How to Bet on College Football
When it comes to sports betting, few events bring the intense passion and emotion as college football. Every team has its ups and downs and a smart player or devoted college football fan can make the decisions that lead to a winning bet.
Hundreds of college teams play football every season. With more games scheduled than the NFL, this means more potential action for the sports bettor and more statistics to keep up with for the sportsbook. For this reason, college football can lead to great payouts for sports bettors.
No one knows the local teams like the people who live nearby. The smart bettor will concentrate on his local teams, reading local newspapers and following local events that can affect a team’s prospects. Sportsbooks set lines based on common information and on the public’s general perception of a team. If you know that the commonly held assumptions about a team’s performance aren’t accurate, you are in a prime position to cash in on a well-placed college football bet.
College teams do not perform in the same manner as professional teams. Because the players are note as experience, big wins and big losses can heavily affect future play. If a college team hits a losing streak, they will not pull out of that streak as often as a professional team. The same stands for winning streaks; a winning college team tends to keep winning. The biggest single influence on a team’s performance can be the level of the individual players on the team. A team comprised of mostly young players cannot be counted on to perform in the clutch as much as a team made up of mostly senior players. Keep in mind that once a strong team graduates, that team may not be as dominant the following year when younger players take over key positions.
Another key difference from the NFL is the incredible ability to predict wins based on statistics. The differences in skill levels of two opposing teams can be huge, especially if one school has a better coaching staff. By paying attention to the differences between rushing on offense and defense, pass completion and turnovers for competing teams, a well-versed bettor can usually get an accurate idea of how one team will fare against another. College teams tend to run the ball more effectively than they pass so when two teams line up evenly on all else, picking the team with the better history of offensive rushing is never a bad idea.
Keep in mind that college football sportsbooks know how fervently fans follow their teams—and how much they want them to win. Many people place bets on their favorite team to take the game, even though the statistics may not back them up. Sportsbooks may build the odds around this factor, so make sure you are making your picks based on your data, not the line. The line is meant to encourage betting on both sides of the bet, not to determine the stronger team. By keeping your emotions out of your pick, you can ensure that you are making the best bet possible. Let your emotions come out when you’re watching the game. If you lay a bet against your favorite team because they don’t stack up against an opponent, it’s still okay to root for them to win. If they don’t, at least you’ll have that nice juicy payout.
