College Football Handicapping Articles

College Football Opinion: Manziel Got Off Easy
by Robert Ferringo - 8/30/2013

Unless you have been living in a cave, you know about the drama surrounding Manziel. He signed thousands of autographs, “allegedly” for money, in clear violation of NCAA rules. His potential suspension has cast a pall over Texas A&M’s season prospects, and the reigning Heisman’s status has been a major issue in the sport since the story broke several weeks ago.

Weekly CFB Mid-Major Betting Report: UNLV Rebels Week 1
by Aaron Smith - 8/28/2013

Welcome to the first installment of this year’s college football mid-major betting report. In the first two years, the mid-major betting report selections have gone 13-7-1 and $100 per-unit bettors are up $1,410. Two years ago I followed the Rice Owls. Last year I followed the Ohio Bobcats. This season it will be all about the UNLV Rebels. All season long I’ll be following UNLV beat writers, Twitter feeds, and press conferences from the UNLV athletic department.

American Athletic Conference Weekly Betting Report (Plus Free Pick)
by Dave Schwab - 8/27/2013

The remnants of a Big East Conference that was decimated through a number of defections decided to join forces with a group of teams from Conference-USA to form the American Athletic Conference, or AAC. This new conference could be thought of as a hybrid of a major and mid-major when it comes to the level of play, but there are bound to be some excellent betting opportunities on a few of each week’s games all season long.

College Football Handicapping: Teams that Could Self Destruct
by Trevor Whenham - 8/26/2013

Last year the USC Trojans really defined self-destruction for a program. They started the season ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP Poll. By the end of the year they were just 7-5 and had limped to a lousy 5-4 mark in the Pac-12. It was humiliating in so many ways. Matt Barkley had gone from media darling to draft afterthought after a very ugly season, and the struggles were not his alone.

College Football Betting: Handicapping Second-Year QBs
by Trevor Whenham - 8/26/2013

As we sit here on the eve of another college football season, I am incredibly excited about the crop of quarterbacks. I have been watching college football obsessively for far more years than I would admit, and I rarely remember a stronger, deeper group of pivots. One of the most exciting aspects of the group is the incredible group of starters entering their second year in charge of their team. Entering the second year is when a lot of quarterbacks take a big step forward.

College Football Handicapping: Teams that Could Improve ATS
by Trevor Whenham - 8/26/2013

Some teams are just consistently bad. They have no talent and no real hope. There are other teams, though, that really struggle for bettors one year, but which can bounce back and perform much better against the spread the next year. Here are five teams in college football that could be dramatically better against the spread than they were last year:

College Football Betting: Teams that Could Struggle ATS
by Trevor Whenham - 8/26/2013

It’s very tough for a team to be successful against the spread for more than a year or two in a row in college football. The more success a team has for bettors, the more bettors pay attention to it, and the harder it is to find value in the lines. There is not always a correlation between success on the field and success at the betting window, so a team can continue to show strong improvement while becoming much worse from a betting perspective.

College Football Opening-Week Games More Interesting than they Appear
by Trevor Whenham - 8/26/2013

The opening weekend of the college football season has no shortage of high-profile games — Alabama vs. Virginia Tech, Georgia at Clemson, and LSU at TCU chief among them. Beyond those marquee games, though, there are some very interesting matchups — games that could be even more interesting from a betting perspective than the big ones. Here are eight hidden gems that stand out:

2013 Mid-Major Betting Report: UNLV Rebels Football Predictions
by Aaron Smith - 8/23/2013

The Mid-Major Betting Report has been a staple of the college football season the last couple years at Doc’s Sports, and we are back for another season of the report in 2013. This year I’ll be following the UNLV Rebels. All season long I’ll be following UNLV beat writers, twitter feeds, and press conferences from the program to become an expert on the UNLV football program.

Texas A&M Handicapping: With and Without Manziel
by Trevor Whenham - 8/22/2013

We are in a very strange time with Johnny Manziel and the Texas A&M Aggies. Unprecedented attention and scrutiny. Incredible stupidity to get into this autograph mess he is in. Total uncertainty about what could happen and what it might mean. The Aggies could play the whole season without Manziel. Or he could be there for every game.

2013 SEC Football Predictions and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 8/21/2013

Basically, the SEC is a shell game. They have ranged from “pretty average” to “terrible” in the nonconference portion of the schedule the past two years, and that is a decent indicator of how they stack up with the rest of the country. Also, the SEC is the nation’s best conference only if you are willing to ignore A) the eight teams at the bottom of the 14-team league and B) the fact that middling Big 12 teams have managed to fare pretty well in their first seasons in the league.

Bold College Football Predictions for 2013
by Trevor Whenham - 8/21/2013

The Buckeyes hype is getting out of control. There is, of course, a lot to like — Braxton Miller chief among them. It is extremely tough to go undefeated once, though, never mind twice in a row. Urban Meyer has had issues with internal control of his team this offseason, and that has to be a concern. So, too, is the fact that the Big Ten will be better this year than it was last year.

College Football Handicapping: Overrated Teams in the AP Poll
by Trevor Whenham - 8/21/2013

Now that the preseason AP Poll has been released, it is time for the inevitable griping and complaining. In my eyes, here are the five teams that got far too much credit in the first poll of the year. If the public agrees with the poll, then there could be value in the other side of the games these teams play:

College Football Handicapping: High-Profile Coaching Changes
by Trevor Whenham - 8/21/2013

As is the case every year, we have seen a whole bunch of coaching changes this year in college football. Because head coaches are at least as important in college football as in any sport, these moves are always interesting to watch. Four changes stand out as the most interesting this year because of the change they represent and the handicapping puzzles they present. Here’s a look at the four and what the new guys could mean for bettors in the short term:

College Football Handicapping: Off-the-Radar QBs with Value
by Trevor Whenham - 8/20/2013

I have been watching college football obsessively for more years than I would like to admit. In all that time I don’t remember another year in which there were more teams with strong quarterback situations. We are in a prime era for quarterbacks. With so many impressive guys out there, it is inevitable that there are quarterbacks that aren’t getting the attention or recognition that they deserve.

2013 Indiana Football Predictions and Hoosiers Futures Odds
by Raphael Esparza, the Vegas Sports Informer - 8/20/2013

Last year the Hoosiers went 4-8, and normally a that kind of record coming from a school that focuses primarily on basketball is an accomplishment. However, things should change this season as I see Indiana learning from their losses and close games from last season. This team will be competitive in the Big Ten, and unfortunately the oddsmakers know this so value this year on Indiana could be different from years past.

2013 Big Ten Football Predictions and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 8/19/2013

I think that most Big Ten football fans would agree with my assessment that the SEC is overrated and a little too full of itself. I don’t think that most of those same college football fans would agree with me that the second-most overrated football conference is their beloved Big Ten. But the fact is that while this league is seeped in tradition it is also seeped in mediocrity at the moment.

2013 Pac-12 Football Predictions and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 8/19/2013

A recent infusion of coaching talent, including the guys tasked with replacing hero coaches Jim Harbaugh, Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly, has helped send the Pac-12 on an upward trajectory. Guys like Rich Rodriguez, Mike Leach, Jim Mora, Sonny Dykes and Todd Graham have their respective programs in the infant stages. But each of those leaders know what they are doing, and it won’t be long before the Pac-12 is a high-flying, high-scoring league threatening the Big 12 and SEC for supremacy.

2013 Big 12 Predictions and College Football Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 8/16/2013

The Big 12 is still leading the sport in offensive innovation. Their 66.6 total points per game dwarfed the game totals of leagues like the Big East (46.1) and the almighty SEC (51.0). And all that scoring has made the Big 12 one of the most difficult leagues in the country for bettors to predict.

2013 ACC Football Predictions and Futures Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 8/16/2013

The Atlantic Coast Conference used to be a pretty respectable league. Now they are nothing more than the SEC’s half-witted cousin. There is a load of top-flight individual talent in this conference, as indicated by their NFL Draft picks and preseason awards finalists, but on the whole the ACC is one of the least predictable and least stable leagues in the country.