College Football Handicapping Articles

Michigan State Spartans Odds to win the Big Ten with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/24/2017

As a Michigan fan, I obviously don't love Michigan State. I like to hate them. Lately, though, I feel myself pitying them more, and it's tough to hate someone you pity. I'll find a way, but it won't be easy. Last year they started the season ranked, climbed as high as eighth, and wound up 3-9. It really takes something for any major conference team to go 3-9, never mind one that goes into the season seen as a viable contender.

Colorado Buffaloes Odds to win the Pac-12 with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/24/2017

It was a dream regular season for the Buffaloes last year. Coming off a 4-9 season in 2015, including 1-8 in the Pac-12, no one expected too much of the program. Few would have seen them getting even close to .500 in the conference, never mind the division winning 8-1 record they did amass. It was a heck of a season. And now some big changes - in both personnel and coaching - face the team. Now coach Mike MacIntyre, a very good coach in his fifth year with the program, has to prove that he can keep the program moving forward despite those changes.

Wyoming Cowboys Odds to win the Mountain West Conference with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/23/2017

Sports are weird sometimes. Josh Allen, Wyoming's quarterback, could likely have been a Top 10 pick in the draft last year - probably the second QB off the board after Mitch Trubisky - if he had opted to go into the draft. Instead, he chose to stay for one more year in Wyoming. He has a prototypical NFL QB build but far from the prototypical path to the top of the draft. He had no interest in high school so headed to Junior College.

College Football Betting: Handicapping Advice for Neutral-Site Games
by Trevor Whenham - 8/18/2017

The first couple weeks of the college football season are glorious, above all else, because they exist after a long time without the greatest of sports. Beyond that, though, what makes them somewhat unique is that they are littered with neutral-site games - a phenomenon much more rare later in the season. Most of the neutral-site games are cash grabs and gimmicks, but they exist, and they are usually pretty good matchups that we need and want to pay attention to as bettors.

TCU Horned Frogs Odds to win the Big 12 with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/10/2017

Gary Patterson had the misfortune of taking over as TCU head coach the year after hall-of-famer LaDainian Tomlinson left town. Even worse, he had been the team's defensive coordinator up to that point, so he had been charged with the impossible task of trying to figure out how to stop LT in practice. Despite that, Patterson has had a remarkable career at TCU, amassing an incredible 149-54 record, twice winning National Coach of the Year, and finishing second overall after a Rose Bowl win propelled his 2010 team to 13-0.

Iowa Hawkeyes Odds to win the Big Ten with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/10/2017

With Bob Stoops retiring unexpectedly in June, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz is now just one of two coaches who was hired by his current team in the previous century. Bill Snyder is the other, but Ferentz has one up on him because Snyder retired in 2005 before returning in 2009. Ferentz is 147-113 since starting in 1999, with two Big Ten titles and an appearance in the Big Ten title game in 2015. He isn't consistently good, but every so often he gets things lined up and his teams compete. So is this going to be one of those competitive years? Short answer - probably not. Longer answer:

Northwestern Wildcats Odds to win the Big Ten with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/10/2017

Pat Fitzgerald, entering his 12th season at Northwestern, is widely praised and respected. I'm not entirely sure I understand it. I get that Northwestern isn't a top-tier school on par with Michigan or Ohio State in the Big Ten, but they are on the outskirts of one of the great cities of the world, they have a fancy new practice facility under construction, and they should just plain be better than they are. And Fitzgerald should have more success, too - he has won seven or fewer games in seven of his 11 seasons, including last year.

Houston Cougars Odds to win the American Athletic Conference with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/10/2017

It's amazing how one thing can change a program so dramatically. After a 13-1 season in 2015, Houston opened last year by beating Oklahoma and then rolling through four other mismatched opponents. It seemed like the world was their oyster. At the same time the Big 12 was seriously pondering expansion, and it seemed all but certain that the Cougars would be making the move. Ultimately, though, the teams in that conference were concerned more about how including Houston would make it harder for them to recruit than they were about making the Big 12 as good as they possibly could, so they rejected Houston and the option of expansion for now.

Nebraska Cornhuskers Odds to win the Big Ten with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/9/2017

Mike Riley was a bit of a surprising hire at Nebraska, but after a dismal 6-7 first year his 9-4 season last year, including a 6-3 Big Ten mark, was very solid. This year, though, will likely not be nearly as strong. Backers and fans of the team will have to remind themselves consistently that this is a rebuilding year and that Riley is looking to establish a strong foundation for the future. There will be suffering involved with watching this team at times this year. The question, though, is how far they will fall and how competitive they can still be despite the retooling on the fly that they are forced into.

Florida Atlantic Owls Odds to win Conference USA with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/9/2017

Lane Kiffin is like a cockroach. So many times he has taken a step that you were sure would be the last of his professional career, yet every time he pops up and funds new life somewhere. It hasn't always been a smooth path, though, and you certainly can't argue that the career of a guy that has coached USC and the Raiders is on an upward trajectory still now that he is at Florida Atlantic. You can be relatively sure of two things that now that Kiffin is in charge - Florida Atlantic football will be a lot less boring than it has been, and sooner or later things aren't likely to end well with Kiffin. They never do.

Appalachian State Mountaineers Odds to win the Sun Belt with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/9/2017

The Appalachian State Mountaineers won three straight FCS national titles starting in 2005, but that's not what everyone knows them best for. After winning their second title, they opened their 2007 season as very heavy underdogs in Ann Arbor against fifth-ranked Michigan. As a very big Michigan fan, the game worried me so little that I went golfing instead of watching.

College Football Betting Advice: Teams that Could Exceed Expectations
by Trevor Whenham - 8/7/2017

Preseason rankings in college football are notoriously difficult to make and almost never hold completely true. There are just too many unknowns. What is interesting to bettors is not the things that the rankings likely have right - like Alabama at the top, for example - but what they are not right about. Teams that should outperform their rankings, those that aren't ranked but should be, and those that are too highly regarded - all of those provide real opportunities to profit for bettors.

Expert College Football Handicapping: Toughest Teams to Judge
by Trevor Whenham - 8/7/2017

There are some college football teams that are very easy to judge. Alabama and Ohio State, for example, are both going to be very good and will only be challenged a small handful of times. And there are teams that clearly seem to be getting more hype than they probably should be at this time because of who they are (I'm looking at you, USC). What is tougher for handicappers, though, and what we want to deal with here, are the teams that are the hardest to judge.

Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Odds to win Conference USA with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/7/2017

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers are very heavy favorites to win Conference USA. That's a remarkable feat for a team that has a new coach and staff. Jeff Brohm parlayed his success at Western Kentucky into the head job at Purdue - though a big part of me wonders if being at a hopeless Big Ten program is really an upgrade. Mike Sanford Jr., who was previously the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame and then Boise State, where he also played QB back in his day, is the new man in charge. If a 35-year-old first-time head coach is this heavily favored then the team must really be one to contend with.

Boise State Broncos Odds to win the Mountain West Conference with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/7/2017

The Broncos have been so good for so long that we just expect it from them. They are not always great but are so wildly consistent. They have won 12 conference championships since 1999, they have won at least eight games every year since then, they won two BCS bowl games, and have finished ranked in the Top 18 of the final polls 10 times since 2002. They just keep on keeping on, never seeming to have to reload no matter which players graduate and which coaches leave. It's remarkable. And while they aren't heading into this season with the best team we have ever seen from them, they are still positioned to add yet another conference title. The train keeps rolling.

Toledo Rockets Odds to win the MAC with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/7/2017

The Toledo Rockets have been known for a few things over the years, but perhaps most relevant to us now they are the team that gave Nick Saban his first head coaching job. In 1990 he took over a team that had gone 6-5 each of the two previous years and went 9-2, with the losses coming by a combined five points. He obviously wasn't convinced that college football was for him yet, though, because he left after that one successful season to serve as Bill Belichick's defensive coordinator in Cleveland for three years. He was replaced by Gary Pinkel who later went to Missouri, and Tim Beckman and Matt Campbell have also gone from Toledo to bigger jobs.

Free College Football Picks: Yes or No Playoff Props Odds and Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 8/4/2017

I was a massive skeptic of the College Football Playoff when it was announced. It still has some real issues - having games on New Year's Eve is insane, and it still doesn't solve the fact that boiling 100+ teams down to four after a dozen games, and then deciding who they play in the semifinals, is every bit as subjective as the last solution for finding a national title was. On the plus side, though, it has made for some solid drama - not that Clemson and Ohio State game last year, but several games other than that.

College Football Betting Advice: High-Profile Teams that Could Disappoint
by Trevor Whenham - 8/2/2017

It is inevitable that teams that people have high hopes for now will be massive disappointments by December. It happens every year. All you need to do to see how common it is would be to look back at last year's preseason AP Top 25. Notre Dame was ranked 10th and went a dismal 4-8. Ole Miss was one spot back in the rankings and wound up with only one more win - and now has a coaching scandal to deal with.

Expert College Football Handicapping: Biggest Storylines from Fall Camps
by Trevor Whenham - 8/2/2017

Surely I'm not the only one that is confused by the naming involved when college football's fall camps start in late July. Regardless of what you want to call them, though, their arrival signals the start of the college football season (finally!), and that means that real game action will be here in no time flat. In other words, this is a great time no matter how little sense the name makes.

How to Pick an Honest and Hardworking Football Handicapping Service
by Tony George - 7/30/2017

This is the time of year that you start seeing the ads for sports handicapping services telling you how great they are. They always have outlandish win percentages and they are sure to tell you how they are the world champion handicapping service that beats the books every day. One example of this is a guy (I won't name names) that is a boiler room sports pick seller out of Las Vegas who landed a show on CNBC a few years ago and claims he is the greatest handicapper in the world, feared by books so much he was kicked out of them.