IDAHO: 5-0 ATS
Most experts picked the Idaho Vandals to finish at or near the bottom of the WAC standings heading into the season but they have been cashing tickets for their backers all season long. Idaho is 4-1 straight up but an astounding 5-0 against the spread making them the most profitable team in college football through the first five weeks. Idaho has been the underdog in all five of their games but they have won all of them except one.
Oklahoma not a BCS Team without Sam Bradford:
Oklahoma has played two ranked teams this season and failed to win either one of them. This past week they went on the road to play Miami as a 7 point favorite and lost the game outright. The Sooners sorely miss the reigning Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford. Landry Jones was highly touted out of high school but simply lacks the leadership qualities that Bradford possesses.
Last year I started a weekly series on NCAAF Title Cahsers. This is an early look at what lies ahead for those coveting the National Title. The pool of unbeaten teams has been pared down to 13, and amongst that pool are 2 potential BCS busters in Boise St. (5-0), and TCU (4-0). Here is a look at what lies ahead for these unbeaten teams.
Each week David Payne and Ben Burns scour the non-BCS conferences, looking for a hidden gem to take advantage of.
This week, they take a look at teams that are set up to fall during the second half of the college football season.
Hawaii: The Warriors laid an egg and lost their quarterback in last week’s 27-6 loss at Louisiana Tech.
There’s a reason they play the games. Teams don’t always play the way stats and power rankings suggest they are supposed to. That’s often evident early in the pro and college football seasons because some teams are very different from year to year. Look at a team like Michigan. The Wolverines stumbled badly last year with a very young team and a new coach bringing in a whole new offensive philosophy.
The fall shuffle is on.
Beginning this month, teams from across the country will have their schedules turned upside down with Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday games.
Classes will have to be rescheduled, and practice routines will be disrupted. Players and coaches will be traveling late at night. It’s hectic.
This week our College Football System of the Week comes from the Michigan State – Wisconsin matchup which takes place on Saturday afternoon in Madison Wisconsin. The line for this contest has opened with Wisconsin favored by 2.5 points over the visiting Michigan State Spartans.
College and pro football offer a variety of great match-ups every weekend. A good handicapper, though, doesn’t just look at individual and team match-ups. There are other factors surrounding a game that can be equally important to identifying a winning spread cover, such as scheduling and road travel.
Last week we learned more about the Big 12, and as each season rolls along, teams develop chemistry, stories emerge, and sleeping giants awake while others fall by the wayside. OU nation took a deep breath as QB Bradfords replacement set a school record and tied a national record with 6 TDs. Landry Jones is a bright spot for the future for OU, only a redshirt freshman, Big 12 foes will be seeing him for the next 3 years after Bradford departure.
You have to remember that in September it’s more likely that defenses are ahead of the offenses in pro and college football. This might not seem the case when you watch Miami and Florida State put on an exciting 38-34 shootout with both teams tallying over 400 yards. However, that’s not the norm, either, something that needs to be assessed carefully when trying to find football picks each week. Think of the NFL opener as the Steelers and Titans battled to a 13-10 low scoring affair in overtime.
My first Big 12 report of the season, and I look forward to posting weekly recaps and updates from my specialty conference. My first feature play of the season was last week, a Winner on Nebraska -22 who wiped the board with Arkansas State in Lincoln. Numerous teams struggled last week in the Big 12 conference. Missouri was down 20-6 late in the third quarter at home to lowly Bowling Green from the MAC before a wild fourth quarter where Mizzou finally ended up winning it in com from behind fashion.
Who impressed?
Colorado State: Bettors would be wise to take notice of Rams’ coach Steve Fairchild. He’s a rising star, and it showed against rival Colorado Sunday.
Colorado State’s offense, featuring the most experienced offensive line in the nation, was balanced (208 passing, 168 rushing) and was a step ahead of the Buffalo defense throughout the first half.
The Rams’ defense shut down what is expected to be a good Buffalo rushing attack. Colorado averaged just 1.4 yards per carry and finished with 29 yards rushing.
The first step each season is to take a painstaking look at the previous season. We focus on all the factors that contributed to a team’s success or failure. There has to be a cause for every effect. We break down the strengths of each team. We study the reasons that might explain why it had the kind of season it did. Team morale and unity, season turning points, the caliber of opposition, how it won and lost are intricately related. Was it outclassed or beaten by breaks?
I just love this time of the year. The smell of football is in the air and it’s the most exciting time of the year for most people. I have been very successful in handicapping College Football throughout the years having won 12 of 13 years in my Sports Handicapping Career.
I’d love to have you on board for the season as we are looking to pound the man again!
Finding solid, updated information on Sun Belt football is not easy, for bettors or oddsmakers.
So spending time to dig deeper on these lesser-known squads can pay dividends.
“The way to win early in the year is to get a better handle on a team than the average guy on the street,” Francis Doyle, betting analyst for Sportsinteraction.com said.
We’ve got less than two weeks to prepare for the college football season.
This week, we break down the MAC, a conference that is changing and one known for pulling off major upsets.
A Toledo team that finished 3-9 went into Michigan last season and won. Bowling Green opened the year by winning at Pittsburgh.
