Great coaches like Nick Saban become even more valuable in college football bowl betting season. (Photo credit: Matt_Velazquez / Foter / CC BY-ND)
The Christmas season just wouldn’t be complete without some college bowl games football betting.
As our gift to you, here are 9 college bowl games football betting tips to help ensure you don’t lose that new shirt your wife bought for you.
(Unless you want to lose it.)
Gee… thanks, honey! Photo credit: Wm Jas / Foter / CC BY-SA
1. Get the best lines and use money management
This is critical, whether you’re doing betting on college bowl games or the Lingerie Bowl.
Yes, some sportsbooks do offer betting lines on the Lingerie Bowl.
Different sportsbooks will have different college football betting lines. Being a member at all of those sportsbooks will give you the option to get the best odds. Remember, half a point can be the difference between a win and a push, or a push and a loss.
If you’re picking a team that most other people will also pick in college football bowl betting, bet on them early before the point spread moves. If you like a team that no one else does, wait to see if the line moves and you can get a few extra points on the spread.
And be sure to stay disciplined and use money management. Don’t bet on a game just because you lost an earlier bet and you want to get even on the day.
During the 2013-14 college football bowl betting season, 12 straight games went under the total. Just because a few consecutive games go a certain way doesn’t mean the next one will, and it doesn’t mean the next one won’t.
2. Happy to be there?
Motivation might be the biggest variable to worry about in college bowl games betting.
Teams that began the season with national championship hopes might not get too excited about playing in the Birmingham Bowl.
There are a lot of stupid-sounding, pointless-seeming bowl games each year. But we’ll bet on them anyway.
Or they might be extra motivated for a chance to wash the bad taste out of their mouths with a dominant performance in their final game of the year.
3. Experience counts
College bowl games are nationally televised and played in front of big crowds.
A team filled with fourth-year seniors is more likely to handle the big stage better than a team that relies on freshmen and sophomores. Same can be said about schools that go to bowl games every year, instead of schools making a rare bowl game appearance.
4. Coach ‘em up
Some teams don’t play their college bowl games until a month after the regular season ended.
All that downtime favours teams with good coaches who excel at game planning. Research the coaches to determine which have the best records in college bowl games.
A good football coach can make a huge difference.
Also, if schools are going to fire their coaches, they often do so before the bowl season. Sometimes the fired coach stays on for the bowl game, which could really motivate his team. Sometimes, the fired coach leaves the program before the bowl game, leaving his former squad without much direction.
5. Take a history lesson
Revenge is a big intangible in college football betting, and it can play a big role in college bowl games betting as well.
What better time to beat a team that beat you than in a bowl game on national TV? Look to bet on teams who are playing an opponent that beat them recently, particularly if it was in a previous bowl game.
6. Know your geography
Bowl games are technically played on neutral fields, but that’s not always the case.
Know where the game is being played and whether either school is located close to that city.
Closer proximity equals more fans, giving their team a home-field advantage that might not be measured in the point spread.
7. Track the conferences
Early results in college football bowl betting season can help you handicap the last few games.
If an average team from the Big Ten dominates a strong team from the ACC, it could tell you that the Big Ten was a stronger conference than the ACC. You can use that to your advantage for any other college bowl games involving Big Ten or ACC teams.
Teams in strong conferences might have mediocre records because they faced tougher competition each week than the 10-1 team that dominated a weak conference.
8. Fade the public
College bowl games season is one of the most popular times on the betting calendar.
It’s the holidays, everybody’s drinking, and a lot of people are betting just to make the games more fun.
That means people will generally bet on the more popular teams without caring about the matchup or the odds.
As a general rule, you’ll get better odds betting on a small school no one knows about than on a powerhouse like Alabama or Ohio State.
9. Read lines, not rankings
Sometimes the odds will tell you what the oddsmakers are thinking.
It will look weird to see a 25th-ranked team is favoured over a 15th-ranked team, but it suggest the oddsmakers think the 25th-ranked team will win.
If a team is favoured by way more points than anyone thinks they should be, the oddsmakers might be taking a position and daring anyone to bet against them with the underdog.