With college football sports betting set to reach a high during bowl season, it makes sense to take whatever advantages are available in order to gain an edge. Bowl game handicapping could take a lot of work for those that haven’t followed one of the conferences all year, like an SEC fan trying to figure out the worth of the Oklahoma State Cowboys depending on the strength of the Big 12, or why the Stanford Cardinal didn’t emerge from the PAC-12 undefeated. While there are many systems that are out there to aid in beating the odds laid out by the pay head bookies, but there are some simple steps that every player should always considering before laying down money.

A quick look at a 10-year stretch before the 2010 bowl games illustrates that some teams are simply due for a letdown, as 41 games saw double-digit spreads with the underdogs prevailing at a 26-14-1 rate against the spread. The fact that the underdogs were so successful when it came to covering wasn’t fluke, but simply a matter of motivation. While most of the favorites probably got caught up in the hype of the media attention, or perhaps lacked motivation after missing out on a bigger bowl, the underdogs were in a position where they had to feel like they needed to prove their merit on the big stage. As such big underdogs, the NCAA football odds basically insinuated that they didn’t have a chance to win and from that perhaps didn’t deserve to be there. When it comes to bowl betting this season, look for the teams that finished strong but aren’t getting enough credit in the spreads. Those are the teams that will come through with something to prove.

Every year the best in college basketball take the forefront for some of the best teams across the nation, and every year they provide their fans with a show. While that won’t change this season, the sports betting spotlight is bound to be somewhat bigger with the NBA and its players still locked out. When online wagering on the sport at the college level, it is all about the star players and their ability to come up big. With the college basketball season right around the corner, here are two names that you need to know about.

Jared Sullinger, Ohio State Buckeyes

Buckeyes’ fans will be interested to see what Sullinger has in store this season after he led Ohio State with 17.2 points per game and 10.2 rebounds, one of a handful of players in the program’s history that have averaged a double-double throughout the course of the season. The 6-9 forward is expected to have an ever better surrounding cast this year at Ohio State with a talented group that includes William Buford and Aaron Craft, and they should be the top pay head contender from the Big Ten this coming season.

Harrison Barnes, UNC Tar Heels

The Tar Heels surprised more than a few people when they rallied against the conference rival Duke Blue Devils last season in the ACC, and with an impressive returning class and one of the top recruiting groups in the country, they should be bound to take the next step. That returning class is led by Harrison Barnes, who scored 40 in North Carolina’s ACC tournament win over Clemson as a freshman, and should be even better with another year of intertops experience and growth.

Baseball betting players know that weather can affect their game, but it may be even more important in football, especially in the southern United States where players and teams do battle in some excruciatingly hot temperatures. This is the reasoning and logic for laying a wager on a team that is an underdog at home, but playing in the heat: they will usually have an edge over their opponents.

First of all, home teams usually get a boost from their fans anyway, and that adrenaline spark is going to help them through the team. But a team that is winning on the road in a hot climate usually isn’t looking to run up the score like they would at home, or if they were comfortable: they’re more concerned with not allowing any more points, and just getting back to the cool locker room with a win, so they do just enough to snag a victory. Double-digit road favorites in the heat is a dangerous proposition for sports betting players, and they don’t have a good record against the spread over the last five years. You also have to factor in travel, as a team may be coming from a northern state and aren’t used to playing in 100-plus degrees. It doesn’t matter how much talent you have, getting acclimated to playing 60 minutes in pads in that sort of temperature is going to level the playing field.

If you’re going to bet on college football in the fall, don’t just consider the rain and wind; heat can have a considerable effect on your picks at online betting sites.

NCAA football betting players should be getting ready for bowl season, and here are a few tips to get you through the best time of the college football betting season.

Stick With Familiarity

Try to place bets on games with teams that you are familiar with. There are a ton of bowl games now, and you only need six wins to get in, so you may not have been paying attention to the teams on the fringes of eligibility. If you don’t know much about them, try and find a game where you are somewhat familiar with the teams.

Head-To-Head

Some teams that are matched up in bowl games have a history, so it’s good to take a look and see if they’ve played each other in recent years. For example, Hawaii and Tulsa will meet in the Hawaii Bowl, and they met five times between 2000 and 2004, and even though that was a few years ago, program standards and schemes tend to stay the same a lot of the time.

Bowl History

Some teams just go into an extra gear when it comes to bowl time, and some swoon. Two examples of this are Ohio State, who are 1-3 in their last four BCS bowl games (they’ll meet Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl) and Oklahoma, who have lost five BCS bowl games in a row (they’ll meet Connecticut in the Fiesta Bowl). Check out the histories of the head coaches, and you should be able to get an idea of who to lay an online sports bet on.

Betting enthusiast new to college football should know that it shares a few similarities to the NFL. For instance teams do receive bye weeks same as the professional game. Instead of taking the week off for television scheduling which results in an added week to the season, the college bye week is included in the 13 week schedule. Essentially the week is used for players to recover from injuries and the coaches to plan further for a future opponent.

Over the last decade, fans betting on ncaa football for the road team as the favorite have had little success. In this time frame, these teams have accumulated an abysmal record of 106-152-2 against the spread in the week after a bye. Moreover, college road favorites in the last decade have combined for an abysmal 33 percent winning percentage against the spread. It appears through these statistics that the bye week may be doing more harm than good.

As seen by the poor records for teams after a bye week, it may be wiser for both the teams and the fans betting on them to have the bye week be withdrawn. A couple reasons to consider this aside from the poor records include:

1. Routine Disruption – As much as the bye week is a nice get away for the players and allows the coaches to remodel their game plans, the routines they have preached in the weeks prior are being disrupted. By playing the season in 12 weeks instead of 13, teams that start the season in top form, have a chance at staying that way. As the records above prove, changing a routine for a week appears to be doing more harm than good.

Disadvantage On the Road – Teams who play on the road in the week after their bye have a much more difficult time when favored by 10 or more points as the 33 percent indicator above would suggest. Many teams on the two week vacation (end of game before bye to first game back) tend to look at tougher opponents and if they play teams they should beat on the road in the first week back, they struggle mightily.

Betting on college football is growing by the day and today we look at when and how bettors can wager on the underdogs. One of the original college football betting systems for college underdogs was called “power underdogs” by Gold Sheet’s Mort Olshan. In essence the theory was to bet on good teams when they were looked upon as underdogs by sportsbooks. Here are two situations in which this theory applied:

1. Ranked Teams as Underdogs – The rule of thumb when betting on ranked teams as underdogs is to bet on the teams to win outright. Teams that are ranked tend to have the best football programs in the country. Meaning to say that although they are ranked as underdogs, they have every chance to at the very least cover the point spread.

From 1985 until now, ranked teams as the underdog have put forth an impressive record when point spread betting. In that 25 year span, ranked underdogs have amassed a record of 737-419-18 for a winning percentage of over 60. As well in the last two years the ranked underdogs covering the spread have combined for a record of 43-29-1 for a win percentage just under 60.

2. Home Teams as Underdogs – When ranked teams are viewed as underdogs, it is more common to view them like this when they are on the road. Nevertheless, teams that are ranked and deemed an underdog at home in the last 25 years have put forth a record of 178-81-6 good enough for a win percentage of 68.7.

One interesting note about home team underdogs is the fact that the teams win percentage against the spread drops significantly when they face other ranked teams at home. For instance, since 1985, when home underdogs face fellow ranked teams at home they only have a record of 120-76-6 good enough for a 61.2 win percentage.