2016 American Athletic Conference Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 3/9/2016

The American Athletic Conference is the college basketball league that no one wanted, no one cares about, and no one knows about. But that's why I love it! The AAC's lack of national profile means that it is an afterthought for the oddsmakers as much as for bettors. Their conference tournament tips on Thursday, though, and it should provide one last opportunity for a big score (or two) this season.

2016 Big Ten Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 3/8/2016

For the impressive depth and talent that the Big Ten has produced in college basketball over the past decade, the Big Ten Tournament has been fairly predictable. The No. 1 seed has won the title in four of the last six seasons. And either the No. 1 or the No. 2 seed has cut down the nets in 14 of the 17 years that the conference has crowned a tournament champion.

2016 Big 12 Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 3/8/2016

Why not just crown Kansas the Big 12 champions and be done with it? The Jayhawks have accomplished one of the greatest streaks in sports, winning 12 consecutive Big 12 regular-season titles over the past dozen years. They've done so despite the fact that the Big 12 is consistently one of the best two or three best conferences in the country. However, tourney time is a different animal. And if the Jayhawks want to pull the diesel double, winning the league and tourney crowns, they'll need to fight their way past a field that's stacked with talent and toughness.

2016 Pac-12 Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 3/8/2016

The Pac-12 Conference is still the best league in the country that no one is watching. With an array of styles, exceptional athleticism, great coaching, and a ton of big-time traditional rivals and powers, this conference has everything that a college hoops fanatic can want.

2016 Big East Conference Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 3/8/2016

The Big East Tournament used to be one of the biggest, best, and most exciting conference tournaments in college basketball. Conference realignment (screw you, college football!) has robbed the Big East of some of its star power and traditional rivalries. But the league has rebuilt, rebranded, and refreshed itself, even if it has had to do so outside of the national spotlight.

2016 SEC Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 3/8/2016

For the better part of the past decade the SEC has been a football-only conference. SEC basketball has been dominated by Kentucky and Florida, with the rest of the league simply serving as fodder to the two titans and as a novelty for Southern fans in between bowl games and spring practice.

2016 Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 3/8/2016

The A-10 had three teams, VCU, Dayton and St. Bonaventure, each claim a piece of the regular-season title with identical 14-4 records, and a fourth team, St. Joseph's, was just a single game behind them with a 13-5 conference mark. Add in some capable second-tier teams like George Washington and Davidson and you have a parity-driven conference tournament that could be dominated by any one of a half-dozen schools.

2016 ACC Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 3/7/2016

Nature has an uncanny and ruthlessly efficient way of sorting out the chaos of the universe. Look at pebbles on the beach, and the way that over time the oceans perfectly sort them along the shore. A similar sorting can be found looking at the bracket for the 2016 ACC basketball tournament. Despite the hundreds of games played between the 15 random teams, there is a near perfect symmetry to the way the seeding and schedule fell in this tournament.

2016 Mountain West Conference Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 3/7/2016

Tumultuous would have to be the best word to describe Mountain West basketball this season. The Mountain West has been the best mid-major conference in the country the past 15 years, at times rating even better than some of the "Big Six" leagues. But this season the MWC endured a bizarre campaign that featured mid-season coaching firings and star players quitting, major officiating screw-ups with significant ramifications, and a ton of injuries and suspensions. Pretty much the only thing missing was locusts.

2016 Colonial Athletic Association Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 3/2/2016

CAA is the acronym for the Colonial Athletic Association but this year that "C" might as well stand for "Cannibal". The CAA was one of the most top-heavy, parity driven leagues in the country this year, with five teams in the 10-team league battling into the final weeks for the regular-season title.

2016 West Coast Conference Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 2/29/2016

There will be a lot of interested eyes peering into Las Vegas this weekend for the West Coast Conference Tournament. Three teams that are on the proverbial NCAA Tournament bubble will all be gunning for the league's title and its coveted at-large bid. And the results of this conference tournament could send some aftershocks throughout the rest of the country.

2016 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Predictions and NCAA Basketball Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 2/29/2016

Arch Madness, also known as the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, has become the marker that The Madness has begun. This is not the first conference tournament - the Atlantic Sun and Patriot League each begin on March 1 - but Arch Madness is the first of the recognizable, nationally-televised leagues to determine their championship.

NCAA Tournament Projections: Only a Dozen or So Bubble Teams Exist
by Robert Ferringo - 2/29/2016

If I've said it once I've said it a million times: Joe Lunardi is a fraud. Joe Lunardi is a loser. Joe Lunardi is a clown. He is one of the biggest jokes in sports, yet for the next two weeks his face is going to be plastered all over ESPN and his drivel will be treated like gospel.

March Madness Handicapping: Bid Stealers Looking To Make Life Tough for Big-Name Programs
by Robert Ferringo - 2/29/2016

This time of the year there is a lot of talk about the NCAA Tournament bubble. These are the alleged teams fighting for the last at-large bids into The Big Dance, as determined by the NCAA Tournament selection committee. According to some members of the bobblehead media - who are mostly just trying to increase interest and boost ratings for games broadcast on their networks - there is this vast ocean of teams still clawing for the final spots in the tourney.

My Votes for Top College Hoops Players in the Nation
by Robert Ferringo - 2/29/2016

I am a voting member of the United States Basketball Writer's Association of America, and this week was the first chance to submit an All-American ballot for college basketball. For those that are interested, here is whom I voted for in regards to All-Americans, Freshman of the Year, Coach of the Year and National Player of the Year.

NFL Season Win Totals Odds Released by CG Technology
by Robert Ferringo - 2/26/2016

The paint isn't even dry on the Denver Broncos' Super Bowl banner. The booze and coke from the players' celebration has only recently been washed off. Yet people in dark corners are already shining the light on the 2016 NFL football betting season and already sculpting expectations as to how that season with play out.

Worst College Basketball Teams for Betting Against the Spread
by Robert Ferringo - 2/12/2016

Value is a tricky thing to get a grasp on in betting markets. To understand value you need to have a baseline of what your own expectations for a team are, a keen understanding of what the general public's expectations are, and then a focused insight into how to explain their results in relationship to the pre-understood level of expectations. As we saw with the Top 10 best ATS teams this year there were several reasons as to why they had been so good at the window.

Best College Basketball Teams Against the Spread
by Robert Ferringo - 2/11/2016

College basketball can be an overwhelming sport to follow, either as a fan or as someone who bets on sports. Most casual fans I know adopt a simple, "I just like March Madness" approach to the game because they don't have the time or inclination to follow the hundreds of teams that make up Division I.

Super Bowl Handicapping: Carolina Panthers and the Cover-2 Defense
by Robert Ferringo - 2/5/2016

There are a million different angles to take leading into Super Bowl 50 between Carolina and Denver, which will kick off at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday near San Francisco. But for me, one of the most interesting subplots - which is interesting to exactly zero other people - is whether or not Carolina's Cover-2 will finally get the best of Peyton Manning, and whether the Panthers' success in making it to Super Sunday will lead to a resurgence of the Cover-2 defense. I have written several times over the past three years that the Cover-2 is an antiquated system and ready to go the way of the Wishbone and the Run-and-Shoot. But could a Super Bowl win by the Panthers lead a revival for this dying approach?

College Basketball Handicapping: Beware the North Carolina Bandwagon
by Robert Ferringo - 2/3/2016

Groupthink is the enemy of sports betting profit. Whenever there is a generally held consensus in the world of sports - Green Bay and Indianapolis are preseason Super Bowl favorites! The Nationals are going to dominate the N.L. East! - you can all but guarantee that consensus is not only wrong, but shockingly wrong. And it almost always costs common square bettors a lot of money before they realize that these communal delusions are inaccurate and misguided.