BCS Odds: Bettors Pick LSU to Cover Spread vs. Buckeyes
Public Bettors Say LSU
With less than 3 hours until game time, the point spread odds between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the LSU Tigers show LSU being listed as -3.5 betting line favorites according to oddsmakers at online sports book Bodog.
This is a substantial movement from where the line opened at which was -5.5 in favor of LSU.
Despite the tricky half point the majority of College Football Bettors are showing confidence in LSU to cover the -3.5 point spread. As of 5:30pm Eastern Time today our College Football Public Betting information showed 122,538 individual point spread wagers being placed on this game. 56% or roughly 68,700 bets have been placed on LSU to cover the spread.
Tonight is the second biggest night of the year for College Football Handicappers at SpreadExperts.com an online sports handicapping service. "Almost all of our 30+ professional cappers will have an opinion on this game." said Michael Cash, General Manager of SpreadExperts.com. "With the exception of the Super Bowl this will be by far the most wagered on sporting event of the year for US gamblers." said Cash.
Recreational bettors as well as professionals will no doubt hope that tonight's 2008 BCS Championship game will be a blowout in LSU's favor. Sports books and Buckeye fans hope the opposite.
The over/under betting line odds for this game are listed as 47 total points according to Bodog oddsmakers.
by: Staff Writers
(c) 1999-2008 TheSpread.com
Florida State Seminoles Vs Kentucky Wildcats - College Bowl Game Picks
Kentucky 12/31/2007 04:19 PM GMT (FINDITT)
Expert handicapper Kris Lazaro of NFLSystems.com has made a prediction on this game.
The depleted Florida State Seminoles face the downtrodden Kentucky Wildcats in this year's edition of the Music City Bowl, to be held in LP field in Nashville, Tennessee. Oddsmakers initially made the Kentucky Wildcats 2 point favorites, but with the recent news of ineligible players, the line has shot to its current line of Kentucky -9.
Florida State was once a program full of future NFL stars and a football program where top recruits salivated over. Now they are lucky to be in the state they are in. With an academic scandal rocking the program, and along with violation to team rules and injuries, the Seminoles will field a team minus 36 of its players. This is perhaps one of the most depleted teams in bowl history, but the author highly warns of betting against these types of teams. Las Vegas knows the extent of missing players, and the 7-point swing might 'force' people to bet against FSU, but this bet may seem to easy. Florida State is still a great team defensively, and with the Wildcat's downward skid recently, the author would not trust laying that much wood to a struggling team in Kentucky.
Copyright 2007, TransWorldNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Sports briefs
12/11/07
Rose Bowl tickets on sale today CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- University of Illinois football fans who weren't already able to buy Rose Bowl tickets now get their shot. The university's ticket office says Rose Bowl tickets will go on sale to the general public starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday. More than 23,000 tickets have already been allocated for school donors and season ticket holders. That leaves less than 2,000 tickets for the general public. The Illini will play Southern California in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year's Day. The general public tickets will be on sale by calling 1-866-ILLINI-1, logging on to fightingillini.com or by visiting the Assembly Hall box office. FSU coaching future set TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Jimbo Fisher will succeed Bobby Bowden as Florida State's next football coach -- someday. President T.K. Wetherell designated offensive coordinator Fisher as "head coach-in waiting," but skipped out of a somewhat unusual...[viewing 940 of 3997 characters]
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Connecticut vs West Virginia College Football Betting Preview
West Virginia 11/24/2007 04:07 PM GMT (FINDITT)
Kris Lazaro, expert handicapper at NFLSystems.com, has written a detailed prediction on the outcome of the Connecticut vs West Virginia college football game on Saturday.
Oddsmakers have placed a heavy tariff on West Virginia backers in this matchup, as it opened up as a 17 point favorite (with some places moving the line to 17.5 at the time of writing). The West Virginia Mountaineers have been under the scrutiny of the oddsmakers this year as it only has a 5-5 mark against the number, while the University of Connecticut Huskies are 7-2 ATS for the year.
The game itself is pretty interesting in and of itself. The winner of this game will capture the Big East title and an automatic bid to a BCS game. Uconn is 9-2 for the year, while West Virginia is 9-1. If Uconn is able to upset West Virginia this Saturday, they will have the tiebreaker (since this is Uconn's last game of the season, while the Mountaineers have one game left with the Pittsburgh Panthers). With the way things are going this year, it will not surprise the author if Uconn is able to defeat West Virginia this Saturday.
Copyright 2007, TransWorldNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Pack football: To go bowling, Pack must first take care of itself
DAN HINXMAN
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 11/1/2007
Nevada football coach Chris Ault isn't one to talk about bowl possibilities when there are still regular-season games to be played.
That's never stopped Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson, however.
"We always said Nov. 1 is the official bowl-speculation date," Benson said, on Monday's WAC coaches teleconference. "It's been creeping more into the last couple weeks of October. The fact that we're talking about bowls in late October, it shows the amount of interest it brings. This next month is a very entertaining time for all of us in the business."
It's an entertaining time for college football fans, too, and fans of the Nevada Wolf Pack (4-4, 2-2) have plenty to talk about. With four games remaining, beginning Friday night at New Mexico State, the Wolf Pack is in line to be one of the "on the bubble" teams if it should win out -- games against Hawaii, San Jose State and Louisiana Tech remain -- or at least win three of its last four.
"We're always thinking about getting to a bowl game," freshman quarterback Colin Kaepernick said. "It was one of our goals at the beginning of the year. But we know we need to win out to get there, so we're taking it one game at a time."
The WAC has three bowl tie-ins -- the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque on Dec. 22, the Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu on Dec. 23 and the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho, on
Dec. 31.
There are a multitude of possibilities for the WAC to get a fourth team into a bowl game. Teams must have a minimum of six victories (or seven for the few teams playing a 13-game schedule) to be bowl eligible.
Two teams, Hawaii (8-0) and Boise State (7-1), are already bowl eligible. Fresno State (5-3) and Nevada are close. New Mexico State (4-5) is playing a 13-game schedule and needs seven wins. No other WAC team has more than three victories.
"I definitely see that we will have four bowl-eligible teams," Benson said. "I'm confident that both Fresno State and Nevada will get there. Whether there's a fifth, that's probably a long shot."
Projecting ahead, Nevada, looking to play in a bowl game for a school-record third consecutive season, appears to be the WAC team with the best chance at the fourth bowl should it materialize. Assuming it gets the minimum six wins, the Wolf Pack's best chance is if a WAC team becomes eligible for a BCS bowl, as Boise State did last season, when it went undefeated and played Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.
Hawaii is ranked No. 14 in the latest BCS poll, and Boise State is No. 22. If either team finishes in the top 12 -- or top 16 and that ranking is higher than that of a BCS conference champion -- it will qualify for a BCS bowl.
"Obviously, if we had a team that moved up into the BCS then we would have our three bowls that would take care of the other three bowl-eligible teams," Benson said.
It puts Wolf Pack fans in an odd predicament. Should Hawaii still be unbeaten when the Warriors face Nevada at Mackay Stadium on Nov. 16, a Hawaii victory could help the Wolf Pack get the fourth bowl invitation, should the Warriors win out and the Pack win its other three. After Nevada, though, Hawaii closes out the regular season with home games against Boise State and Washington.
The WAC could also get a fourth bowl invitation if no WAC school qualifies for a BCS bowl, but the only way that can happen is if other bowl games are in need of teams to fill spots left open by non-qualifying conferences. A prime example is the Poinsettia Bowl (Dec. 20, San Diego). The arrangement is for a Mountain West Conference team to take on Navy, for whom the bowl was basically created. But if Navy can't qualify -- the Midshipmen are in decent shape at 4-4 and with a fairly soft schedule remaining -- the Poinsettia Bowl will look to fill, and historically has done so with a West Coast team.
Similar possibilities exist with the Las Vegas Bowl (Dec. 22), Emerald Bowl (Dec. 28, San Francisco) and Armed Forces Bowl (Dec. 31, Fort Worth, Texas), all of which have Pac-10 ties. If two Pac-10 teams end up in BCS bowls -- a possibility given the BCS rankings of Arizona State, fourth, and Oregon, fifth (they play Saturday in Eugene, Ore.) -- that could open the door for a WAC team to get into one of those three bowls. What would likely have to happen is for a Pac-10 team to finish in the top two and go to the national championship game, Jan. 7 in New Orleans, and the second-place Pac-10 team to go to the Rose Bowl.
(c)Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. Newspaper.
Will Skins weather perfect storm?
Brady, high-scoring Pats bring 7-0 mark into today's matchup
Sunday, Oct 28, 2007 - 12:05 AM
By PAUL WOODY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs is not given to hyperbole, unless he thinks it will give his team some type of psychological edge.
Today, Gibbs probably is engaging in all the hyperbolic speech he can muster because his team needs every edge it can get.
The Redskins play the New England Patriots, in Foxboro, Mass. The Patriots (7-0) haven't just been beating teams this season, they've been overwhelming them.
"We'll probably be the biggest underdog in the history of sports," Gibbs said.
Gibbs apparently doesn't study the betting lines in college football games when teams such as Arkansas play Florida International (39 1/2-point underdogs) or Missouri meets Iowa State (28 1/2-point underdogs).
But Gibbs has a point. The Redskins are 16 1/2-point underdogs today, an almost unheard of point spread in the NFL.
New England, though, has a 22-point margin of victory average this season.
However, the Patriots haven't beaten the Redskins since 1972.
"Is that right?" New England quarterback Tom Brady said. "Wow, I didn't know that. We're fighting history, too."
Gibbs nodded slowly, with a grim look on his face when he was informed of that 35-year "streak."
"I would say this," Gibbs said. "How much money are you going to put on that? Nothing that's happened in the past has anything to do with today."
Gibbs has a point. That 35-year losing streak is a bit deceptive. The two teams play in different conferences and have met just six times in that span.
The Redskins (4-2) also are the only NFL team against whom Brady does not own a victory.
In their one matchup since Brady became the Patriots' quarterback, the Redskins defeated New England 20-17 in Washington in 2003, under the direction of coach Steve Spurrier.
That was such a sobering loss that the Patriots did not lose again that season.
What has the Redskins a bit irked is that they firmly believe they have talented players on offense and defense and feel that no one is giving them a chance.
Actually, players on every NFL team convince themselves of that each week. This week, the Redskins have ample reason to believe it's true.
"Wins are wins," said wide receiver Antwaan Randle El. "It's not a slap in the face. It's just that people feel they're that much better than us.
"If you're on the end we're on, you've got to take it with a grain of salt and go out and try to win the game."
The Redskins do have a chance. Their defense is among the best in the NFL, and if it can contain Brady and the Patriots, the Redskins should be able to stay in the game.
"I wouldn't call it a weakness, but we haven't seen them play a normal game," Randle El said. "They haven't had to do all phases a lot, and that's what you want to get a team like this to do. Let's go out and see how it turns out."
Randle El never has been this big an underdog since he entered the NFL in 2002.
He played his college football at Indiana, and the Hoosiers sometimes were significant underdogs.
"They had us double-digit'dogs one year against Wisconsin, and we went up there and lit them up," Randle El said, still smiling at the memory.
"We were up something like 34-7 at the half. That was sweet. That was at Camp Randall [Stadium], so it was Camp Randle El when I left."
Randle El hopes for a similar experience when he walks out of the Gillette Stadium today.
Contact Paul Woody at (804) 649-6444 or pwoody@timesdispatch.com.
(c) 2007, Media General Inc. All Rights Reserved.
College football: Boise State rides wave of success
DAN HINXMAN
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 10/12/2007
The Boise State football team lost 24 seniors and 12 starters from its magical Fiesta Bowl-championship team last season.
What the Broncos didn't lose -- what they've had no problem maintaining for nearly a decade now -- is talent, focus, consistency, coaching stability, recruiting pipelines, a strong fan base ... seemingly anything and everything that contributes to the kind of sustained success you don't often see in the so-called mid-major programs.
A sampling of what the Broncos have achieved among Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) teams:
They have the nation's best winning percentage in the last 10 seasons (.814).
They have the best home winning percentage in the last five seasons (.967).
They are the nation's winningest program since 2000 (80-14).
They are the highest-scoring team since 2000 (41.5 points per game).
They are tied with USC for the most consecutive conference championships (five).
And they have the nation's best conference record since 2002 (40-1).
What's even more impressive is that the run began just three years after Boise State moved from Division I-AA to I-A in 1996, and the Broncos have kept it going under the direction of three different head coaches.
"It's all about the stability of the program," said Nevada head coach Chris Ault, whose Wolf Pack (2-3, 0-1 Western Athletic Conference) faces the Broncos (4-1, 1-0) in Boise, Idaho, at 5 p.m. on Sunday (ESPN). "Stability is the key. They haven't had coaching changes -- coaches that have been fired."
Chris Petersen, in his second season as the Broncos' head coach, followed Dan Hawkins, who followed Dirk Koetter. It was Koetter who got the ball rolling with a 10-3 season in 1999. It might seem like decades ago now, but the Broncos had a stretch of four losing seasons in six years (1992-97).
Often, when a coach leaves a program for a job at a bigger school (Koetter went to Arizona State after the 2000 season, and Hawkins went to Colorado after the 2005 season) there is a drop-off. But the ability to promote from within has also been a key.
The three coaches have been friends for years, which has helped create the stability. Hawkins joined Koetter's staff in 1998. Petersen has been on staff since 2001, the year Hawkins took over.
Petersen has also credited continuity in their systems for their continued success. The Broncos have run the same offense (multiple) since 1998 and the same defense (multiple) since 2001.
Juggernaut is sometimes an overused word in describing college football teams or programs, but it applies here. With each winning season, the Broncos strengthen their recruiting base, and with each strong recruiting year, they increase their chances of winning.
"Most good teams have to be tough at home," Ault said. "There's no secret. That's the key. And that's what they've done. More importantly, they've got good ball players. They do a nice job, they recruit to their program and they recruit players that fit their system."
And they have the most rabid fan base in the WAC. In fact, only Fresno State and Hawaii come close when it comes to fan support. The Broncos, who drew no less than 29,674 fans to 30,000-seat Bronco Stadium for each of their six home games last season, will be playing their third straight nationally televised game Sunday, and in each of the first two the sold-out crowd has dressed in blue or orange to match their section and create a colored design. They plan to do so again Sunday.
It might not seem like a major factor, but a coach who can tell a potential recruit that they play in front of a packed house will usually have the upper hand over a coach whose team's stadium is half or three-quarters full.
"It's awesome. I'm getting texts all over the place from family," Boise State senior quarterback Taylor Tharp said of the TV games. "It feels good to have my parents come every week and live through these moments with me. ... It's created so many new Boise State fans. It's awesome, and I'm sure I'll look back and realize how good it really is."
About the only area where the Broncos fall short compared with some other WAC schools is facilities, despite having an indoor practice facility. The Boise State locker rooms are very plain, small and dingy. Comparatively, Nevada's Cashell Football Center, which houses the home locker room, weight room and football offices, is newer, bigger and nicer.
Bronco Stadium features the blue turf, but it is years behind in renovations and has no skyboxes. However, that will change soon. Boise State is in the process of upgrading its press box and adding skyboxes with a $36 million project that should be finished before the 2008 season begins.
It will be just one more thing the Broncos can use to sell their program -- like they need any help.
(c) Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. Newspaper.
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