The Bowl Season is almost here. A parade of meaningless football
games will soon be played out in half empty stadiums. However, when it comes to
the world of sports betting, there is no such thing as a meaningless game and
bowl games have become a very good way for gamblers who know what they are
doing to make a lot of money over the holidays.
Sports gambling is becoming more mainstream by the day in
our country. This has much to do with the Supreme Court striking down the 1992
federal law that prohibited sports gambling in all states except for Nevada.
Individual states now get to decide for themselves on whether to legalize
sports gambling. Are you wondering when and if you will ever be able to place a
bet in USA legally in your state? If so, BettingTop 10 has a great guide
where they go talk about each state and when they project them to have
legalized sports gambling.
If you are not living in New Jersey or Nevada, your only option
for legalized wagering is to join a bowl contest like we are conducting once
again this year. You can enter now for
the Calloways Bowl Challenge. If you are planning on winning the contest, here are some
great tips for picking winners against the spread in bowl games:
FINDING TEAMS THAT ARE MOTIVATED
In general, a team that is making its first bowl appearance ever
or its first bowl appearance in a long while is going to be a very motivated
side. In addition to wanting to represent their school well, these players will
appreciate the fact that they are in a bowl game and work hard in the weeks
leading up to it.
The same is also true of teams that have a lot of seniors. Top
seniors at the big schools may be on their way to the NFL, but the majority of
seniors will be playing their last football game ever in these bowl games. A
team loaded with seniors at key positions is likely to play very motivated,
from the seniors themselves to the teammates who want to send them off with a
win.
Losing in a bowl game the previous year can be another strong
motivator for bowl teams. After letting their fans and supporters down the year
before, a team that gets another shot at a bowl game the following year should
have a chip on its shoulder to earn the win this time around.
LOOKING FOR LETDOWN SPOTS
One of the most obvious letdown spots in college football is when
an elite team had its sights set on a huge bowl game, only to fall short and
end up in a smaller one.
The Alabama Crimson Tide saw their national championship dreams
come crashing down in 2014 in a shocking loss in the Iron Bowl after going 11-0
SU and 7-4 ATS in their previous 11 games. Uninterested in the Sugar Bowl that
they landed in, the
Crimson Tide lost 45-31 to Oklahoma as a 17-point favorite on the point spread.
Another letdown spot is one in which a team’s head coach has taken
another coaching job and has left the team before the bowl game. Many college
teams are built like families, and having the coach abandon the team for
another one can make it hard for some teams to get up for the bowl game to
come.
In some bowl games, you can find both a team that is highly
motivated and a team that could be poised for a letdown. In these types of
matchups, bettors can usually throw the statistics out the window.
