Miscellaneous Articles

2012 World Hockey Championships Betting Advice and Predictions
by T.O. Whenham - 5/9/2012

The 2012 World Hockey Championships are underway in Finland and Sweden right now. We are almost halfway through the preliminary rounds, but the new format they have adopted is so ridiculously drawn out that it’s only now starting to be worth paying attention to.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Aaron’s 499 Preview and Prediction
by David Schwab - 5/3/2012

NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series will be in Talladega, Ala., this Sunday for the running of the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. Other than Daytona, this track has become synonymous with stock car racing and is easily is one of the most popular stops on the Sprint Cup circuit.

2012 NFL Draft Grades for First Round
by Robert Ferringo - 4/27/2012

Well, the 2012 NFL Draft results are less than 24 hours old so you know what that means: time for some instant analysis! The picks were flying fast and furious Thursday night in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft and teams were efficient and decisive. However, that doesn’t mean that everyone made wise decisions with their selections and there was still plenty of controversy to go around.

NFL Draft Analysis: Six Reasons Robert Griffin III Will Be A Bust
by Robert Ferringo - 4/25/2012

Washington’s trade has the potential to go down as one of the worst in NFL draft history. I firmly believe that there have maybe been a half-dozen players in NFL history that would’ve been worth that many premium picks coming straight out of college. And there is absolutely no guarantee that Griffin will find his way onto that short list. In fact, the odds are pretty overwhelming that he will end up as a bust at worst or an underachiever at least.

NFL Draft Analysis: Five Reasons Andrew Luck Will Be A Bust
by Robert Ferringo - 4/25/2012

For about eight months now we, the football-loving public, have had the idea that Andrew Luck is an absolute can’t miss stud prospect and the Next Big Thing crammed down our throats. Well, I’m not buying it. I have been thinking of reasons why he is closer to becoming the next Tim Couch than he is to become the next Peyton Manning. And they aren’t all that unreasonable or that difficult to come up with.

2012 NFL Mock Draft
by Robert Ferringo - 4/25/2012

The 2012 NFL draft will be held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City beginning with the first round on Thursday, April 26 and concluding on Saturday, April 28. There will be trades, inexplicable reaches, and plenty of airtime to fill by the networks. But when all is said and done there will be 32 selections in the first round on Thursday, 32 more for the second round on Friday, and then the rest of the selections through Saturday as the future of the league begins to form.

2012 NFL Draft Props and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 4/24/2012

We know exactly two things, and probably only two, about the 2012 NFL draft, which begins on Thursday night. But outside of those two certainties the draft should be a wild one and full of surprises, with the real fun beginning at No. 3 with the Minnesota Vikings.

NFL Draft Predictions: Late-Round Sleeper Projections
by T.O. Whenham - 3/21/2012

This week we have seen Matt Flynn become a reasonably rich man after signing with the Seahawks. He was only a seventh-round draft pick, and is the latest to prove that good things can come from the later rounds of the draft. Every time the Patriots are on TV we are reminded a dozen times by the commentators that the best quarterback in football was a sixth-round pick. Brady is a unique case, but every year there are several guys drafted well after the spotlights have been turned off that go on to be very valuable members of their teams.

2012 NFL Draft: Top Defensive Players on the Board
by T.O. Whenham - 3/20/2012

Today’s task is simple — let’s look at my ranking of the top five defensive players in the upcoming NFL Draft. Before I get to the five players that are on this list, though, I want to talk about three who aren’t. On many boards they would be, but all make me nervous. Melvin Ingram has had durability issues, he’s slightly undersized, and I’m not convinced he’s as fast as can be.

2012 NFL Draft Predictions: Players Who Will Surprise
by T.O. Whenham - 3/7/2012

The first-round guys in the NFL Draft are the ones that get the bulk of the attention. They were the stars in college, they are freakish physical specimens, and their talent and big contracts mean that they will get every chance to contribute right away. Often times, though, there are guys who go off the board on the second or third day of the draft that end up being every bit as valuable and impressive as the best of the first-rounders.

2012 NFL Draft Analysis: Players with Character Issues
by T.O. Whenham - 3/7/2012

Every year in the NFL Draft there are players who have been branded as having the dreaded ‘character issues’. When those players are talented and otherwise worthy of a first-round selection teams are faced with a real challenge. Is the player worthy of a gamble, or are their issues too much for them to overcome? With the overwhelming success of Cam Newton last year despite all the baggage he carried it’s going to be hard for teams to give up on a player even if he has some real issues.

2012 NFL Draft Projections: Potential First-Round Disappointments
by T.O. Whenham - 3/2/2012

Teams invest their hopes and dreams, and a whole lot of money, in their first-round draft picks every year. Some guys are stars right away. Some guys grow into that role. Each year, though, there are a lot of guys that just don’t wind up contributing at the level expected of a first rounder.

2012 NFL Draft Prospects: Immediate Contributors
by T.O. Whenham - 3/2/2012

NFL teams would love to pick a player in the NFL Draft that changes their team for years to come. That kind of player is incredibly rare, though — there isn’t necessarily even one in every draft class. Most teams, then, would settle for players who can contribute at a high level immediately.

NCAA Tournament Field Projections and Predictions, Feb. 27
by Robert Ferringo - 2/27/2012

We are on the verge. We are on the verge of the month-long free-for-all that is March Madness. This month is an orgy of college basketball betting, buzzer beaters, and broken dreams. It is, in my opinion, the single-greatest event on the sports betting calendar and it is a five-week endurance trial that will test the nerve and daring of gamblers throughout the country.

NCAA Tournament Field Projections and Predictions, Feb. 14
by Robert Ferringo - 2/14/2012

If you had told me a month ago that Notre Dame would be looking like a sure thing to make the NCAA Tournament and Connecticut would be fighting to keep its head above water and out of the NIT I would have laughed in your face. Ah, college basketball.

2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Title Future Odds and Predictions
by David Schwab - 2/9/2012

The 54th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 26 marks the start of not only another NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season but the start of a 36-race quest for this year’s Sprint Cup title. Tony Stewart’s late-season heroics last year with an amazing five victories in the ‘Chase’, which is NASCAR’s 10-race playoff, secured his third career title. It also snapped Jimmie Johnson’s incredible five-year rein as champion.

NCAA Tournament Field Projections and Predictions, Jan. 27
by Robert Ferringo - 1/27/2012

This week I decided to do something a little different. In past NCAA Tournament field projections and predictions articles I was making blanket predictions about how many teams from each league would find their way into the field. But now that we are approaching February and we are two-thirds through the season I feel comfortable starting to actually project the field.

NCAA Tournament Field Predictions and Projections, Jan. 13
by Robert Ferringo - 1/13/2012

The nonconference portion of the college basketball season is getting further and further away with each passing day. What teams did and how they were playing back in late November and early December is starting to matter less and less, both in terms of making NCAA Tournament field projections and in terms of teams playing well enough to build their resumes now that we are full-bore into league play.

Looking Ahead: 2012 Sports Betting Highlights
by T.O. Whenham - 1/3/2012

The New Year is a chance for a fresh start for sports handicappers. If last year wasn’t a great one for your bankroll then this year can only be better. If it was a great year then this year can be even better. To get you excited for what is to come here’s a listing of some of the most exciting highlights on the calendar this year — one for each month of 2012.

NCAA Tournament Field Predictions and Projections, December 30
by Robert Ferringo - 12/30/2011

Don’t forget. The nonconference portion of the college basketball season has essentially come to a close. Sure, there are some marquee interleague games still on the college basketball schedule. And Bracket Buster Saturday in late February is still a critical event when it comes to predicting the NCAA Tournament field. But for all intents and purposes, the national battles have come to a dйtente and it is now time for teams to retreat into their own backyards to wager bi-weekly knife fights with their hated rivals in conference play.