NFL Power Rankings Week 16
by Robert Ferringo - 12/16/2014

Despite playoff pushes – both in fantasy football as well as real football – it was another rough week for the NFL. I have said it before this year and I will say it again: this year has been some of the worst football I’ve watched in the past 15 years, and right now the NFL is delivering a very shoddy product.

NFL Power Rankings Week 15
by Robert Ferringo - 12/9/2014

Rivalries are one of the most important handicapping factors in sports. Though difficult to quantify, the emotional impact of a rivalry game is palpable. And over the final three weeks of the NFL season it will be one of the underlying motivational factors as we bet down the stretch.

NFL Power Rankings Week 14
by Robert Ferringo - 12/2/2014

I know that the NFL is always touting its parity as a major league strength. But just take a look at these power rankings. Take a look at the top eight teams and the bottom eight teams and tell me that they are even close. Besides an obvious talent gap – particularly at the all-important quarterback position – there are also a host of teams (Jets, Giants, Raiders) that know their coaches are going to be fired. The inmates are running the asylum in those locker rooms, and with nothing to play for but draft positioning I expect little to no effort from those groups through this month.

NFL Power Rankings Week 13
by Robert Ferringo - 11/25/2014

The Thanksgiving week is the most difficult week for any professional handicapper. Between the truncated turnaround time between NFL weeks, the gravitational pull of familial obligations, and the convergence of multiple sports into one jam-packed seven-day session, this week can be a bear trap or a treasure trove for bettors. As such, this week’s Power Rankings are going to be a bit more free flowing and a little less meaty than normal.

NFL Power Rankings Week 12
by Robert Ferringo - 11/18/2014

We are facing record-low temperatures across the country this November, and that will be a significant X-Factor down the stretch. There are still roughly 22 teams jostling for 12 playoff spots, and now is the time that momentum and execution mean everything on the gridiron. But adverse weather conditions – whether the cold is slowing down the breakneck offenses of the league’s top teams or whether a rain-soaked field results in a fluke turnover that costs a team a game – are looming as a critical handicapping factor over the final two months of the season.

NFL Power Rankings Week 11
by Robert Ferringo - 11/11/2014

The Cover-2 is dead. Chicago, Carolina and Tampa Bay are the last three teams that still exclusively use the defensive system that was all the rage in the NFL throughout the 2000s. Those three combined to give up a humiliating 127 points on Sunday, with the Bears (55) and the Panthers (45) getting embarrassed on prime time.

2014 SEC Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 11/11/2014

The hype surrounding Kentucky heading into last season was comical. They were posted as the clear-cut favorite to cut down the nets in Arlington, and some idiots in the bobblehead media were having preseason discussions about whether or not Kentucky could go undefeated. It was asinine. And I was one of the only college basketball analysts in the country tabbing them as a sucker bet to win a national title.

NFL Power Rankings Week 10
by Robert Ferringo - 11/4/2014

Last week’s action triggered a massive massive shakeup in the power rankings, and right now there’s no telling who the Super Bowl favorite is. In fact, as we trudge our way through November and there is one thing becoming more important than talent and coaching: momentum. The stakes continue to rise as we head toward the stretch run. And right now the overriding factor in determining where to go with your money is which teams are getting hotter as the weather is getting colder.

2014 Pac-12 Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 11/4/2014

For the past several years I have been screaming to anyone who’ll listen that the Pac-12 has been woefully underrated on the national college hoops scene. It wasn’t a particularly novel plea; the East Coast Bias is a very real media phenomenon, and it only makes sense that it would extend to something like college basketball. But I felt like that bias was having a tangible effect on the league as schools were either snubbed by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee or were grossly underseeded when the brackets were announced.

2014 Big Ten Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 10/29/2014

The Big Ten can add as many teams as it likes – it’s not getting any better as a basketball conference. Maryland and Rutgers will be making their maiden voyages in the Big Ten this year, boosting the league’s total membership to 14 teams. However, both are expected to be bottom-tier finishers in the conference and will bring about the same amount of cache to the Big Ten as they have in football. (Which is to say: none.)

2014 ACC Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 10/29/2014

Despite its cumbersome construction, the ACC is becoming to college basketball what the SEC is to college football: the clear-cut No. 1 league in the land. The Tobacco Road Trio has joined forces with the upper crust of the old Big East to form another hoops mega-conference. And the battle for the league title will once again feature a who’s who of the sports elite players and coaches.

2014 Big 12 Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 10/29/2014

Spoiler alert: Kansas is going to win the Big 12 again this year. I’m not exactly going out on a limb with that college basketball prediction. The Jayhawks have won an astounding 10 straight Big 12 Championships and have dominated one of the premier college hoops conferences in the country. They are the definition of a powerhouse program, and it should be another banner year in Lawrence.

2014 Big East Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 10/29/2014

The Real Big East, the conference that redefined and dominated college basketball for most of the past two decades, is dead. What remains is a 10-team Catholic League. It is a who’s who of teams that haven’t been relevant in the NCAA Tournament the last 25 years.

NFL Power Rankings Week 9
by Robert Ferringo - 10/28/2014

The Lions-Falcons and Seahawks-Panthers games were as disgusting of displays of football as I can remember this season; the winner in each game was simply the least incompetent team. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for everyone in attendance for the Vikings-Bucs game (it was 3-0 at halftime) or the Raiders-Browns (9-6 after three quarters). Most of the rest of the games were blowouts. Pittsburgh, New England, Kansas City and Houston each won going away. And at the end of the weekend it could be said that only two games (Eagles-Cardinals and Ravens-Bengals) were actually somewhat enjoyable to watch.

NFL Power Rankings Week 8
by Robert Ferringo - 10/21/2014

Prior to the 2011 season, in an attempt make the public think it actually cared about the Concussion Crisis, the NFL decided to move the kickoff from the 30-yard-line up to the 35. The idea is that this would lead to less kickoff returns and thus less potential concussion-causing coverage hits. The ruse was a success, as the percentage of kickoffs resulting in a touchback increased from just 11 percent from 1994 to 2010 to a whopping 46 percent from 2011 to this year.

The Ferringo Method – Sports Betting System by a Proven Winner
by Robert Ferringo - 10/20/2014

The truly talented, moneymaking handicappers are a lot tougher to find. And when people do find handicappers like myself they think it is some kind of parlor trick or black magic. They think that we are somehow fortunetellers or soothsayers. But the reality is actually a lot more boring and simple than that.

College Basketball National Championship Betting Odds: Best Bets
by Robert Ferringo - 10/20/2014

The Connecticut Huskies, a team that started the season outside the Top 15 with no national buzz, cut down the nets at AT&T Stadium in Arlington last April as the 2013-14 National Champions. They seemingly came out of nowhere, and at the start of last season absolutely no one saw UConn as a realistic title threat.

NCAA Basketball National Championship Futures Odds: Sucker Bets
by Robert Ferringo - 10/20/2014

There are two ways to peg the most overrated teams in college basketball at the beginning of the season. The first is the preseason Top 25, which is usually based more on rewarding flagship programs and glad-handing big-name coaches than it is an attempt to actually project the best 25 teams in the country.

NFL Power Rankings Week 7
by Robert Ferringo - 10/15/2014

I think that Week 6 of the NFL season was, without a doubt, the strangest week that we’ve seen thus far. There were surprising upsets (Dallas) and near-upsets (Oakland), thrilling last-second wins (Green Bay) and last-second losses (Houston), some blowouts (Philadelphia and Baltimore), and a tie for good measure.

NFL Power Rankings Week 6
by Robert Ferringo - 10/7/2014

One of the things I enjoy about hitting the meat of the NFL season is that now we’re starting to have enough information to identify macro-trends in the sport while still having enough time left in the season to capitalize them. It’s one thing to project paths prior to the season and another to assess results at the end of the year. But the middle of the season provides the opportunity to cash in on our hard-earned analysis.