NBA Handicapping: Atlanta Hawks as Serious Championship Contenders
by Robert Ferringo - 2/16/2015

Heading into the All-Star break the Atlanta Hawks were grudgingly the biggest story and the best team in the NBA. At 43-11 they posted the second-best pre-All-Star game record in league history. That outstanding start included a 19-game winning streak and an undefeated (17-0) month of January, which resulted in the team’s starting five being named, collectively, as the league’s “player of the month” for their record-setting start to 2015.

College Basketball Odds and Analysis: Saturday Preview
by Robert Ferringo - 2/13/2015

Saturday is THE DAY in college basketball, and this weekend is no exception. There are 137 games scheduled for Valentine’s Day, and the overwhelming majority have big fat bull’s eye spreads attached to them. There are several marquee Top 25 games stealing the headlines, such as Baylor-Kansas and Duke-Syracuse. But there is plenty of value to be found for intrepid bettors looking to dip below the surface for other games of import.

College Basketball Odds and Analysis: Saturday Preview
by Robert Ferringo - 2/6/2015

Another football season is in the books. Which means that all of the gamblers that have spent their last six months obsessing about our nation’s true national past time are now ready to turn their attention to the hardwood. Most of these All Of A Sudden Experts are lambs to the slaughter, and the sportsbooks bank on February being a time of the year to boost its bottom line and win back any stray football dollars that it lost this fall.

College Basketball Betting: Top Teams Against the Spread
by Robert Ferringo - 2/6/2015

I have been handicapping college basketball for a decade. And I can tell you that there is no better feeling than getting in early on a team that you know is undervalued and then cashing ticket after ticket as the sportsbooks and the betting markets struggle to catch up.

NCAA Basketball Betting: Worst Teams Against the Spread
by Robert Ferringo - 2/6/2015

Below is a list of the 10 worst teams against the spread so far in this college hoops season. It’s always nice to find an under-the-radar team that is overlooked and undervalued. But spotting a dumpster fire team and just pounding away at them can be just as fun and rewarding.

2015 NCAA Tournament Projections
by Robert Ferringo - 1/28/2015

I have been saying for years that ESPN’s Joe Lunardi is one of the biggest frauds and shills in all of sports. I’d like to think that I was one of the pioneers of the idea since I first wrote about it back in 2010 at a time when the rest of the country was still fawning over his inflated records at predicting the NCAA Tournament field with so-called “bracketology”.

NCAA Basketball Experts Talk Kentucky Hoops and Chances for a National Title
by Robert Ferringo - 1/28/2015

Right now there is no bigger story – and, quite literally, no bigger team – in college basketball than Kentucky. The Wildcats enter Wednesday at 19-0 straight up on the season, and they are 12 games away from completing an unblemished regular season en route to a potential perfect year.

Worst Quarterbacks in Super Bowl History
by Robert Ferringo - 1/28/2015

The Super Bowl is a career-defining moment for every football player that has suited up in The Big Game. This is especially true for quarterbacks, each of whom has carved a line in their obituary out with their play under the brightest spotlight in American sports.

College Basketball Odds for Saturday with Preview and Analysis
by Robert Ferringo - 1/23/2015

Saturday is The Day in college basketball, and this weekend is no exception. Packed wall-to-wall with interesting action, the entire college hoops machine will be going full throttle, and it is a gambler’s paradise for noon into the wee hours of the evening.

College Basketball Handicapping: Experts Talk Syracuse Hoops
by Robert Ferringo - 1/15/2015

Flash back less than one year ago and things were perfect in the world of Syracuse basketball. Literally perfect. The Orange had just beaten Boston College to move to 17-0 on the season and were well on their way to a magical 25-0 start and the No. 1 ranking in the country. The Orange were still riding the momentum of their trip to the Final Four the previous spring and were unbeaten in their maiden voyage through a new league, the ACC.

NFL Power Rankings Week 17
by Robert Ferringo - 12/23/2014

Week 17 in the NFL is on par with betting on Week 4 of the NFL Preseason. It is nearly impossible to gauge motivation for more than half of the teams in the league since only a handful of clubs actually have something to play for this weekend. Even most of the good, playoff-bound teams are stuck in that awkward should-we-or-shouldn’t we stage of questioning how much work the starters should get.

NFL Power Rankings Week 16
by Robert Ferringo - 12/16/2014

Despite playoff pushes – both in fantasy football as well as real football – it was another rough week for the NFL. I have said it before this year and I will say it again: this year has been some of the worst football I’ve watched in the past 15 years, and right now the NFL is delivering a very shoddy product.

NFL Power Rankings Week 15
by Robert Ferringo - 12/9/2014

Rivalries are one of the most important handicapping factors in sports. Though difficult to quantify, the emotional impact of a rivalry game is palpable. And over the final three weeks of the NFL season it will be one of the underlying motivational factors as we bet down the stretch.

NFL Power Rankings Week 14
by Robert Ferringo - 12/2/2014

I know that the NFL is always touting its parity as a major league strength. But just take a look at these power rankings. Take a look at the top eight teams and the bottom eight teams and tell me that they are even close. Besides an obvious talent gap – particularly at the all-important quarterback position – there are also a host of teams (Jets, Giants, Raiders) that know their coaches are going to be fired. The inmates are running the asylum in those locker rooms, and with nothing to play for but draft positioning I expect little to no effort from those groups through this month.

NFL Power Rankings Week 13
by Robert Ferringo - 11/25/2014

The Thanksgiving week is the most difficult week for any professional handicapper. Between the truncated turnaround time between NFL weeks, the gravitational pull of familial obligations, and the convergence of multiple sports into one jam-packed seven-day session, this week can be a bear trap or a treasure trove for bettors. As such, this week’s Power Rankings are going to be a bit more free flowing and a little less meaty than normal.

NFL Power Rankings Week 12
by Robert Ferringo - 11/18/2014

We are facing record-low temperatures across the country this November, and that will be a significant X-Factor down the stretch. There are still roughly 22 teams jostling for 12 playoff spots, and now is the time that momentum and execution mean everything on the gridiron. But adverse weather conditions – whether the cold is slowing down the breakneck offenses of the league’s top teams or whether a rain-soaked field results in a fluke turnover that costs a team a game – are looming as a critical handicapping factor over the final two months of the season.

NFL Power Rankings Week 11
by Robert Ferringo - 11/11/2014

The Cover-2 is dead. Chicago, Carolina and Tampa Bay are the last three teams that still exclusively use the defensive system that was all the rage in the NFL throughout the 2000s. Those three combined to give up a humiliating 127 points on Sunday, with the Bears (55) and the Panthers (45) getting embarrassed on prime time.

2014 SEC Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 11/11/2014

The hype surrounding Kentucky heading into last season was comical. They were posted as the clear-cut favorite to cut down the nets in Arlington, and some idiots in the bobblehead media were having preseason discussions about whether or not Kentucky could go undefeated. It was asinine. And I was one of the only college basketball analysts in the country tabbing them as a sucker bet to win a national title.

NFL Power Rankings Week 10
by Robert Ferringo - 11/4/2014

Last week’s action triggered a massive massive shakeup in the power rankings, and right now there’s no telling who the Super Bowl favorite is. In fact, as we trudge our way through November and there is one thing becoming more important than talent and coaching: momentum. The stakes continue to rise as we head toward the stretch run. And right now the overriding factor in determining where to go with your money is which teams are getting hotter as the weather is getting colder.

2014 Pac-12 Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 11/4/2014

For the past several years I have been screaming to anyone who’ll listen that the Pac-12 has been woefully underrated on the national college hoops scene. It wasn’t a particularly novel plea; the East Coast Bias is a very real media phenomenon, and it only makes sense that it would extend to something like college basketball. But I felt like that bias was having a tangible effect on the league as schools were either snubbed by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee or were grossly underseeded when the brackets were announced.