College Football Handicapping Articles

NCAA Football National Championship Futures Odds and Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 1/22/2015

We haven’t even played the Super Bowl yet — or the Pro Bowl, for that matter — so it seems a bit silly to already looking forward to next football season. The new NCAA Playoff produced such a compelling set of games, though, that I can’t help but look ahead to what could be coming and what we could have to look forward to at the end of this calendar year. Because everyone else is focused on Super Bowl betting, it’s also a good time to look now that no one is paying attention to NCAA National Championship futures to see that there is any value just sitting there ripe for the picking.

2015 College Football National Championship Futures Odds and Betting Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/13/2015

I would like to tell you that I had Ohio State as your first-ever College Football Playoff champion. Yep, I would like to have jumped on the Buckeyes' title odds when they briefly skyrocketed to 40/1 at Bovada after starting quarterback and Heisman contender Braxton Miller was lost for the season in August. I follow college football closely, but I had no idea whether backup QBs J.T. Barrett and/or Cardale Jones were any good. It turns out, they were. And Urban Meyer had one of the great coaching seasons in NCAA history in winning his third national title and joining rival Nick Saban as the only coaches to win one at multiple schools.

College Football National Championship Game Picks: 5 Keys for Ohio State
by Trevor Whenham - 1/11/2015

The biggest problem I have with the new College Football Playoff — not overall, but right now — is the waiting. The gap between the semifinals and the Championship Game is endless, and there just isn’t enough college football to fill the gap. That means that all we can do is overanalyze and overspeculate. In that spirit, when I look at Ohio State from as many angles as I can, there are five factors that stand out above the rest because of the impact on the game that they could have.

College Football National Championship Game Picks: 5 Keys for the Ducks
by Trevor Whenham - 1/7/2015

There is no shortage of hype surrounding the Oregon Ducks heading into the National Championship Game. Quarterbacked by the Heisman winner, they absolutely crushed the most hated elite team in the country with an explosive offense and a pretty solid defense. Ohio State was great in their game as well, but the Ducks did enough to make them the solid favorites heading into this game. So now handicappers have to determine whether they are deserving of the attention.

NCAA Football Predictions: Bowl Week 3 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 12/29/2014

Sadly, it's the final full week of bowl action in college football, with only the National Championship Game next Monday left on the schedule after this week. Thus, this will be my final NCAA week-ahead preview story here at Doc's. College football season is simply too short! But this is also the best week of the year for NCAA football fans because there is at least one game each day and multiple matchups Monday-Friday. We get at least one matinee every day, and matinee football on a weekday is a great thing, especially for those of us who work from home.

College Football Playoff Betting: Handicapping the Semifinal Games
by Trevor Whenham - 12/29/2014

The teams are on the ground at the game sites, and we are nearing the first of two College Football Playoff games. The excitement is strong but not as strong as some might have anticipated — you can still buy a ticket to watch the last two Heisman winners at the Rose Bowl for less than face value. It certainly isn’t helping the hype that both games feature favorites of well over a touchdown. It might not be the dream set of matchups we hoped for, but these semifinals are still two great games — and a great way to spend a New Year’s Day afternoon and evening.

NCAA Football Handicapping: Harbaugh to Coach Michigan Wolverines
by Trevor Whenham - 12/29/2014

You can officially call me excited. Giddy, even. As a lifelong Michigan fan I have endured a decade of football that often hasn’t been fun to watch and which has gotten less fun with each passing year lately. It has been a brutal, painful era of general incompetence despite nearly limitless resources. Well, there is finally light through the darkness. A blindingly bright light. Jim Harbaugh, a former Michigan quarterback and proven great coach in both college and the NFL, is no longer the coach of the San Francisco 49ers and will be introduced as coach of the Wolverines on Tuesday.

NCAA Football Predictions: Bowl Week 2 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 12/22/2014

Starting Tuesday there are 12 bowl games this week, but only two involving teams who finished in the College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings: No. 15 Arizona State and No. 24 Southern Cal. If you have a live betting fix you need to resolve on Christmas Eve, your only options are the Bahamas Bowl and Hawaii Bowl -- neither of which has a particularly good matchup but great scenery if you are stuck in a cold-weather locale. Every major other sports schedule is dark on Dec. 24. Here's a look at some BetOnline lines that caught my eye this week.

College Bowl Lines: Most Important Line Moves for NCAA Betting
by Trevor Whenham - 12/17/2014

During the regular season there is a lot to be learned from spotting odd line movement in college football. It allows us to spot situations in which sharp money has a strong preference is a game — something that can be particularly useful to know if the opinion of that sharp money is different than the public opinion. That’s a way that value can be found for bettors. In bowl games, the amount of time bettors have to ponder games and make their bets means that line movement can be less meaningful, but it is still very worthwhile to look for line movement that is surprising — and to consider what it means.

College Bowl Betting and Handicapping: Searching for Underdog Value
by Trevor Whenham - 12/16/2014

Bowl season can be a great time to bet on underdogs — strange matchups and differing motivations doesn’t mean that the best team always wins. Winning when betting on big underdogs is always satisfying — especially on the moneyline. So, it only makes sense that you can mash those two truths together and look for attractive long shots in bowl games. There are five favorites this year in bowl games with spreads of more than three field goals. Here’s a look at each of the underdogs in those games to see which ones have the potential to deliver value and which ones deserve the lack of respect that they are receiving.

College Football Handicapping: What Mariota Heisman Means to CFB Playoff
by Trevor Whenham - 12/16/2014

Marcus Mariota won one of the least dramatic Heisman Trophy races in memory. By the time the award was announced, there was absolutely no mystery about who was going to win, and there really hadn’t been any for about a month. It was a coronation. And given his impressive numbers on the ground and through the air, his position in the College Football Playoff, and his seeming allergy to throwing interceptions, it was a no-brainer.

NCAA Football Predictions: Bowl Week Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 12/15/2014

Thank you Marcus Mariota! I dropped a few dollars on Mariota's Heisman chances before this season, and it paid off nicely Saturday night when he became the first Oregon winner of college football's top award. It was one of the biggest landslides in Heisman history and well deserved if you ask me. He won't be back at Oregon next season, so we again won't have a repeat Heisman winner. The Heisman was really the only college football note of importance last week, although Navy won its 13th straight game over Army, 17-10. It was only the third time in that winning streak that the Midshipmen didn't beat their rivals by double digits.

College Bowl Betting: Best and Worst Games for Handicapping
by Trevor Whenham - 12/11/2014

There are a lot of problems I have with our current playoff system in college football. One of the biggest is that it takes the luster away from some of the regular bowl games. The BCS started the task of marginalizing lesser bowls, but the playoff has completely taken the attention away from where some of the best games to watch — and to bet on — are played every year.

NCAA Football Predictions: Week 16 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 12/8/2014

Dear Big 12: It's your own fault that you don't have a conference championship game or that you can even agree on one true champion instead of co-winners. Let the rumors begin of the Big 12 adding two teams ASAP (Boise State? Cincinnati? Memphis? BYU?) to get to 12 and be able to stage a conference title game.

NCAA Football Picks and American Athletic Conference Week 15 Betting Report
by Dave Schwab - 12/3/2014

The AAC wraps up play in the regular season this week, and after the Memphis Tigers rolled over Connecticut 41-10 as 21-point home favorites this past Saturday, the overall record for my weekly free picks in this conference climbed back to .500 at 7-7. The Tigers also put themselves in position to claim at least a share of this year’s AAC title by improving to 7-1 in conference play.

NCAA Football Betting: Fading the Top 25 Weekly Free Picks
by Aaron Smith - 12/2/2014

Welcome to the final edition of the Fading the Top 25 Weekly report. Last week’s Fade the Top 25 selections went 2-1 to put the picks into the green for the first time all year. Some poor plays early in the year dug us a significant hole, but consistent profits down the stretch have finally brought us into the green. Last week’s winning picks were on Florida +7.5 and Alabama -9.5. The lone loser from last week was Texas +7. The Longhorns didn’t show up to play, and TCU rolled to a win. Alabama ended up on top in what was an absolutely wild Iron Bowl.

NCAA Football Predictions: Week 15 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 12/1/2014

As hard as it is to believe, this is the final week of college football's regular season -- with all due respect to the Army-Navy game on Dec. 13. The season has gone by so incredibly quickly. It looks as if three of the most storied programs out there will have head coaching openings. Nebraska and Florida will for sure, and it should be any day now when Michigan officially dumps Brady Hoke. I think Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost gets the Nebraska job; he is a former quarterback there.

College Football Mid-Major Betting Report: Akron Zips Week 14
by Aaron Smith - 11/26/2014

Week 14 of the college football mid-major betting report is here. This is the fourth year Doc’s Sports has offered this report. The goal of this weekly article is to try to show bettors that specialization is a profitable betting strategy. It’s a strategy many of the best bettors in the world use. There are 128 FBS level teams in college football, so specialization is particularly relevant in this sport.

NCAA Football Picks and American Athletic Conference Week 14 Betting Report
by Dave Schwab - 11/26/2014

East Carolina rolled over Tulane 34-6 this past Saturday to easily cover as an 18-point home favorite. Hitting this AAC “pick of the week” brought my year-to-date record a bit closer to .500 at 6-7, but even with the 4-Unit play I remain down for the year. With two weeks left in the regular season, the pressure is on to finish in the black.

NCAA Football Betting: Fading the Top 25 Weekly Free Picks
by Aaron Smith - 11/25/2014

The Fade the Top 25 Selections went 2-1 again last week. After a really slow start, the selections have been solid of late. It’s interesting to note that after 13 weeks of college football, the selections are right back at the breakeven point. The two winners were very good ones last week with Arkansas and Minnesota both winning outright.