College Football Handicapping Articles

NCAA Football Betting and Handicapping: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 9/9/2013

If you are going to bet on NCAA title futures now, drop the money on Louisville. The Cardinals at +2000 on Sportsbook.ag after Week 2. Do I think Louisville is the overall best team in the country? I do not. But its schedule the rest of the way is a joke, meaning the Cards should run the table and get a spot in the final BCS title game before heading to the ACC.

Weekly CFB Mid-Major Betting Report: UNLV Rebels Week 2
by Aaron Smith - 9/5/2013

It’s time for the second installment of the mid-major betting report. For this year’s mid-major betting report, I am following the UNLV Rebels. The Rebels extended their road losing streak to 23 games with a 51-23 loss at Minnesota in Week 1. That certainly wasn’t the way Bobby Hauck wanted this season to get going. Most people won’t be paying much attention to the Rebels this year, but I’ll be following them every step of the way.

NCAA Football Betting and Handicapping: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 9/2/2013

The problem with when FBS teams play FCS counterparts is that often the lines on those games won't be posted until very late in the week because they are such big mismatches. There was one game on the college football board I loved more than all others last week, but I didn't mention it in this space (but I darn sure bet on it): North Dakota State at Kansas State.

American Athletic Conference Weekly Betting Report (Plus Free Pick)
by Dave Schwab - 9/2/2013

The AAC kicked things off with a bang last week, especially the Cincinnati Bearcats, who were my four-unit pick of the week. They rolled over the Big Ten Purdue Boilermakers 42-7 as 10.5-point home favorites with the total staying “under” the 49.5-point line.This new conference, which is a combination of what was left of the Big East and a number of teams from Conference USA, should continue to offer some solid opportunities all season long to make some cash with the use of Doc’s Sports Unit Betting System.

College Football Handicapping: Teams that Fell Short of Expectations Week 1
by Trevor Whenham - 9/2/2013

Analyzing teams heading into the college football season is tough. There is no preseason, and training camps are typically not very publicly accessible. We are therefore forced to form our opinions of teams based on some media access, extrapolation from the previous season and how the roster has changed, and a good deal of speculation. Oftentimes we are reasonably close, and after we have seen the team play a game or two we just have to slightly tweak what we thought to match reality.

College Football Opinion: Manziel Got Off Easy
by Robert Ferringo - 8/30/2013

Unless you have been living in a cave, you know about the drama surrounding Manziel. He signed thousands of autographs, “allegedly” for money, in clear violation of NCAA rules. His potential suspension has cast a pall over Texas A&M’s season prospects, and the reigning Heisman’s status has been a major issue in the sport since the story broke several weeks ago.

Weekly CFB Mid-Major Betting Report: UNLV Rebels Week 1
by Aaron Smith - 8/28/2013

Welcome to the first installment of this year’s college football mid-major betting report. In the first two years, the mid-major betting report selections have gone 13-7-1 and $100 per-unit bettors are up $1,410. Two years ago I followed the Rice Owls. Last year I followed the Ohio Bobcats. This season it will be all about the UNLV Rebels. All season long I’ll be following UNLV beat writers, Twitter feeds, and press conferences from the UNLV athletic department.

American Athletic Conference Weekly Betting Report (Plus Free Pick)
by Dave Schwab - 8/27/2013

The remnants of a Big East Conference that was decimated through a number of defections decided to join forces with a group of teams from Conference-USA to form the American Athletic Conference, or AAC. This new conference could be thought of as a hybrid of a major and mid-major when it comes to the level of play, but there are bound to be some excellent betting opportunities on a few of each week’s games all season long.

College Football Handicapping: Teams that Could Self Destruct
by Trevor Whenham - 8/26/2013

Last year the USC Trojans really defined self-destruction for a program. They started the season ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP Poll. By the end of the year they were just 7-5 and had limped to a lousy 5-4 mark in the Pac-12. It was humiliating in so many ways. Matt Barkley had gone from media darling to draft afterthought after a very ugly season, and the struggles were not his alone.

College Football Betting: Handicapping Second-Year QBs
by Trevor Whenham - 8/26/2013

As we sit here on the eve of another college football season, I am incredibly excited about the crop of quarterbacks. I have been watching college football obsessively for far more years than I would admit, and I rarely remember a stronger, deeper group of pivots. One of the most exciting aspects of the group is the incredible group of starters entering their second year in charge of their team. Entering the second year is when a lot of quarterbacks take a big step forward.

College Football Handicapping: Teams that Could Improve ATS
by Trevor Whenham - 8/26/2013

Some teams are just consistently bad. They have no talent and no real hope. There are other teams, though, that really struggle for bettors one year, but which can bounce back and perform much better against the spread the next year. Here are five teams in college football that could be dramatically better against the spread than they were last year:

College Football Betting: Teams that Could Struggle ATS
by Trevor Whenham - 8/26/2013

It’s very tough for a team to be successful against the spread for more than a year or two in a row in college football. The more success a team has for bettors, the more bettors pay attention to it, and the harder it is to find value in the lines. There is not always a correlation between success on the field and success at the betting window, so a team can continue to show strong improvement while becoming much worse from a betting perspective.

College Football Opening-Week Games More Interesting than they Appear
by Trevor Whenham - 8/26/2013

The opening weekend of the college football season has no shortage of high-profile games — Alabama vs. Virginia Tech, Georgia at Clemson, and LSU at TCU chief among them. Beyond those marquee games, though, there are some very interesting matchups — games that could be even more interesting from a betting perspective than the big ones. Here are eight hidden gems that stand out:

2013 Mid-Major Betting Report: UNLV Rebels Football Predictions
by Aaron Smith - 8/23/2013

The Mid-Major Betting Report has been a staple of the college football season the last couple years at Doc’s Sports, and we are back for another season of the report in 2013. This year I’ll be following the UNLV Rebels. All season long I’ll be following UNLV beat writers, twitter feeds, and press conferences from the program to become an expert on the UNLV football program.

Texas A&M Handicapping: With and Without Manziel
by Trevor Whenham - 8/22/2013

We are in a very strange time with Johnny Manziel and the Texas A&M Aggies. Unprecedented attention and scrutiny. Incredible stupidity to get into this autograph mess he is in. Total uncertainty about what could happen and what it might mean. The Aggies could play the whole season without Manziel. Or he could be there for every game.

2013 SEC Football Predictions and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 8/21/2013

Basically, the SEC is a shell game. They have ranged from “pretty average” to “terrible” in the nonconference portion of the schedule the past two years, and that is a decent indicator of how they stack up with the rest of the country. Also, the SEC is the nation’s best conference only if you are willing to ignore A) the eight teams at the bottom of the 14-team league and B) the fact that middling Big 12 teams have managed to fare pretty well in their first seasons in the league.

Bold College Football Predictions for 2013
by Trevor Whenham - 8/21/2013

The Buckeyes hype is getting out of control. There is, of course, a lot to like — Braxton Miller chief among them. It is extremely tough to go undefeated once, though, never mind twice in a row. Urban Meyer has had issues with internal control of his team this offseason, and that has to be a concern. So, too, is the fact that the Big Ten will be better this year than it was last year.

College Football Handicapping: Overrated Teams in the AP Poll
by Trevor Whenham - 8/21/2013

Now that the preseason AP Poll has been released, it is time for the inevitable griping and complaining. In my eyes, here are the five teams that got far too much credit in the first poll of the year. If the public agrees with the poll, then there could be value in the other side of the games these teams play:

College Football Handicapping: High-Profile Coaching Changes
by Trevor Whenham - 8/21/2013

As is the case every year, we have seen a whole bunch of coaching changes this year in college football. Because head coaches are at least as important in college football as in any sport, these moves are always interesting to watch. Four changes stand out as the most interesting this year because of the change they represent and the handicapping puzzles they present. Here’s a look at the four and what the new guys could mean for bettors in the short term:

College Football Handicapping: Off-the-Radar QBs with Value
by Trevor Whenham - 8/20/2013

I have been watching college football obsessively for more years than I would like to admit. In all that time I don’t remember another year in which there were more teams with strong quarterback situations. We are in a prime era for quarterbacks. With so many impressive guys out there, it is inevitable that there are quarterbacks that aren’t getting the attention or recognition that they deserve.