College Football’s Best and Worst Against the Spread

It’s hard to believe we are so close to the midway point in the college football season. There have been some surprises and disappointments. For us gamblers, there are teams that are costing us money and others that are winning us money. Let’s take a peak at the teams covering the spread and the teams that you have hopefully avoided to wager on:

The Clunkers: Teams Getting too Much Respect from Vegas

There are certain teams that seem to get far too much respect from Vegas. Usually, this is due to reputation. Bettors often jump all over ‘popular’ teams especially when facing a not-so popular team. Here is a list of some of the 0-fer’s against the spread:

• North Carolina (0-3)
• Northwestern (0-3)
• UCLA (0-3)
• Texas Tech (0-3)
• UNLV (0-4)

It’s easy to figure out why these teams aren’t covering the spread. Let’s first take a look at UCLA. The Bruins came into the season with national title aspirations. UCLA is unbeaten, so those title hopes are still alive. But they haven’t performed at the high level most of us expected. UCLA is not playing like a championship contender right now. They still have time to turn it around. However, this might be a team worth betting against the rest of the way. They’ll continue to get a lot of respect from the general public because of pre-season predictions. That means money could be won betting against them.

Texas Tech is another somewhat disappointing team. Kliff Kingsbury’s Red Raiders got off to a hot start in his first season as head coach last year. Unfortunately, since mid-season last year, they’ve been a complete disaster. UNLV is 0-4 against the spread because they are terrible. Coming off the school’s first bowl appearance in many years, UNLV had high hopes for 2014, but were smacked back to reality right from the start of the season. North Carolina isn’t a surprise. They were highly overrated to start the season and have proven they simply aren’t the team many ‘experts’ predicted.

The Winners: Teams Unbeaten Against the Spread

There are some teams that have faired quite well against the spread. Some are surprises and others are performing just as most expected. Let’s take a look at some of the teams that are currently batting a thousand against the spread:

• Baylor (3-0)
• California (3-0)
• Kentucky (3-0)
• Ole Miss (3-0)
• Virginia (4-0)

Baylor’s offense is ridiculously good. They score points at will. Their defense isn’t great but they are able to cover the spread by scoring on nearly every possession. Baylor is the type of team that covers big spreads because they have a coach that isn’t afraid to run it up.

Kentucky is an up and coming team. But they will probably never get much respect from Vegas because of their reputation. Mark Stoops is doing a great job rebuilding that program. They’ll have some bad games, but they could be a team worth riding the rest of the way. California came into the season with bottom feeder expectations. They nearly pulled an upset last week at Arizona. They’re better than people thought. It will be interesting to see how much respect Cal gets going forward from the general public.