NFL Predictions: NFC South Odds and Preview with Football Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/27/2010

The NFC South has never had a back-to-back division title winner. However, that hasn’t stopped the books from posting New Orleans as a solid -180 favorite to win the crown again this season. Atlanta is an appealing and trendy underdog to knock off the Saints, and they have been posted at +200. The odds to win the NFC South for Tampa Bay and Carolina are longshots, at +1500 and +600, respectively.

NFL Predictions: AFC West Odds and Preview with Football Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/25/2010

Over the last half-decade the AFC West has been a bit like the Island of Dr. Moreau, with San Diego playing the role of the good doctor while Oakland, Kansas City and Denver are a bit like the Beast Folk: they resemble football teams but are too grotesque to actually be considered authentic.

NFL Predictions: AFC North Odds and Preview with Football Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/25/2010

All hail the last old school division in football. While pass-wacky spread offenses are all of the rage on the gridiron, from the Pop Warner fields to the Super Bowl champions, the AFC North is taking the contrarian’s position. The four teams in the AFC North are all rough, rugged, punch-you-in-the-face-and-then-kick-your-teeth-in-while-you-are-on-the-ground teams that play the type of physical, violent brand of football that would make Jim Brown and the Steel Curtain smile.

Advice for Betting NFL Totals
by Robert Ferringo - 8/24/2010

When it comes to betting on the National Football League I’m sure that most of you have tried to stare down the oddsmakers, going toe-to-toe with those bloodthirsty, integer-wielding wraiths, in an attempt to beat the books and turn a profit. I’ll bet that you’ve tried it all: favorites, underdogs, teasers, parlays, crazy trends and wacky systems, or even coin-flipping to help you get ahead. I’ll also bet that none of it worked on any consistent basis.

NFL Predictions: NFC West Odds and Preview with Football Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/16/2010

Over the last three years the NFC West has posted the worst record in the league against nondivisional opponents. They are an absolutely pathetic 54-102 over the last three seasons against the rest of the league, and that is continuing what has been a clear-cut trend over the last decade. Since the league went to an eight-division format in 2002 the NFC West has gone just 168-248 against the rest of the league, posting just one winning season (2003) during that time while losing 60 percent of its games to everyone else.

2010 College Football Predictions: Pac-10 Conference Odds and Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/13/2010

Like Medusa, the Pac-10 is somewhat powerless once the head has been chopped off. With USC embroiled in scandal, suspension, coaching change, and attrition, there is a power vacuum in West Coast football. The mighty Trojans have fallen, and this year will be a free-for-all to claim the vacated throne.

2010 College Football Predictions: Big East Conference Odds and Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/12/2010

If the Big 12 needs some inspiration they can look no further than the Big East. The Big 12 was raided this summer, losing Nebraska to the Big Ten (starting in 2011), with rumors of more sweeping changes to come. Realignment was the buzzword for the offseason, bringing back memories of a not-so-long-ago conference shift that altered the landscape of East Coast football. That was a maneuver back in 2003 where Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech defected from the Big East to the rival ACC.

NFL Predictions: Hall of Fame Game Odds and Picks Bengals vs. Cowboys
by Robert Ferringo - 8/7/2010

It is fitting that the NFL will again kick off its season in the shadow of its legends, its myths, and its history. Football is the new national pastime in this nation, and it has reached its chimerical level in part because of the consistent, communal, and seasonal nature of the sports. The whims and amusement of summer is winding to a close and our consciousness is slowly settling back into another focused fall and, inexorably, an unwavering winter.

NFL Predictions: Green Bay Packers May Be In For Turnover Hangover
by Robert Ferringo - 8/6/2010

Turnovers are the fickle mistress of the NFL. Inexplicable fumbles, fluke bounces for interceptions, muffed punts, bumbled snaps, tipped passes into unexpected arms; these are weekly occurrences in NFL betting and they can be the difference between winning and losing, insanity and exaltation, and the stench and weight of sheer and utter failure or the unstoppable confidence and high of unimpeded success.

NFL Handicapping System: Yards Per Point
by Robert Ferringo - 8/6/2010

Yards Per Point is an excellent statistic to utilize in NFL handicapping because, in its own way, it accounts for much of the “hidden yardage” that is otherwise difficult to quantify on game day. Although it’s actually pretty basic to calculate, Yards Per Point isn’t a common NFL statistic and there aren’t any mainstream databases that regularly track and update it throughout the season. However, it is a number that many professional handicappers rely on to give them greater insight into what is actually going on down on the gridiron each week.

NFL Predictions: NFC North Odds and Preview with Football Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/6/2010

The “Norris” Division is what football is all about. The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears are two of the pillars of American football. The Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions are two more venerable organizations that made their mark the same way as the Pack and as The Monsters of the Midway: by playing a brutish, cannibalistic brand of football that laid the foundation of the modern game. Pound the ball on the ground and play great defense, that was the mantra and that’s what these teams did. They did it in the elements. They did it outdoors, in the bitter cold, in the woodland areas of the Midwest. And they set the standard for physical play in the NFL for half a century

NFL Predictions: NFC East Odds and Preview with Football Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/4/2010

In the last five years there have only been three occasions where a team from the NFC East has finished below .500. That’s just three losing records out of a possible 20 for the clubs in this division. That is a testament to just how tough, talented and focused the teams from the NFC East have been over the last half-decade in what is the most competitive division in the sport.

NFL Handicapping: Top Free Agent Signings in 2010
by Robert Ferringo - 8/2/2010

Right now the signing of T.O. by Cincinnati is making waves and getting headlines. But all of that hype is coming from people either outside of the sport or from people that are worried more about the entertainment aspect of America’s Pastime than they are the execution aspect. The reality is that while Owens is now more caricature than pass catcher he doesn’t really address the core needs that the Bengals offense has.

College Football Handicapping: Top Revenge Games
by Robert Ferringo - 7/31/2010

Pain is dished out on a regular basis every Saturday during the college football season. Whether it’s on the players or the fans, it’s part of the tribal nature of the sports. Every defeat is misery in college football. But there are some games, some losses, which deliver a psychic pain that scars the soul. You don’t forget that ache. You simply live to revenge them and can only seek solace in the delivery of an equal and appropriate agony onto your fellow man.

NFL Power Rankings Training Camp Edition
by Robert Ferringo - 7/30/2010

Right now is the most hopeful time of the year in football circles and at the moment there are 32 organizations trying to convince themselves that this is their Year, their Time for success, riches, fame and immortality. But we have a long way to go before we can get into that kind of talk.

College Football: BCS National Championship Odds and Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/28/2010

Every year college football provides a unique and bizarre betting experience. In my eyes, only the NBA can come close to equaling the absurdity, from a gambling standpoint, of a college football season. And that’s saying something. But this year is going to be even crazier than most and I think we should gear up for things insane and obscene.

Top 10 College Football Conference Games
by Robert Ferringo - 7/24/2010

Below is a look at the Top 10 conference college football games of 2010. These may not be the 10 most important college football games or the 10 best matchups of the college football season. But at the end of the year when we look back on the season the games on this list should be pretty well represented when we talk about 10 most influential games of the 2010 college football season.

Top 11 Nonconference College Football Games
by Robert Ferringo - 7/16/2010

Unlike college basketball, where teams play an extensive and expansive schedule that is packed with preseason tournaments, high-level meetings between regional powers, and neutral site matchups between teams from power leagues, in college football we don’t have much to work with to determine how conferences stack up head-to-head. Because the league schedule dominates college football we are forced to glean a lot from a little when teams from BCS leagues meet up in key nonconference clashes.

NFL Handicapping: Key Players Returning From Injury
by Robert Ferringo - 7/15/2010

Bad calls by officials, crippling and unsightly turnovers, and devastating injuries are all part of what makes football betting the masochistic masterpiece that it is. All three are at the whim of Gravity and the Gambling Gods, and that unholy trinity is at the core of luck, losses, and/or liquor-induced comas each and every season.

MLB All-Star Game Betting Preview Odds and Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2010

Never bet against a streak. That is a cardinal rule in sports betting. And right now there are few better examples than the Major League All-Star Game. The American League has won 12 straight All Star contests, with their last defeat coming back in 1996 in Philadelphia. Since then the A.L. is 12-0-1 against the Senior Circuit and has simply dominated the opposition in both the Midsummer Classic and Interleague Play.