2012 Big East Football Predictions and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 8/2/2012

You can have the SEC. I will take the Big East. The SEC is a monolith in the world of college football. They dominate the headlines, they have cast a veil over the eyes of the fans and people who analyze it, and they dictate the conversation of everything from the National Championship to the Heisman Trophy.

2012 Pac-12 Football Predictions and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 8/1/2012

There is plenty of buzz on the Left Coast heading into this year’s Pac-12 season. Three talented, volatile coaches – Rich Rodriguez, Todd Graham and Mike Leach – have entered the fray and are looking to make their mark on the conference.

2012 Big 12 Football Predictions and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 7/31/2012

The Big 12, both collectively and individually, is having a bit of an identity crisis. Oklahoma is trying to keep from becoming the August National Champions for about the fifth year in a row. (In the NFL we call this the San Diego Chargers Effect.) Texas is trying to avoid the 8-4 record that would officially relegate them to also-ran status.

2012 Chicago Bears Predictions and Odds to Win Super Bowl
by Robert Ferringo - 7/28/2012

The start of NFL training camp is one of the most optimistic times on the sports betting calendar. Every professional football player is dreaming of a career year and eventual Super Bowl glory while every football bettor is conjuring up images of that perfect season with no bad beats and windfall profits.

2012 Pittsburgh Steelers Predictions and Odds to Win Super Bowl
by Robert Ferringo - 7/28/2012

Not many franchises can go 12-4 in a season and feel like they left money on the table. But when you are the Pittsburgh Steelers you only measure success by one thing: championships. The Steelers went 12-4 last season but can’t help feeling like they underachieved just a bit in their quest to make back-to-back Super Bowls.

2012 NFL Power Rankings – Preseason Edition
by Robert Ferringo - 7/25/2012

Thanks to the 2011 NFL Lockout, last year my initial NFL power rankings weren’t posted until after the first exhibition game. Those rankings were still somewhat of a half-blind stab, considering that the truncated offseason really didn’t give us any indication on how each NFL team would be constituted. But as it turned out, my first impressions and initial feelings about the teams were pretty prescient and were a useful guide for another successful football season.

2012 Dallas Cowboys Predictions and NFC East Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 7/25/2012

The Dallas Cowboys are the Notre Dame of the NFL: perpetually overrated by the NFL betting public and therefore always overvalued by the sportsbooks. Dallas enters the 2012 season again answering questions and listening to less-than-subtle whispers about Super Bowl expectations. However, once gain I think that the hype exceeds their actual station in the NFC East and in the league in general.

College Football: Top 10 Conference Games
by Robert Ferringo - 7/18/2012

More than any other sport, college football success and failure is measured by how teams perform in their own backyard. All of the major North American sports have some version of divisions or leagues. But in college football, a team’s season is defined overwhelmingly by how it plays against it’s rivals, against the teams that are trying to occupy and dominate the same space, and against the teams in its conference.

College Football Betting: Top 10 Rivalry Games
by Robert Ferringo - 7/18/2012

According to the mouth-breathers that I am surrounded by in the Deep South, which is the heart of SEC Country and by extension the heart of the college football world, rivalry games are what set apart college football from all other sports.

College Football Handicapping: Best Revenge Games for 2012
by Robert Ferringo - 7/18/2012

Revenge is one of the best motivational angles that any college football handicapper can wager on. The added focus, the added energy, the added electricity from the crowd, and the added WANT can give a team a massive boost. And those intangibles, when accurately anticipated by someone betting on college football, can lead to a major profit on the gridiron.

College Football: Top 10 Nonconference Matchups
by Robert Ferringo - 7/11/2012

The NCAA presidents recently voted in favor of a four-team playoff system starting in 2014 that will allegedly decide, once and for all, whom the champion of college football is. For most of the mouth-breathing, PBR-drinking college football fan base this news was long overdue and seen as the cure for all that ails their beloved sport.

2012 NBA Draft Prospects: Underrated Players
by Robert Ferringo - 6/11/2012

Building a championship team in the NBA isn’t just about finding the next superstar. If you look at the four teams that made the conference finals you will see several guys that weren’t expected to amount to much in The League but now find themselves playing key roles for the top title contenders.

2012 NBA Draft: Most Overrated Players
by Robert Ferringo - 6/11/2012

The 2012 NBA Draft takes place on Thursday, June 28 in Newark, New Jersey, and it is all but a total certainty that Kentucky center Anthony Davis and his amazing unibrow will be the No. 1 overall pick by the New Orleans Hornets.

2012 Euro Soccer Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 6/7/2012

The world is watching. Even if America isn’t. Soccer is never going to be as popular as football in the United States. And it will never replace baseball as part of the fabric of our nation’s summer psyche. But Friday, June 8, marks the start of the 2012 European Soccer Championships. And while we here in the states can generally take or leave the most beautiful game, the rest of the world will be fixated on the four-week tournament and it will be THE most watched sporting event on the planet this month. (Take that, NBA Finals!)

Best Under-the-Radar Pitchers for MLB Betting
by Robert Ferringo - 5/24/2012

Even though they reside in one of the loudest echo chambers in baseball – an American League East populated by big market behemoths New York and Boston – the only thing more impressive about Baltimore’s daring vault to the best record in the American League has been their ability to stay under the national radar while doing it.

2012 Preakness Stakes Post Positions Analysis and Handicapping
by Robert Ferringo - 5/17/2012

The Preakness Stakes post position draw and analysis has become a convenient talking point for mainstream sports media bobbleheads and wannabe horse racing handicappers over the past 24 hours. But the truth of the matter is that after the Kentucky Derby the post draw really has very little to do with how the second and third legs of the Triple Crown are run.

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.