squads have met in a bowl game. LSU crushed Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl in 2006, and the Irish won by a field goal in the Music City Bowl in 2014, so this is a bit of a rubber match of sorts.

2018 Peach Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions: Central Florida vs. Auburn
by Trevor Whenham - 12/22/2017

There is precisely one unbeaten team in college football, and they would like nothing more than to stay that way. Central Florida has played a schedule that doesn't get a lot of national respect in the AAC, but they could earn real credibility here. Auburn was one win in the SEC Championship Game away from being a playoff team, and they beat two playoff teams in the regular season - Alabama in the finale, and Georgia the first time they met. So, a team that has never lost against one that has lost one too many games. It sets up a very compelling bowl game.

2018 Outback Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions Michigan vs. South Carolina
by Trevor Whenham - 12/22/2017

This is a rematch of the 2012 Outback Bowl. In that game Jadeveon Clowney laid out Michigan running back Vincent Smith with a hit so stunningly vicious and totally perfect that I am certain you have seen it at least a dozen times, and I'm even more certain that you'll see it dozens more before the game starts. South Carolina won that game 33-28, but absolutely everything has changed for both programs since, so that result just isn't relevant here. It was one heck of a hit, though.

2017 Orange Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions: Wisconsin vs. Miami
by Trevor Whenham - 12/22/2017

This is a bowl game all about what could have been. Both of these teams faltered when it mattered most, and they both could have been playoff teams if they had been just a little tougher. Miami was unbeaten through 11 games, but they must have been looking ahead to the ACC Championship Game they had already clinched a spot in because they didn't show up in the regular-season finale against Pitt and suffered a crushing loss.

2017 Fiesta Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions Washington vs. Penn State
by Trevor Whenham - 12/22/2017

This year's Fiesta Bowl is like a traditional Rose Bowl showdown a year late. It features last year's Big Ten and Pac-12 champs in a showdown that never happened last year because of the playoff. Neither team made it back to the championship game this year, but with 10 wins each they have nothing to be ashamed of, and the winner here will wind up comfortably inside the Top 10 in the final rankings. It's a high-stakes game, and it should be a very entertaining one as well.

2017 Liberty Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions: Iowa State vs. Memphis
by Trevor Whenham - 12/22/2017

The big question here for the Iowa State Cyclones is if this is a big enough game for them to care about. This isn't a great team overall - they had five losses on the season. But they were very good at getting fired up for the biggest of games. Most notably, of course, they beat playoff-bound Oklahoma as massive 31-point underdogs. And they beat TCU as 7.5-point underdogs. They had no real business winning either game.

2017 Taxslayer Bowl Expert Picks & Predictions: Louisville vs. Mississippi State
by Trevor Whenham - 12/22/2017

This game could have been so much more than it is, but changes have robbed it of drama. Last year's Heisman winner, Louisville QB Lamar Jackson, is here, and there was the chance for a great showdown with fellow outstanding and entertaining QB Nick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald's season ended with an injury in the Egg Bowl, though. And then there was the chance for a really interesting defensive coordinator showdown.