• Betting College Football Against The Spread
• Betting College Football
• Betting College Football Games
• Betting College Football Odds

Also known as college football OVER/UNDER betting, these are wagers on the total points scored by both teams combined. If the total is 60.5, you need 60 points or less to win an UNDER bet (example 40-17 final = 57 points which is UNDER 60.5) and 61 points or more to win OVER (example a 40-27 final = 67 points which is OVER 60.5). Online College Football Betting Platforms It is also vital that you choose real money NCAAF betting sites that provide multiple ways to play. In this day and age, players want to have access to their accounts from anywhere. You must be able to place bets on your PC but also your phone and tablet. A lot of college football bettors didn’t start betting on college. A large percentage of them started in the NFL and then made the successful transition into betting the Saturday slate of football games. But, for every one of these NFL bettors that successfully made the transition, there was a whole slew who failed miserably. Just like the NFL, college football’s most popular wager is the spread bet. The spread is a type of bet that equalizes the chance of winning a wager (see example below). College Football Odds, NCAA Betting 2021 National Championship Game Odds & News. How to Bet on the College Football National Championship: The College Football Playoff began in 2014 and is a four-team postseason tournament for NCAA FBS schools. A playoff committee selects four schools to compete in semifinals with the winners meeting in the.

Betting on football is the biggest part of the growing US sports gambling market. That’s due largely to tremendous interest in betting on the NFL, but also because of the games that take over Saturdays in the fall for sports fans: collegefootball.

Read on for more information about betting on college football legally in the US and the market for it in the states.

Where can you legally bet on college football in the US?

College football betting used to be legal only in Nevada. But now, it’s legal in a variety of states around the country.

Here’s the current list of states where you can bet on sports, in general, (or will be able to in the near future), and wager specifically on college football:

A number of states have considered either a ban on collegiate sports entirely or a ban on betting on events involving schools in that state.

New Jersey is the only state where a ban on in-state collegiate events and in-state colleges exists. Nevada used to have a ban on betting on in-state schools — UNLV and the University of Nevada — but that ban has since been rescinded.

Here is a quick look at college football betting in some key states:

College football betting in Nevada

If you want to bet on college football in Nevada, you’re in luck, because there is no shortage of options. More than 100 sportsbooks are available; many in the population centers of Las Vegas and Reno.

Almost every sportsbook also offers a betting app where you can wager.

There is also a bowl game in the state every year: the Las Vegas Bowl. It pits teams from the Mountain West Conference and the Pac-12 Conference.

College football betting in New Jersey

College football betting is undoubtedly a big part of the pie in New Jersey, because of the massive interest in college football generally.

But that is not because of interest in the in-state teams. Rutgers sometimes makes a bowl game but is usually not a player on the national scale.

Some of the online sportsbook options in New Jersey include:

College football betting in Pennsylvania

There are a lot of colleges in PA, so that should mean lots of interest in betting on them legally.

However, one college stands alone in fandom in the state: Penn State. It’s a huge state school that draws fans from across the state, even if they didn’t attend.

Penn State is often in the upper echelon of the Big Ten and ranked nationally, although it has never made the College Football Playoff. It has won the national title, but it hasn’t in decades.

Other schools, like Pitt, Temple and Villanova, also draw rooting and betting interest in the state.

Here are the options for online sportsbooks in Pennsylvania:

College football betting in West Virginia

Every other sport pales in comparison to West Virginia football in the Mountaineer State. And that’s especially true for betting on WVU football.

In fact, WV football is so big that it’s likely to be the single biggest driver of betting handle and revenue in the state.

Marshall University is also significant in West Virginia, and the team usually fields a competitive and sometimes very good football team that will draw betting interest.

Right now, there are two options for betting on college football online in WV:

College football betting in Iowa

Iowa is one of those states where betting on college football should be massive, especially as online betting gains traction.

The two-state schools, Iowa and Iowa State, are often excellent programs. And Nebraska, another program with a rabid fanbase, is just over the border, as well.

College football betting in Indiana

Indiana is another state with a lot of interest in betting on college football, mainly because it is the home to NotreDame. The private school is routinely in the national championship hunt and is a favorite to watch nationwide. Its home state makes betting on Notre Dame football big business.

Indiana and Purdue also field football teams and should draw a lot of betting interest from Indianans.

College football betting in Oregon

Oregon will not have college sports betting on the app from the state lottery. However, you will be able to bet on college sports at any tribal casino that opens up a sportsbook in the state.

Where does the NCAA stand on sports betting and betting on college football?

The group that oversees college athletics has been staunchly against betting on college sports for all of its existence; however, it has at least relaxed its stance in recent years.

The NCAA is still advocating for a federal ban on betting on collegiate events, or in state-level laws whenever possible. That’s despite the fact that there are billions of dollars already wagered on collegiate sports on the black market via local bookmakers and offshore sportsbooks that serve the US illegally.

Short of that, the NCAA and its member schools think the ban on in-state games for any state legalizing sports betting is also preferable.

The NCAA was the lead plaintiff in the federal court case that led to the end of the federal sports wagering ban. It joined the NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL as plaintiffs in the case against New Jersey, which was attempting to prove that the ban was unconstitutional.

While some of the professional leagues evolved their stance on legal and regulated betting before and in the wake of that decision, the NCAA has not.

The market for college football betting

It’s difficult to come up with exact numbers for how much Americans bet on college football.

Our best data comes from Nevada, where we know betting on football, in general, is king of all sports. The state does not break down wagering by pro and college football. But anecdotally, the breakdown between the two is about 50-50.

While betting on the NFL is more popular, in general, there are more games at the collegiate level. There are more than 100 teams in the top echelon of college football — the Football Bowl Subdivision — with most of those playing on any given Saturday. That gives bettors more games they might be interested in betting on.

That dynamic could be different in other states, in that college betting could be more popular. The college teams in Nevada are not terribly good or popular in any given season, so interest in betting them is often muted.

But college football is hugely popular in many of the states that are legalizing sports betting. That’s especially true in the Midwest and the South, where there often isn’t a hometown pro football team to cheer for and bet on.

That includes the likes of West Virginia, Iowa, Indiana and Mississippi, where all have seen brisk college football betting as gambling became legal in each of those states.

As far as the illegal, offshore market go, again, good estimates are difficult to come by. The universe for all betting is tens of billions to $150 billion, depending on who is making the estimate. Certainly, billions are being wagered via illegally operating sportsbooks and bookmakers every week on college football.

College football schedule and the biggest windows for betting

The college football season ebbs and flows, and betting on it will do so as well. Here’s a look at how the calendar goes every year:

• Early season: When football returns, people love to get action on the games. While meaningful games are often in short supply early in the season, that doesn’t stop people from betting on games.
• Conference rivalries and top-25 matchups: Throughout the season, some games are bigger than most. When traditional rivalries take place in the Power 5 conferences— the SEC, the Big 10, the Big 12, the Pac-12 and the ACC — these are often huge in terms of how much will be bet. Similarly, when two rank teams play each other, there’s more action on those games because they will air on national TV. When these two variables coincide, that is a formula for a lot of betting at legal sports.
• Conference championship week: At the end of the regular season, most conferences feature championship games between the league’s top two teams. Because there are fewer games this weekend, that will likely translate to a lot of betting on high-profile matchups.
• Bowl season: Perhaps the best time of year for betting on college football is when the bowls roll around. The games feature matchups of teams that don’t often play each other and are usually on national TV. That translates to people wanting to bet on these games, whether at a sportsbook or in pick’s contests with friends.
• National championship playoffs: The three biggest games, in terms of betting in the US, will be the three games that pit the best four teams in the country. First, two teams square off in the national semifinals. The winners advance to a winner-take-all game for the national championship. Just like the SuperBowl, the final game of the season for all the marbles is also the biggest in terms of betting handle.

Legal betting on college football vs. offshore sportsbooks

Not every sportsbook that will allow you to place bets on college football is operating legally in the US.

A variety of offshore sportsbooks serve the US market, including most of the states that have legalized sports betting. But those online sportsbooks are located outside of the US and operate in violation of state and federal laws.

How do you tell the difference? Well, the offshore sportsbooks that are commonly found by sports bettors are:

• Bovada
• BetOnline
• MyBookie
• Bookmaker.eu

None of these sportsbooks serve the US market legally.

The easiest way to tell if a sportsbook is legal and regulated in your state, there will usually be a logo of the state’s gaming board along with a link to its licensing. If a sportsbook says it is licensed by a country and not a state in the US, is not operating where you live legally.

The moral: Choose carefully when deciding where to place your bets on college football.

How to bet on college football

If you want to bet on college football, there are a variety of ways to do so.

If you’re relatively new to betting on sports, in general, you can read more about sports betting terms. But the most common means of betting on football include:

• Point spread bets: A sportsbook sets a line of how much one team will win by. A bettor will wager whether either team will be able to able to beat the spread, by winning or losing by more than the allotted number of points in the spread. If you bet on Alabama to cover a 3-point spread, for instance, they must win by 4 or points for a winning bet.
• Moneyline bets: This is a simple wager on who will win a game.
• Totals bets: A sportsbook sets a line on how many points will be scored in a game. A bettor chooses over or under that total.
• Futures bets: This is a bet on whether a team will win a conference or the national title, among other things, placed early in the season.
• Parlay bets: This is where multiple outcomes are wagered in a single bet. If a bettor chooses all the outcomes correctly, it results in a higher payout than betting them individually would. But more outcomes tied to a wager means it is more difficult for a bettor to win.

• Where to Bet:

How to read College Football Las Vegas Odds

Similar to our Money Line and 1st Half Odds, every matchup is listed in order of Rotation and those numbers are preceded by the Date and Time of the College Football game.

The rotation for college football games typically lists them by scheduled starting time, which can lead to some confusion since the number will remain the same even if the games wind up changing due to television networks often shifting around action to present more attractive matchups. Home teams are listed at the bottom and will therefore be your even-numbered squad.

The numbers next to the teams are called Spreads or Point-Spreads.

Favorites are the teams laying points, which is represented by a minus (-) sign. The team in the Underdog role is getting points, which is represented by the plus (+) symbol that you wouldn’t see on the board but would be represented next team onto you betting ticket or slip. You can add the spread to your team’s final score and have that edge throughout the game.

Betting College Football Against The Spread

If there is no favorite or underdog, the line is called pick’em and is represented by (PK). Winner takes it. The amount of points a team is favored by is set by oddsmakers on Sunday afternoons and that figure fluctuates throughout the week based on the amount of money coming in on bets.

Opposite from the spread you’ll find the Total, which represents what oddsmakers believe will be the combined number of points scored between the teams. That number also increases or decreases based on bets coming in on the Over or Under.

How to Bet College Football Las Vegas Odds

The key to wagering successfully in college football spread betting is to decide early how many points you’re willing to lay with Favorites and to get in at the lowest possible spot.

If you’re going to back the Underdog, make sure you’re getting the most points possible entering the game. The skill in this often requires you to forecast how a game will be wagered since we often see opening lines bet up over the course of the week due to the majority of the money coming in on the favorite.

Of course, getting in too early can often backfire if a better number appears over the course of the week or if injuries that are typically not announced until coaches give status reports on Monday press conferences dramatically alter expectations. There’s also a big rush on betting action just before the kickoff of any game, which means you may be best off waiting until kickoff approaches to get the right number.

Take the 2019 college football Big 12 matchup between Texas-West Virginia as a prime example. The Longhorns opened as an 11.5-point favorite and won 42-31 after the Mountaineers scored the game’s final touchdown with :48 left. West Virginia backers who got in early prevailed on that score, while Texas bettors who guessed wrong and got in too early caught a “bad beat.” Those who waited and laid only 10.5 points still cashed. Get in at the best number!

College Football Opening Line

Opening Lines in college football are typically set on Sunday afternoons in the current week and you usually see immediate action cause line movement. The Spread is based on a rough projection of a score for every matchup, although oddsmakers have a good idea of what side the betting public will want to bet and usually saddles that team with an additional point or three. The same goes for the Total, which projects the combined number of points expected in a contest.

These numbers are based on simulations that take a number of statistical factors into account in addition to baking in injuries, a homefield advantage that is typically worth three points and any other potential edges. Teams coming off bye weeks are usually given an edge thanks to increased preparation time and fresher bodies. Teams coming in on short rest or that have to travel out of their element typically find themselves penalized in a point spread.

Betting College Football

UCLA at Cincinnati (-4)

In the above example, UCLA was made a four-point underdog against Cincinnati in the 2019 season opener for both. The betting public jumped on the team from the higher-regarded conference, perhaps believing that the West-Coast team heading more than halfway across the country was being penalized too harshly and the line closed at 2.5 points. Cincinnati prevailed 24-14. The opening line of 4 was accurate in calling for a larger margin of victory than the closing line, which is where the ‘opener’ ultimately ends up.

VI Consensus College Football Line

Betting College Football Games

When looking at the numbers over the course of the week, you’ll see constant line movement on our odds and matchup pages. All of the betting properties we track create their own lines and we display and track all of their movements in the VegasInsider.com Consensus Line. At any given point in the week, from when the line opens until just before kickoff, you’ll see different numbers representing the current lines. Those may vary from one another since properties offer up their own lines, so VI’s Consensus Line represents the one that appears most commonly.

Betting College Football Odds

The Total is also available on the VI Consensus line and similarly consists of the current betting line which most frequently among our list of Las Vegas and Global sportsbooks. For an example, in the most recent National Championship between LSU and Clemson, there was significant line fluctuation throughout the two-week lead up. LSU was laying 5.5 to 6 points in multiple locations as the favorite. The battle of Tigers ended with LSU blowing out Clemson 42-25, covering the spread handily.