College Football Handicapping Articles

NCAA Football Conference Realignment
by David Schwab - 6/27/2012

The entire landscape of Division IA college football remains in a state of flux, as the six major and five mid-major conferences continue to jockey for position in order to prosper in the future, or in some cases merely survive. With the start of the 2012 regular season a little more than two months away, it is a good time to get up to speed on the planned realignment of teams not just for this season, but for 2013 as well.

2012 West Virginia Mountaineers Predictions and College Football Futures Odds
by Alan Matthews - 6/20/2012

College football players will be reporting to fall camps in only a little more than a month, so it’s time to start addressing some 2012 NCAA props the books are releasing. A few months ago, I did an early look at defending national champion Alabama. Here is a glance at West Virginia along with some predictions for the upcoming season. The Mountaineers enter the Big 12 this year and are a dark horse national title team with a legitimate Heisman candidate in quarterback Geno Smith.

2012 Alabama Crimson Tide Predictions and College Football Futures Odds
by Alan Matthews - 5/2/2012

I was perusing a few books the other day and came across some very cool way-early props on the 2012 college football season at 5Dimes. I can’t remember when some of these have gone up so early. It’s never too early for some college football predictions!

Next Arkansas Head Football Coach Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 4/13/2012

So you are an athletic director at a potential National Championship contender in football, the sport that pays all the bills. Your school is 21-5 in the past two seasons, and its only two losses last year were to the two teams that played for the national title. You bring back arguably the SEC’s best quarterback in Tyler Wilson and a Top 10 in the country running back in Knile Davis. It’s potentially the best team your school has had since the mid-1960s when some guy named Jerry Jones was your captain and your team went 11-0 under the legendary Frank Broyles.

2013 College Football BCS National Championship Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/10/2012

Come on, you knew this story was coming! With the curtain closed on the 2011-12 college football season thanks to Alabama’s boring (and low-rated) but dominant win over LSU on Monday night at the Superdome, it’s already time to start looking ahead to next year’s title odds – the BCS National Championship Game shifts to the Orange Bowl (i.e. Miami’s Sun Life Stadium) on Jan. 7, 2013.

2012 BCS Championship Game Predictions: LSU vs. Alabama Odds and Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 12/26/2011

All hail the SEC. Again. No. 1 LSU (13-0) will take on No. 2 Alabama (11-1) at 8:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 9 at the Superdome in New Orleans. The winner will claim the sixth straight National Championship for the SEC and will be allowed another smug offseason of braggadocio for their rabid Southern fan base.

2012 Fiesta Bowl Predictions: Stanford vs. Oklahoma State Odds and Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 12/26/2011

The Cowboys, the champions of the Big 12, were left out of the BCS National Championship Game as voters elected to go with a rematch between LSU-Alabama in the title clash. Oklahoma State was passed over despite the fact that Alabama didn’t win its own division in the SEC, much less a conference title, and the fact that Oklahoma State has performed better against a more difficult schedule this season.

2012 TicketCity Bowl Predictions: Penn State vs. Houston Odds and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 12/26/2011

The busy day of bowl action on Jan. 2 kicks off with the TicketCity bowl at noon Eastern from the Cotton Bowl in Dallas when No. 17 Houston (12-1) faces off against No. 23 Penn State (9-3). It will be curious to see how motivated the Cougars are for this one. Houston was unbeaten and in line for its first-ever BCS bowl before running into a pretty good Southern Miss team in the Conference USA Championship Game and falling, 49-28 (that was the only ranked team Houston played this season).

2012 Rose Bowl Predictions: Wisconsin vs. Oregon Odds and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 12/24/2011

The “Granddaddy of Them All” highlights the bowl action on Jan. 2 when No. 10 Wisconsin and No. 5 Oregon face off in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. While most would consider the Rose Bowl the top non-title bowl game, both UW and Oregon had National Championship hopes this year. The Badgers (11-2) were about 20 game seconds from playing in that game, falling in the final seconds in back-to-back weeks to Michigan State and Ohio State in midseason.

2012 Gator Bowl Predictions: Florida vs. Ohio State Odds and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 12/21/2011

If you had told Gator Bowl organizers back in the summer that they would be matching Florida and Ohio State, they probably would have wet themselves. Alas, this matchup of previous superpowers doesn’t hold quite the cache as expected because both enter off hugely disappointing seasons and at 6-6 each for the Jan. 2 game in Jacksonville.

2011 Insight Bowl Predictions: Iowa vs. Oklahoma Betting Odds
by - 12/21/2011

No. 19 Oklahoma will square off with Iowa in the 2011 Insight Bowl. The game will kick off at 10 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 30, at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. The spread on this game opened at 16.5, which was the highest of any bowl spread released in Las Vegas this winter.

2012 Orange Bowl Predictions: West Virginia vs. Clemson Odds
by - 12/20/2011

As the calendar turns to 2012 college football fans will be treated to a week of outstanding football. And while random teams from conferences across the country are thrown together, somewhat haphazardly, into odd bowl games, the Orange Bowl promises to be a rare game that has both national and regional significance.

2011 Holiday Bowl Predictions: Cal vs. Texas Odds and Betting Picks
by David Schwab - 12/19/2011

The California Golden Bears and the Texas Longhorns will be at Qualcomm Stadium on Wednesday, Dec.28, to square-off in the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl in San Diego. This Pac-12 /Big 12 clash is slated to get underway at 8 p.m. (EST) and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.

2011 Champs Sports Bowl Predictions: Notre Dame vs. Florida State Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 12/16/2011

The Champs Sports Bowl is overrated. No. 25 Florida State will take on Notre Dame in the 2011 Champs Sports Bowl. The game kicks off at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 29 in the Florida Citrus Bowl and features perhaps the two most overrated programs in college football over the last 10 years.

2011 Poinsettia Bowl Predictions: TCU vs. Louisiana Tech Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 12/16/2011

The Horned Frogs played their final season in the Mountain West this year, winning the conference championship and positioning themselves to once again crash the BCS party and to play in a post-New Year’s bowl game. Instead, they get to take on fledgling Louisiana Tech in a pre-Christmas, mid-week matchup that is about as anticipated as holiday fruitcake.

2011 Alamo Bowl Predictions: Washington vs. Baylor Odds and Picks
by Aaron Smith - 12/16/2011

The Alamo Bowl is generally one of the better early-season bowl matchups, and I would say this year is no different. Robert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy early this month, and he’ll lead his Baylor Bears up against the Washington Huskies in this one. The man they call RG3 is making the rounds in the media after picking up the coveted trophy. Can his Bears reach double figures in wins in front of a friendly crowd in San Antonio?

2012 Cotton Bowl Predictions: Arkansas vs. Kansas State Odds and Picks
by Darin Zank - 12/16/2011

The Cotton Bowl has kind of fallen off the big bowl radar in recent years, which is too bad considering it's got a lot more tradition than most other bowls. For Instance, Alabama's Tommy Lewis stepping off the bench to lay out Rice's Dicky Moegle in the 1954 game; all those great Southwestern Conference teams; Joe Montana leading Notre Dame back vs. Houston in '79; those early New Year's Day kickoffs, to go along with your favorite hair of the dog. All good stuff.

2012 Outback Bowl Predictions: Michigan State vs. Georgia Odds
by - 12/15/2011

Are they focused and ready? How about interested in this game? Those are some of the most important questions for this year’s Outback Bowl when No. 13 Michigan State and No. 18 Georgia get together on Jan.2. Both Michigan State and Georgia played in their respective conference title games with each given more than a fair chance to go BCS bowling with a potential win.

2012 Sugar Bowl Predictions: Michigan vs. Virginia Tech Odds
by - 12/15/2011

Don’t look now, but the Maize and Blue are back in the BCS. It may not be the Rose Bowl, but things appear very good in Ann Arbor in Brady Hoke’s first season with his Michigan Wolverines. But then again, his opponent in the 2011 Sugar Bowl is Virginia Tech, and neither this program nor head coach Frank Beamer is a stranger to this game or the big stage.

2011 Independence Bowl Predictions: North Carolina vs. Missouri Betting Odds
by Aaron Smith - 12/14/2011

Many believe the real bowl season doesn’t begin until after Christmas Day. If you subscribe to that theory, the Independence Bowl will kick off this year’s bowl season on Dec. 26. North Carolina and Missouri both finished the regular season with a 7-5 record. The Tar Heels dropped four of their last six games, while the Tigers won their last three contests. This may not be a marquee bowl, but I believe it has the potential to be a quality game.