College Football Handicapping Articles

2016 Louisville Cardinals Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/2/2016

Bobby Petrino is a consummate scumbag in a sport that is full of depraved sociopaths. But there is no denying one thing: he can coach. And after a bizarre set of circumstances led to his second go-round in Louisville, Petrino is ready to get back to business in building this team back up as a Southern power.

2016 Pittsburgh Panthers Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/2/2016

A bowl game loss to Navy robbed Pittsburgh of its first nine-win campaign in this decade, but the Panthers are primed to top last year's accomplishments in coach Pat Narduzzi's second year. Narduzzi had the unenviable responsibility of being Pitt's seventh coach in four years. But the players responded to his even-handed style, and the Panthers were able to execute at a very high level while wining four straight games by a touchdown or less last fall.

2016 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/2/2016

If there's one thing I've learned about Paul Johnson, it's that he always does his best work when the expectations are the lowest. Well, it's hard for expectations to be much lower for the beleaguered coach, who could be set for his final season on the Yellow Jackets sideline.

2016 North Carolina State Wolfpack Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/2/2016

I felt that N.C. State was the biggest disappointment in the ACC last season. Granted, the Wolfpack didn't get to dodge any of the top teams in the league, taking on Clemson, Florida State, Louisville and North Carolina. But with underrated quarterback Jacoby Brissett and 15 returning starters, the Pack went just 0-6 against bowl-eligible teams and couldn't top their modest 7.5 win total.

2016 Virginia Tech Hokies Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/2/2016

For the first time in 29 years Frank Beamer won't be on the Virginia Tech sideline. One of college football's truly outstanding coaches has moved on, and no one knows exactly what to expect from the Hokies moving forward. Tech was generally praised for nabbing Memphis coach Justin Fuente, who breathed life into a moribund Tigers squad the past four seasons. But Fuente's coaching record the past four seasons (28-23) is almost identical to Virginia Tech's straight-up mark over the same period (29-23).

2016 Virginia Cavaliers Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/2/2016

Here is how irrelevant Virginia football is: despite playing in a major conference, almost no major offshore sportsbooks offer season win total odds on the Cavaliers. It can't be that surprising; Virginia is just 49-73 SU in its last 10 years and has just two winning falls during that stint. Mike London was given the axe after six completely uninspired seasons. Then the Cavs pulled a stunner by coaxing Bronco Mendenhall away from BYU to take over this decrepit program.

2016 Syracuse Orange Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/2/2016

For about 25 years Syracuse and Penn State were THE preeminent college football programs in the Northeast. But Syracuse has endured a horrible fall from grace over the last decade, seeing a once-proud team flop its way to a 48-75 straight up mark the last 10 years.

2016 Illinois Fighting Illini Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/2/2016

Well, Lovie is coming to Champagne. Lovie Smith, former coach of the Chicago Bears, has left the NFL and made his return to Illinois as the Illini's new coach. There's no doubt Smith's bona fides will give Illinois football a little jolt of credibility, something that's been desperately lacking while the program has wallowed in the Big Ten basement for most of the past decade.

2016 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/2/2016

Mostly, watching Wake Forest football just makes me sad. The ACC already feels like the off-brand SEC; like buying generic cereal instead of the real thing. And this feeble little Wake program just tries so gosh darn hard to be relevant within this second-tier conference. But Wake Forest is not a football school - at all - and they simply can't compete with the bigger universities in this conference.

2016 College Football Season Predictions: Value Futures Odds Worth a Bet
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2016

Over the last couple of weeks I have previewed all 25 of the likely preseason Top-25 teams for this coming college football season. That means I have spent a whole lot of time looking at futures odds - national title, conference and division futures. Most futures odds are not particularly attractive - especially now before teams have even started practicing. There are a few, though, that are at least somewhat more interesting than the rest. Here are four that stand out (all odds are from Bovada):

2016 Big Ten Football Predictions with Betting odds and Expert NCAA Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2016

It's getting closer. College football season, I mean. There is still a lot of summer left, but as the calendar turns to August thoughts turn towards what we can expect to see on the field during the next great season. That means that this is an excellent time to look towards futures to find any interesting value before the public pounces and really messes with things. Bovada has odds listed for each of the major conferences, so let's take a look at the Big Ten:

2016 Pac-12 Football Predictions with Betting odds and Expert NCAA Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2016

The Pac-12 is in a bit of a weird place this year. There is a shift in the balance of power - or at least it feels like there could be. The league feels far more wide-open than it has in years, and futures odds - like those posted at Bovada which we will examine here - make it very tough to get a sense of just what might happen. In most conferences we have a team or two with a big advantage over the rest. In the Pac-12 we have five teams so close together you could cover them with a blanket - a small one. So, do the futures odds offer any interesting value?

2016 ACC Football Predictions with Betting odds and Expert NCAA Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2016

Here's a newsflash - the ACC is a two-team league this year. Even more shocking, those two teams are Florida State and Clemson. At some point the league will find some depth, and the winner of the conference will have to beat more than one legitimate foe to take the title. That time isn't right now, though. Given that, it's likely going to be very tough to find any intriguing value in the conference futures odds currently available at Bovada. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't have a look, though. Maybe we'll be surprised.

Oregon Odds to win the College Football National Championship with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2016

Over the course of five seasons before last year the Oregon Ducks had won an average of 12 games per season. They never got a national title, and they made the championship game only once, but they were consistently among the very best teams in the country. Last year they were just 9-4. More significantly, they weren't scary. The offense was fine but not much more. The defense was horrible. They were just another team - fine, but not at all elite.

Baylor Odds to win the College Football National Championship with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2016

Last year the Baylor Bears won 10 games. You don't have to be a blindly loyal fan of the team to legitimately make the argument that they should have won more, too. They were at team that, by the end of the year, was dealing with the loss of their top two quarterbacks. It's no coincidence, then, that their three losses came in their last five games. So, given that both quarterbacks are back and will be healthy for the start of the season, and there are plenty of useful pieces around them, it was pretty easy to make the case that this was the second-best team in the Big 12 - well behind Oklahoma, but the best of the rest.

Oklahoma State Odds to win the College Football National Championship with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 7/29/2016

Was there a team that won 10 games more quietly than the Oklahoma State Cowboys last year? They had struggled to 7-6 the year before, and they rebounded without garnering a lot of attention - or at least not from me. Sure, their 20-point win at home against TCU, ranked 5th at the time, was impressive, and you had to at least look twice at their 10-0 start. Once you took a look at that start, though, it quickly lost its shine - outside of TCU, though, they hadn't really beaten anyone of note, and five of their opponents were just plain lousy. And then they went out and lost their last three pretty badly once the level of competition ramped up.

2016 Duke Blue Devils Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/29/2016

David Cutcliffe doesn't get the credit that he deserves. This guy is one of the best coaches in the country and has been propping up a Duke program that should be nothing more than lint in the belly button of the football powerhouses in the Southeast. Cutcliffe's squad has gone 27-13 straight up and 26-13 against the spread the last two seasons, and he's guided Duke to four straight bowl games after the school endured a nearly 20-year bowl drought.

2016 Boston College Eagles Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 7/29/2016

Boston College is looking to bounce back from a dreadful 2015 campaign that saw them go winless in ACC play. The Eagles won just three games last year despite fielding maybe the best defense in the country. With seven starters back on that dominating stop unit, along with some key additions on offense, the Eagles are looking to vault themselves into the ACC Atlantic race.

2016 SEC Football Predictions with Betting Odds and Expert NCAA Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 7/28/2016

This time of year - close enough to the college football season to be tantalizing but far enough away that it seems it might never get here - is a great time to look at futures bets. We know enough about teams to make basic judgments about value, and the public hasn't yet starting thinking seriously about the sport, so there could be some value to be found. Bovada has odds posted for each of the five major conferences, and we are going to look at each in turn starting with the SEC:

2016 Big 12 Football Predictions with Betting Odds and Expert NCAA Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 7/28/2016

Oddsmakers have a pretty clear opinion of the Big 12. There may be 10 teams in the conference, but in the eyes of those who set the prices, only one matters. Oklahoma is not just favored, but they are favored by a massive margin - far more than we have seen in any other conference. It's the Sooners and everyone else on the conference futures odds posted at Bovada. So, are they right? Or is there value to be had elsewhere? Here's a look: