College Football Handicapping Articles

NCAA Football Picks and American Athletic Conference Week 1 Betting Report
by Dave Schwab - 8/27/2014

The American Athletic Conference began play last football season in what was a combination of teams from the old Big East Conference and Conference-USA, and it went on to attract some national attention from the betting public with teams such as Central Florida and Cincinnati turning in successful seasons.

NCAA Football Betting: Fading the Top 25 Weekly Free Picks
by Aaron Smith - 8/27/2014

It’s the beginning of another exciting college football season. For college football fans, it feels like Christmas in August with the games getting going on Thursday. There’s an extra reason to be excited about college football this year. At the end of the season, there will be a four-team playoff. This playoff system won’t be perfect, but I am convinced it will be a large improvement over the old system.

North Carolina Tar Heels Odds to Win the 2015 College Football National Championship
by Alan Matthews - 8/27/2014

The University of North Carolina is obviously known as a basketball school, and that program has always overshadowed the football side. Really the only coach in the past 25 years who came close to getting football on a near-equal footing with hoops was Mack Brown, and he left for Texas in 1997 just when the Heels were starting to look like a national power.

College Football Handicapping: Targeting Worst ATS Teams in NCAA
by Trevor Whenham - 8/27/2014

When it comes to betting on college football — or any other sport, for that matter — it is typically the teams that win a lot of games and cover a lot of spreads that get a lot of attention from bettors. The important thing to remember, though, is that teams that cover very few spreads are just as attractive as those that cover a lot — betting against a team and being right pays just as well as betting on one correctly.

College Football Handicapping: Neutral-Site Games
by Trevor Whenham - 8/27/2014

One of the intriguing features of the first few weeks of the college football season is the host of nonconference neutral-site games that hit the schedule. They are often times more of a cash grab than anything else, but they can also provide intriguing matchups between teams we don’t typically see play each other. When you are handicapping these neutral-site games, here are three factors to keep in mind:

College Football Power Rankings: the Ferringo 15
by Robert Ferringo - 8/26/2014

How many professional handicappers do you know that have hit 60 percent of their college football picks each week over the past two years and, let’s say, about 250 plays? And even if you did know of someone that managed to accomplish that feat, were they giving those picks out for FREE?

2014 SEC Football Predictions and Futures Odds Picks
by CarbonSports - 8/26/2014

The SEC conference has been the cream of the crop in college football for the last decade or so and I don't believe much will change this year. From top to bottom in the SEC there are some very good teams and we should see some high level football from all of them this year. The odds are quite spread out as to who will end up winning the conference title game in early December as this might not be Alabama's territory to rule anymore.

2014 Pac-12 Football Predictions and Futures Odds Picks
by CarbonSports - 8/26/2014

The Pac-12 will once again be one of the better all-around conferences in college football this year as it's the deepest it's been in years. Only three programs (Cal, Washington State, Colorado) are expected to be going through growing pains this year as all three are very big longshots to win the conference (+22500).

2014 SEC Predictions and College Football Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 8/25/2014

There exists the idea in college football that there is the SEC and then there is everyone else. The idea is that this conference is some kind of behemoth, playing at a level above and beyond the rest of the nation. Well, that idea is a media-driven falsehood. It is myth, like Southern Hospitality. And now that ESPN has a hefty financial stake in this myth, you can expect several more years of hype-fueled fellatio directed at the South’s most far-reaching social contribution of the last 30 years.

2014 ACC Predictions and College Football Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 8/25/2014

It’s a new year but the same story for the ACC: parity or mediocrity? The conference does boast the defending BCS National Champion with Florida State. But they have gone just 4-13 in BCS bowl games and still have too many 7-6-caliber teams populating the league.

NCAA Football Predictions: Week 1 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 8/25/2014

It feels like forever ago that we saw Florida State beat Auburn in the final BCS Championship Game -- and one of certainly one of the best national title games this century. Now the BCS is dead, and we are introduced to the four-team College Football Playoff. How will it work? No one seems to know other than the 13 members who will pick the national semifinalists similar to how the NCAA Tournament field is chosen.

College Football Betting: Best Games of First Week of NCAA Season
by Trevor Whenham - 8/25/2014

When the first week of the college football season finally rolls around, I am not picky about what I watch. I am so starved for the action of our greatest sport that I would watch absolutely anything. There are, though, obviously some games that are more significant and important than others.

College Football Handicapping: Under-the-Radar Quarterbacks with Betting Value
by Trevor Whenham - 8/25/2014

We’ve had two straight Heisman-winning quarterbacks who had never played a down in college football at this point in their award-winning season. With that unprecedented success, it’s no wonder that people are more and more interested in spotting the next unexpected breakout star under center.

Handicapping Bovada’s College Football Stats Props with Picks and Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/22/2014

I don’t know about you, but I am going crazy trying to be patient as I wait for the college football season to arrive. The offseason always seems long, but this one has seemed particularly endless. To try to make time pass more quickly, it’s a good time to look at bets that can distract us — and perhaps make us some money at the same time.

College Football Handicapping: Teams Set to Take Big Step Forward
by Trevor Whenham - 8/22/2014

One of the many, many things that can make college football great is how quickly the fortunes of a program can turn around if everything goes their way. Just look at Missouri — 5-7 in their first year in the SEC and 11-1 in the regular season last year. That’s just one example of what every down-and-out team dreams of.

Clemson Tigers Odds to Win the 2015 College Football National Championship
by Alan Matthews - 8/21/2014

When you hear about the top coaches in college football, is Clemson's Dabo Swinney mentioned? He should be. The guy can recruit -- currently the school has the No. 2 Class of 2015 -- and all Clemson does is win under him. True, he can't beat South Carolina, but that's about it.

College Football Handicapping: New Teams in Major Conferences
by Trevor Whenham - 8/21/2014

Remember when there used to be stability in conferences in college sports? Oh, the good old days. Yet again this year we are seeing a shift in teams among the power conferences. Louisville joins the ACC in a move that makes sense and is long overdue. Meanwhile, Rutgers and Maryland join the Big Ten in a move driven entirely by conference greed because it certainly doesn’t add any value on the field.

Three Differences between Betting on the NFL and College Football
by George Monroy - 8/21/2014

Even though football is essentially the same at every level from professional to high school, for bettors there are enough key differences between wagering on the NFL and college football that the sports might as well be two different games. Taking an NFL betting strategy into the NCAA game or taking and NCAA strategy into an NFL game can be a receipt for disaster and a quick way to lose a lot of money.

Handicapping the Top ATS Teams from College Football Last Season
by Trevor Whenham - 8/20/2014

One of the big challenges handicappers face is deciding how much what a team has done in the past should factor into what we expect them to do in the future. Sometimes a team that was very strong against the spread one year will continue to be the next year because they face a favorable schedule, return strong talent, and are focused on success.

Futures Betting Toss Up: Comparing NFL and NCAA Football Wagers
by George Monroy - 8/20/2014

The NFL and college football seasons start within a week of each other, and after a slow summer for betting the sports action is about to pick up. On top of the weekly in-game spreads, there is plethora of futures bets to take advantage of in both sports. The question is, however, which lines are the best ones to wager on, since most bettors cannot keep the majority of their bankroll tied up in futures bets spread across two sports.