NCAA college football provides sports betting enthusiasts with one of the most exciting and potentially lucrative wagering opportunities each year in a season that spans from late August to early January. Betting lines are essentially much more difficult for Vegas oddsmakers to pinpoint than pro football as the variables are far more numerous. This tends to reward players who follow the sport closely and have the ability to analyze weekly matchups.
NCAA Football Betting Trends
Many players have found success wagering on college football by analyzing NCAA football betting trends. Trend data may include how other bettors are wagering on an event or how certain teams have traditionally fared in similar conditions throughout the season or over the league's history.
Regardless of which trends players use to determine their wagers, a reliable and reputable online sportsbook is an essential piece of the puzzle. Check out these online sportsbooks for great betting opportunities, rebate and reward incentives.
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Bet on NCAA Football
Betting NCAA football successfully requires a player to understand the sport itself and the ability to analyze point spreads and totals. Virtually all college football games offer a "side" and "total" bet. Taking a side means that a bettor will simply select Team A or Team B in a given matchup against a predetermined value known as a point spread. Wagering experts determine a point spread based on data and analysis that attempts to predict the margin of0 each game's final score.
NCAA Football Spread Betting
Let's say the University of Louisville is a 10-point favorite against Boston College. This means bettors picking a side must determine whether they will select Louisville to "cover" the ten points or Boston College to "beat the spread." In this scenario, a bet on Louisville only wins if Louisville wins the game by at least 11 points. Conversely, a bet on Boston College would only win if Boston College wins the game outright or loses by fewer than 10 points. If the final margin were exactly 10 points, the outcome is known as a "push" in betting parlance, with all wagers refunded and neither side declared a winner.
In the example above, Louisville would be listed as -10 and Boston College +10. One can think of this as Louisville starting the game "giving" 10 points to Boston College, and Boston College starting the game "getting" 10 points. In general, college football odds and payouts are expressed as -110 when bettors play a side against the spread. This simply means that the bettor is risking $1.10 to win $1.00 regardless of which side they pick. The 10 cents is known as "juice" or "vig" and goes to the house. The house collects all losing bets in addition to the 10% juice or vig.
NCAA Football Total Betting
In addition to betting a side, most games offer a "total" as well. The total is simply a predetermined number of total points that will be scored in the game. The bettor can choose to play the "under" or the "over" depending on how they think the game will be played. Using the Boston College/Louisville example from above, the posted total of such a game might be listed as 49. If the final score were Louisville 35 Boston College 17, the two teams would have combined for 52 points, and all bettors taking the over would win, with the under bettors losing and paying the same 10% juice or vig as described above.
NCAA Football Moneyline Betting
Another common or basic way to bet NCAA football is via the moneyline. The moneyline has no point spread, but rather gives players a chance to simply pick a winner of a game regardless of its margin. The trick here is that bettors selecting the favored team often have to wager a much greater juice or vig than the standard 10% offered on pointspread wagers. Conversely, however, bettors who think the underdog team will win the game outright can profit greater while risking less money. Again using the Louisville/Boston College example, the moneyline might work like this: Louisville ML -350 | Boston College ML + 275.
Louisville is expected to win as the 10-point favorite, but a bettor who thought Louisville was a lock win, but maybe by a margin less then ten points might choose a moneyline bet on Louisville. This decision, however, comes with a price. The -350 means that a player would win a $1.00 for every $3.50 wagered - over three times what they would have to risk on a pointspread bet. At the same time, the moneyline wager might offer particular value for a bettor thinking Boston College can spring the upset. At +275, a BC moneyline bet would pay $2.75 for every $1.00 wagered - a way for the player to bet less and win more than he would against the point spread.
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