College Football Handicapping Analysis
One of the best water-cooler debates every fall: which college football conference is the strongest?
One of the best water-cooler debates every fall: which college football conference is the strongest?
The Big East title is up for grabs when the undefeated Cincinnati Bearcats visit the Pittsburgh Panthers in the final week of the college football regular season.
Oddsmakers have set the Panthers as 1-point home underdogs. Pitt has won three of the four meetings between these teams, covering in their first three games. However, The Bearcats took last year’s contest, 28-21, as 6-point favorites. Cincinnati held off a fourth-quarter push from Pittsburgh, which put the final over the 48-point total.
Does anyone want to win the Pac-10?
The conference’s ticket to the Rose Bowl is still up for grabs with the Pac-10’s contenders dropping games week after week.
The Oregon Ducks appeared to have their BCS bowl dreams shattered with a 51-42 loss to Stanford in Week 10, opening the door for the Arizona Wildcats to control their destiny at the top of the conference.
The Texas Longhorns are all but guaranteed a spot in the BCS Championship – that is, if they take care of business in their remaining schedule. Standing in the way of Texas and a shot at the national title are just two regular season contests and the Big 12 title game, starting with the Kansas Jayhawks in Week 12.
A trip to the Rose Bowl will likely be at stake when the Southern California Trojans head to Eugene to face the Oregon Ducks in a Pac-10 battle between one-loss conference foes.
Oddsmakers have tagged the Ducks as 3-point home underdogs for Saturday’s contest. The Trojans have won three of the last four meetings with Oregon, including last year’s 44-10 beating at Los Angeles Coliseum.
College football betting heads to Raymond James Stadium, where Big East bragging rights will be on the line Friday night. The West Virginia Mountaineers (6-1, 2-4 ATS) will get it on with the South Florida Bulls (5-2, 3-3 ATS). South Florida badly needs a victory to stay alive in the Big East race, while the Mountaineers still control their own destiny in the chase for the Orange Bowl.
One of college football’s greatest rivalries takes center stage this weekend. The infamous Red River Shootout – now known as the Red River Showdown – pits the No. 2 Texas Longhorns against the No. 18 Oklahoma Sooners at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.
The college football world held its collective breath when Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow was sacked viciously by Kentucky DE Taylor Wyndham in Week 4 of the college football schedule. The hit sent Tebow barreling into UF offensive lineman Marcus Gilbert’s knee, violently snapping Tebow’s head forward and giving the former Heisman winner a nasty concussion.
The crazy world of Pac-10 football will make a little more sense after the Southern Cal Trojans visit the California Golden Bears in Week 5 of the college football schedule.
Oddsmakers have set the Trojans as early 5.5-point road favorites. Southern Cal has won the last five meeting with Cal, posting a 3-2 record against the spread. Going back over the last 10 years, USC is 7-3 but just 4-6 ATS versus the Golden Bears.
Mississippi: 2-0 SU, 2-0 ATS
South Carolina: 2-1 SU, 3-0 ATS
The Mississippi Rebels’ offense is firing on all cylinders after just two games. The South Carolina Gamecocks’ offense sputtered to start the season but has been starting to warm up in their past two contests. The big question is if the Gamecocks can keep pace with Ole Miss when the teams meet in Columbia on Thursday night.
Georgia Tech: 2-0 SU, 0-1 ATS
Miami: 1-0 SU, 1-0 ATS
The ACC has a bad rep this season, but two of the conference’s top teams have the national spotlight on Thursday night. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Miami Hurricanes are both coming off nail-biting wins heading into this week’s ACC Coastal showdown.
CFB bettors have to stay up late Saturday night to take in a good old fashion NCAAF betting match-up between the ACC and PAC 10 when the Maryland Terrapins (8-5, 7-6 ATS in 2008) and California Golden Bears (9-4, 9-4 ATS in 2008) get it on in Berkeley. HC Ralph Friedgen’s kids last took the field in the Humanitarian Bowl against the Nevada Wolfpack; they won an entertaining thriller on the “Smurf Turf” by a 42-35 final tally as 2.5-point underdogs.
The 2009 NCAA College Football season is fast approaching – week one kicks off Sept. 3 – so now would be a good time to make your picks for the BCS National Championship.
A pair of points away from the winning weekend that he’d been searching for to get his college season on track, Cras looks to build on his 2-2 effort last weekend.
It’s been another crazy year on the college fields but there are plenty of winning opportunities and we had Cras pick four games for this Saturday.
Just when it looked like his NCAA season was starting to turn around, the uncertainty that is known as college football ended the optimism last weekend.
After handing Cras a winless 0-4 week, he tries to figure out what has been another highly unpredictable college year.
He was 10 seconds away from a 3-1 Saturday in college football last weekend but instead he had to settle for a mediocre 2-2 day.
With just over two minutes remaining, the UCLA Bruins drove the field for a 23-20 comeback win over the Stanford Cardinal. The comeback thwarted Cras’ chances of the winning weekend he needed to turn around his college season.