College Football Handicapping Articles

College Football Underdogs Week 1: Moneyline Best Bets
by Joey House - 8/29/2024

Welcome to the world of underdog betting. Here each week, we delve into the heart of college football handicapping to find those hidden gems—teams that might not be favored but have the potential to shock the world. The only guideline we follow is the spread must be a touchdown or more for us to back the dog. Each pick we make is a single unit bet on the money line, but we'll also track how these underdogs stack up against the spread for those who prefer a more conservative approach.

FCS Championship Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Mike Allen - 8/29/2024

The Football Championship Subdivision, in this new era of college football, is seeing more and more higher-level talent each year, not to mention the upsets pulled off on FBS teams by the FCS. These smaller schools are getting larger and larger programs. As you will see below, the elite teams in the FCS are concentrated around one region. The top five betting favorites are from North and South Dakota, along with Montana.

2024 Big 12 Football Predictions with Odds and Expert Betting Advice
by Robert Ferringo - 8/28/2024

“Your guess is as good as ours.” I think that’s the clear message that the oddsmakers are sending with the odds to win the Big 12 football championship this year. The Big 12, like the rest of college football, has undergone a sea change in terms of conference alignment. While the Big Ten poached several of the big-market West Coast programs, the Big 12 absorbed the other Mormon Twin (Utah), welcomed back prodigal stepson Colorado, and took in Arizona and Arizona State (for reasons mainly having to do with basketball and desperation).

2024 Oklahoma State Cowboys Football Predictions and Betting Odds
by Joey House - 8/28/2024

After a rocky 2-2 start last season that saw them lose at home to South Alabama, Oklahoma State's season was at the crossroads of success and disaster. Twenty-year head coach Mike Gundy had his team take a turn onto the road of success, and they reeled off five consecutive wins and went 7-1 and earned a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game. While they fell short of that title, the Cowboys did defeat Texas A&M in the Texas Bowl to cap off the 8th double-digit win season.

2024 Clemson Tigers Football Predictions and Betting Odds
by Joey House - 8/26/2024

While I'm sure the Tiger Nation rejoiced over Florida State's demise in Ireland this past weekend, the Clemson faithful know exactly how the Seminoles feel. Clemson was humiliated on the national stage a calendar year ago, losing as a 13-point favorite to fellow ACC foe Duke in prime time on Labor Day night. Even though the Tigers lost three more games throughout the season, each loss was a one-possession affair.

College Football Awards Futures: Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Mike Allen - 8/26/2024

Week 1 of the 2024 college football regular season is rapidly approaching. And, heck, we have already started the season. We've already seen our first big upset with the Florida State Seminoles going down to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on a late field goal.

NCAA Football Predictions: Week 1 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Joey House - 8/26/2024

The long, cold (and sometimes hot) offseason is finally over. By the time you read this, Week 0 (what a concept!) will be behind us. The most "totally tubular" (shoutout to all the '80s surfers) time of the year has arrived: COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Welcome to Doc's college football "Opening Line Report (OLR)," where we dive in and analyze a few lines as soon as they hit the market. Being the first with the 12-team expanded playoffs, this season promises to be like nothing the college football world has seen before.

College Football Playoff Teams from Each Conference: Odds and Best Bets
by Mike Allen - 8/26/2024

The 2024 College Football Playoff is the dawn of the golden age. I'm more anxious about this than Black Friday, Christmas, and the Super Bowl combined! The best conferences in college football got even better, and I'm cool with that. Maybe we could change the names at one point to match the number of teams. However, either way, college football fans are in store for something they've never experienced in a 12-team playoff.

College Football Playoff Sleepers: Odds and Best Bets
by Mike Allen - 8/26/2024

Is there a magic number of wins a college football team needs to be selected to be a part of the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff? I'm hearing many people say that teams who win 10 games will be invited to the playoff. That makes sense. Looking at several projections, however, has me scratching my head. That’s because only two teams, the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Georgia Bulldogs, are favored to win double-digit games.

2024 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Predictions and Betting Odds
by Joey House - 8/23/2024

The first season of the Marcus Freeman era didn't start with a bang but rather a whimper, as Notre Dame limped through a 9-4 season in 2022. After just one lackluster season, Freeman found himself on the hot seat. However, the Fighting Irish rebounded nicely in 2923 with a 10-3 campaign, winning on the road against an upstart, ranked Duke squad. Notre Dame also demolished their long-time nemesis, the USC Trojans, by four touchdowns.

2024 Texas Longhorns Football Predictions and Betting Odds
by Matt Zitt - 8/22/2024

If Texas’ offense has reloaded successfully with portal pass-catchers, and if the defense can develop a solid rotation of interior linemen, the Longhorns have a chance to contend in Year 1 in the SEC with the goal of reaching the 12-team College Football Playoff. Playing at Michigan on Sept. 7 will be an early barometer.

2024 LSU Tigers Football Predictions and Betting Odds
by Matt Zitt - 8/22/2024

In Year 3 of coach Brian Kelly’s tenure, it is time for the Tigers to take a step forward, and that means securing a spot in the expanded College Football Playoff. Getting there depends on two key things: finding enough of a ground game to pair with what should still be a potent passing game, and improving the defense enough to be at least average. Answer those two questions, and the Tigers are top-12 material for sure.

Dark Horse Teams to Make 12-Team College Football Playoff
by Joey House - 8/22/2024

The 2024 season marks a transformative era in college football, with the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams. This change brings unprecedented excitement as fans eagerly anticipate which underdog teams will rise to the challenge. A Group of Five team is now guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, giving mid-major programs a chance to showcase their talent and resilience. As the landscape of college football evolves, these teams are ready to make their mark and potentially secure a coveted playoff berth.

2024 Ole Miss Rebels Football Predictions and Betting Odds
by Matt Zitt - 8/21/2024

The majority of the Ole Miss Rebels’ key contributors from last season decided to give it one more go in an attempt to reach an expanded 12-team College Football Playoff field in 2024. Ole Miss added impact players through the transfer portal at nearly every level, too. They are coming off their first 11-win season ever, and expectations are as high as they have ever been in Oxford. This team is talented, well-coached and battle-tested. The Rebels — at least on paper — have the makings of an SEC contender.

2024 Alabama Crimson Tide Football Predictions and Betting Odds
by Matt Zitt - 8/21/2024

Alabama’s historic success under Nick Saban meant that the expectations each season were essentially National Championship or bust. The bar is still high, but expectations need to be kept in check for new coach Kalen DeBoer’s first season, as he brings together a new coaching staff and a turned-over roster that had almost 40 players leave through the transfer portal or for the NFL. Alabama plays a tough schedule but still has enough talent to compete for a spot in the new 12-team College Football Playoff.

2024 Georgia Bulldogs Football Predictions and Betting Odds
by Matt Zitt - 8/20/2024

Georgia has one of the deepest, most talented rosters in the country. It also returns some of the sport’s top players at premium positions, and it is not protecting a title for the first time in a while. There is a reason the Bulldogs are viewed by most as the No. 1 team in the country. Quarterback Carson Beck leads a high-powered offense for coach Kirby Smart, and the defense is once again among the best in the land.

2024 ACC Football Predictions with Odds and Expert Betting Advice
by Robert Ferringo - 8/19/2024

The ACC got bigger. It didn’t get better. Desperate to ape the SEC and Big Ten, the ACC expanded its conference with fragments of the splintered Pac-12 (Stanford, California) and SMU. But unlike the two superconferences, the ACC’s moves reeked of desperation and failed to elevate the league. This league isn’t in a good place. The top two programs, Florida State and Clemson, are locked in a legal battle for the right to leave the ACC. It’s contentious. It’s nasty. And it is a bad look for the conference that the two teams favored to represent the league in the expanded playoffs both desperately want out.

Best Bets for College Football Win Total Matchups
by Mike Allen - 8/19/2024

The start of the 2024 college football season, or Zero Week as they call it, is just days away. We get our first look at the Florida State Seminoles as they travel along with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to the Emerald Isle of Ireland. That should be a lot of fun. And after this game, we enter Week 1 of the CFB season. This year will be the first in which NCAA football has a 12-team playoff. Hopefully, we expand even further in the future, but this is plenty of fun for now.

2024 USC Trojans Football Predictions and Betting Odds
by Joey House - 8/19/2024

Coming off a successful double-digit wins season in 2022 and with the reigning Heisman Trophy winner returning, expectations were sky-high for the "men of Troy" in their final season in the now-defunct Pac-12 conference. While the offense was as good as advertised, the defense was atrocious, and the Trojans stumbled to an 8-5 record. USC managed to defeat a Louisville squad in the Holiday Bowl without the Trojans' star QB, Caleb Williams, and a handful of other players who opted out.

2024 AAC Football Predictions with Odds and Expert Betting Advice
by Robert Ferringo - 8/15/2024

A conference, by any other name, can stink as much. The American Athletic Conference is now basically just the retread, rehashed, rebooted Conference USA. Except, thanks to some random recent successes from since-departed teams at the top of the conference, the AAC retains just a hint of faux credibility and respectability. It’s a second-tier league filled with third- and fourth-tier programs who’s only bragging rights are, “Hey, at least we’re not the Sun Belt.”