College Football Week One Point Spreads
By Loot, NCAA Football Handicapper, Lootmeister.com
The 2016-17 college football season is still a ways off as of press time, but for the enterprising bettor, it's never too early to take advantage of good betting value. And that can sometimes be found in week one games, even months in advance. Sure, it will take a while to see your winnings, but you can bet these spreads will change before game time. The key is to figure out which way they could move and get on the right side of it.
Granted, we are operating in the dark a bit here. With a lot of these teams, a lot of things are still undefined. We might not even know who the starting quarterback will be or any number of any things that remain unsettled in early spring. So we are betting into the unknown in certain ways. We might be able to get a jump on these week one lines and make a nice wager—only to see different things from now until then throw a new light on what was once a good pick. There are injuries, letdowns, off-the-field issues, and a ton of other factors that can come back to bite us.
But there are still advantages to be had by utilizing this type of long-range betting. You can lock in a point spread that will look a lot different come game time. It's a nice feeling to be headed into college football Saturday with a team and a point spread that is significantly better than what anyone else who bet that team has. For example, you can have Clemson, a favorite to win the CFP National Championship at -8.5 against Auburn. And by game time, Clemson backers might be having to lay 11 points.
A lot of times, we have an idea of how good a team will be before the writing is on the wall. We take what happened last season, make some projections and analysis, and maybe we can spot a team that will enter the 2016 season underrated. It doesn't take long for word to get out. There aren't many secrets in college football at the highest level and this is a very specialized time when there can actually be a pretty big gap between perception and reality. There aren't going to be many times in the season where we can capitalize off our insight and analysis like we can in bets like this.
But again, there are some drawbacks to this type of betting. You must be patient, with your bet money tied up for months. It can be really upsetting to go broke on other bets and then have one bet that won't be settled for months on end. But we are trying to get away from the type of sports betting that feeds our need for instant gratification. If we see good value, we should not hesitate to pounce on it. It doesn't matter if that game is tonight or in the summertime. Good value is good value and should be the driving force behind most of our wagers. And making well-placed bets on future events is a part of this long-range thinking that we endorse. But granted, it's not easy for everyone to make these kinds of bets.
And let's not forget to lay our action with a long-standing and reputable book. If you place this bet with a street bookie, how do you know he will even be in town by the time the bet gets settled? And you certainly do not want to place these kinds of wagers with new sportsbooks who have yet to establish their integrity. There are enough sportsbooks with a high level of trust and who have been around for ages that you don't need to go too far off-the-grid to place futures wagers.
DEPOSIT $100 AND GET $50 FREE AT ONE OF THE WEB'S OLDEST SPORTSBOOKS: BOVADA SPORTSBOOK
We recommend placing these types of bets with any of the sportsbooks endorsed here at Lootmeister.com. All of these books are the kinds of outfits where you never have to sweat getting paid. Imagine being patient and waiting for months for a bet to materialize and you win, only to find out your book folded up and ceased operations. It happens more than you'd think, usually by bettors who were blinded by promises of big sign-up bonuses and the like. Here is a look at week one college football point spreads.
Sat 9/3
203 Clemson -8½ -120
204 Auburn +8½ -120
205 Notre Dame -5 -120
206 Texas +5 -120
207 North Carolina +4 -120
208 Georgia -4 -120
209 Oklahoma -7 -120
210 Houston U +7 -120
211 Missouri +7 -120
212 West Virginia -7 -120
213 LSU -6 -120
214 Wisconsin +6 -120
217 UCLA +3 -120
218 Texas A&M -3 -120
219 USC +13½ -120
220 Alabama -13½ -120
Mon 9/5
401 Mississippi +6 -120
402 Florida State -6 -120
