NCAA Football Lines and Odds

A successful college football bettor must understand the different aspects of reading, interpreting, and taking advantage of traditional lines and odds used to handicap the sport. The numbers sprawled across a sportsbook's display may look complicated. Once gamblers learn the basis of lines and odds in college football betting, they're able to interpret those numbers and lay smarter wagers. The information below will apply to the lines you find for the regular season and those specifically for the college football playoff games.

One of the most popular methods of handicapping college football games is through the use of a point spread, sometimes called simple "the spread." The term refers to a number set for each team in a college football game and used exclusively for the purpose of gambling. Since each team has a different spread (and is either a favorite or an underdog), this number gives bettors the chance to wager on either team with a more equal chance of the bet paying out. In layman's terms, a favorite in the eyes of a sportsbook will cost a bettor more to win a smaller payout than a bet placed on a successful underdog. The point spread makes wagers on either side of the contest look equally good to their customers – this attracts attention to both sides of the bet, creating a parity of wagers that bookmakers like.

Example of a Point Spread :

Texas Tech +10

Baylor -10

In this example, Texas Tech is the underdog, indicated by the "+" symbol next to the team's name. Baylor, as indicated by the "-" sign, is the favorite. Should Baylor beat Tech by 11 points or more, wagers on the Baylor Bears win. Should Texas Tech win the game outright, or lose by 10 points or fewer, underdog bettors would hold winning tickets. In the event that Baylor wins by exactly 10 points, the wager is "push" (slang for a tie) and bets are paid back with no winnings or losses.

Moneyline wagers are less common at sportsbooks that cater to the football market, pro or college, but they do exist. The moneyline also sets a specific symbol and number for each team in a college football game, but the symbols and number combos mean something totally different from the point spread.

Example of a Moneyline:

South Carolina +120

Texas A&M -130

The "+" symbol in moneyline odds represents a favorite, while the "-" symbol indicates an underdog. The number next to the symbol refers to winnings and/or the cost of a bet. Since the South Carolina Gamecocks are favored in our example by the number 120, bettors wishing to earn a $100 payout must lay a wager of $120. The opposite is true for the underdog Texas A&M Aggies. Gamblers who place a $100 bet on the underdog earn the payout in cash listed next to the "-" symbol, in this case $130. The numbers are set using a base-ten system to make bet scaling easier off-the-cuff.

Some gamblers consider parlays exotic bets to be avoided, others enjoy the suspense of watching the results of multiple contests in a single game. A parlay is a wager placed on the outcomes of several different games on the same calendar day – different books offer different parlays, but payouts come from wins as few as three games on up, with payouts being exponentially higher the more successful outcome a bettor selects. These are generally higher-risk propositions than straight moneyline or point spread wagers. Some of our USA college football betting sites offer incredible parlay odds where you could potentially win 1000x your bet on a 15 team parlay. Of course the odds of you hitting a 15 teamer are not very good, but it's fun to take a small $10 shot once a week so you can sweat a big payoff during the weekend.

hopping for the best odds being such a critical piece of NCAA football betting strategy, it's also valuable to understand why odds change over the course of a given week. Moneylines, point spreads, and other odds are guesses. They are educated guesses made by experts in their various fields, but they are still, at the end of the day, just a guess at the likely outcome of a sporting event. A major factor in the movement of odds is the action of the gambling public itself. Oddsmakers are good at predicting how people will wager, but gamblers are unpredictable.

Say, for example, a book produces a line on Florida vs. Ohio State in a bowl game or championship game. Florida is set early-on as a -3 point spread favorite. If public opinion sways in the opposite direction, and bettors believe Ohio State will easily upset or beat that spread, large volumes of bets on the Buckeyes could start rolling in. The imbalance this creates for the book is a potential profit-loss for them, so they may choose to change the spread.

How can a book encourage the public to start placing more wagers back on Florida? By shifting the point spread up to 4, 5, or even 6 points. The goal of the book is to have an equal amount of action on both sides. NCAA football bettors will know when this equality of wagers is reached because the line will suddenly stop moving.