College Football Odds Legend
NCAA POINT SPREAD – college point spreads can be huge, with marquee programs like Alabama or Ohio State sometimes being favored by 40-45 points! It makes college football wagering a challenge, when you need so much scoring to win your bet. You will see one team as a negative figure (-17) while the opponent will be positive (+17). This means the favored team is favored by 17 points and must win by 18 or more in order to ‘cover the spread.’ The underdog can lose by 16 points and still win ATS.
NCAA MONEYLINE – more common in baseball and hockey betting, college football moneylines are growing in popularity. They require one team to win the game, without consideration of a point spread. Because of that, the payouts can be pretty small on a big favorite of -1000 for example. This means you earn just $1 in profit for every $10 you bet. But at least it feels like a ‘lock’ where one team is such a big favorite. The underdog gets a positive value (in this case possibly +750) which means $7.50 in profit for every $1 risked. So, it translates to a bigger payout for less risk on the underdog and smaller payout for risking more on the favorite.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL TOTALS – also called over under betting, this is simply predicting whether a combined total score will be OVER or UNDER the posted total. If the total is 55.5 and the final score is 41-20, then 61 is more than 55.5 so that game played OVER the total. If the game ends up 31-20 instead, then 51 points is UNDER 55.5 so that game played UNDER the total.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP FUTURES – Fans or alumni can bet on their teams to win the next national championship game at any point during the season, not just the week before the big game. These are called college football futures and change all during the season, based on hot streaks or injuries or other factors. You can also bet college futures on which team will win each conference title and even which player will win the Heisman Trophy.
