College Football Odds And Point Spreads

Compare college football odds & betting lines Mar 07, to find the best football moneyline, spread, and Over/Under totals odds from online sportsbooks. What will happen over the next three weeks in college football? No one knows, but it probably won’t be any less wild than the previous 16 weeks. As bowl game matchups are being announced, we’re starting to get point spreads and totals for the games. These numbers start out as a mix of Circa Sports and DraftKings Sportsbook lines. Find College Football odds, point spreads, and betting lines for the 2020-2021 NCAA college football season. Visit FOXSports.com for this week's top action!

The point spread - also called 'the line' or 'the spread' - is used as a margin to handicap the favorite team. For betting purposes, the oddsmaker predicts that the favored team will win by a certain number of points. This number of points is the point spread. The favorite is always indicated by a minus sign (e.g. -5.5) and the underdog by a plus sign (e.g.+5.5). If you bet on the favorite, you win your bet if the favorite wins AND their margin of victory is greater than the point spread. If you bet on the underdog, you win if the underdog wins, ties, or if the favored team wins but fails to exceed the point spread. It is standard for point spread bets in most sports that you wager $110 to win $100.

The point spread given in the table above is for the home team only. To see the odds for both teams, click on the matchup.

A money line, used in baseball and hockey, takes the place of a point spread. Money line betting is simply wagering on the contest based on a given price rather than a point spread. The team wagered on has to win the game outright, regardless of the score. The minus sign (e.g.-130) always indicates the favorite and the amount you must bet to win $100. The plus sign (e.g.+120) always indicates the underdog and the amount you win for every $100 bet. Using this example, therefore, you would bet $130 to win $100 on the favorite, while for the underdog you would bet $100 to win $120.

The over/under is the number of points oddsmakers expect will be the total score for the contest (both teams combined, overtime included). You bet on whether the total points scored will be more or less than this number. As with point spread bets, you must generally wager $110 to win $100.

Betting on a point spread or money line is sometimes called betting 'sides' - that is, betting that one side or the other will be the winner - while betting the over/under is referred to as betting 'totals'.

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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.

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.

College Football Odds And Point Spreads For Today

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.

College Football Odds Point Spread Changes

VI Consensus College Football Line

College Football Odds And Point Spreads 2019

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.

College Football Odds Point Spread

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.