If you plan on winning money betting on CFB this fall, you’ll need to brush up on your college football strategies. When the season finally arrives, you can use some general methods to help you win big on NCAA football matchups. Here’s a look at how you can do exactly that.
Key Points
– It pays to have a couple college football strategies in place before you bet this season.
– Smart college football bettors find strategies that work.
Choosing Successful College Football Strategies
There are several established betting systems that can be used when betting on college football. There are strategies for moneyline bets, point spread bets, parlay bets, futures bets, and prop bets, to name a few.
If you’re serious about mastering college football betting, you’ll need some guidance to get you there. It won’t be enough to just bet on your favorite college football teams to get the sweet payout you’re after. If you like Arizona, for instance, you still need to search for the best chances for them to beat other teams.
So, how do you do that? How do you find which games and teams to bet on? Focusing on the details is the best way to develop winning college football strategies. You can increase your chances of winning by researching coaches who have a history of covering the spread, keeping an eye on unknown teams, and studying early-season matchups.
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Bet on Coaches That Cover
There are coaches out there who consistently beat the spread for whatever reason. Savvy bettors can make long-term gains from betting on them, particularly when they are not heavily favored.
Take a head coach like Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy. He’s had a history of success with the Cowboys and his teams have consistently covered the spread. For his career, Gundy is 125-49-6 ATS, with a healthy winning percentage of 57 percent.
Clemson’s Dabo Swinney is 102-86-1 ATS for a 54.4 percent winning percentage since 2008. That’s tops in the ACC. Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M has been taking it on the chin in the W-L column, but his 29-19 ATS record (60.4%) since 2018 is the second-best number in the SEC.
Surprisingly, Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman has the best ATS record in the SEC. He’s been the Razorbacks head coach since 2020 and he’s 15-7-1 ATS in two seasons. That’s a 67.4 percent win percentage.
It also pays to look at coaches that have their teams extremely well-prepared. Kirby Smart has been at Georgia since 2016. He’s won two national championships and that doesn’t just happen on its own. Smart’s teams are prepared when they play on the road. In 30 road games, Smart’s Bulldogs are 20-10 ATS. Their 66.7 percent cover percentage is third-best in the nation during that time period.
College Football Strategies Include Betting on Less Popular Teams
It will pay off to stay current on events in the American Athletic Conference (AAC), Mountain West (MWC), and other Group of 5 conferences. Bookmakers struggle to set accurate lines for those games and take longer to respond to changes.
Being one of the select few who is aware that a talented G5 quarterback is injured has more value than jumping on the Alabama bandwagon. Finding less popular teams to bet on is one of the best college football strategies to follow.
Since 2013, only two FBS programs have ATS winning percentages higher than 60 percent. Both are relatively newer programs and neither is a Power 5 program – Liberty and James Madison. In fact, only one Power 5 program is among the top-5 ATS since 2013 – Kansas State (72-52-3, 58.1%).
Bettors will find more recognizable programs like Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Florida State closer to the 50 percent mark ATS. There are a few good reasons why.
The oddsmakers at sportsbooks are extremely familiar with these teams. Plus, the betting public is better informed about the relative strength of more well-known teams. As a result, even if initial odds are inaccurate, betting activity will make them more accurate by kickoff.
The general public is aware of what Nick Saban has accomplished at Alabama and can correctly predict the outcome of his games. They are not as familiar with teams like Temple and Wyoming.
College Football Strategies – Early Season Value
Early-season games between highly anticipated teams have significant value. Bettors try to persuade themselves that this is a certain team’s year. They watch the team’s spring game and watch their bowl game from the previous season.
Smart bettors know that this type of thinking is flawed. Oddsmakers know that public bettors will think this way and they add that into their early season CFB odds.
It will take a few games before bettors will truly have an idea of how good or bad a team really is. Identifying any trends takes a few games. Smart bettors know that there is no preseason in college football. They know rosters turn over every year.
That’s why betting on teams with experience, especially on the offensive line, is one the college football strategies that pays off. Another strategy that works in Week 1 games is to take the points. Teams that are getting a lot of the media attention before a season begins often find themselves facing big lines in Week 1. These lines scream value, especially when a team like this has experienced some turnover at key positions.
