The college football season is beloved by all. Everyone has a program they favor and it’s always a great reason to get together with friends. And while there’s enough reason to follow the college football season, there’s no question that betting on these games makes the season much more enthralling. Additionally, you get to brag to your friends about how you were right all along. So how should one go about betting on college football games?
How to bet on College Football Games Online
First things first, you’re going to need to create and account and sign in. Once that’s taken care of, you’re all set to make your NCAA football predictions. It goes without saying that the goal here is to accurately predict these matchups and rake in some winnings. Throughout the season, you’ll find different opportunities that offer varying payouts. The more difficult a game is to predict, the juicier the payout will be. Likewise, a contest that is easy to predict won’t offer as eye-catching of a reward. But before you go and make some daring predictions, it’s important to have some basic knowledge of the types of college football betting lines available.
Most Common NCAA Football Betting Odds/Lines
The most common NCAA football betting lines are undoubtedly the money line (straight up bets), betting against the spread (ATS), or betting on the over/under (TOTALs). Below we’ll be taking a look at these lines individually so you can have a better understanding of how they work. Before we do so, it’s important to take a look at an actual betting line. Below you’ll find a college football betting line and odds as how they will appear during the regular season. The line starts on the left with the name of the team followed by the odds. First up is the spread line, then the totals and lastly them money line. The money line only shows the payout while the other two show what the line is set at as well as the odds.
| Arizona U |
-11½ (-110) |
42 (-10) |
-420 |
| Hawaii |
+11½ (-110) |
42 (-110) |
+335 |
Betting College Football Money Line
This is represented by the last column and is pretty straightforward. Here you are betting on which program will win the matchup. As you can see, Arizona U opens up as a decent favorite over Hawaii.
Normally the vig for a money line starts at around -110. What this figure means is that you would have to bet $110 in order to be eligible for a $100 payout (if your prediction is true). Sticking with the above listed example, you would need to bet $420 on Arizona U in order to be eligible for a $100 payout. If Arizona U wins, a $420 bet would net you $520 (the original $420 + the $100 in winnings)
On the other hand, Hawaii is pegged as the underdog and taking them straight up could pay off bigly if they manage to upset Arizona U. In fact, a $100 bet on Hawaii would give you $335 in winnings All in all; a $100 winning bet on Hawaii would net you a total of $435 (the original $100 bet + the $335 in winnings)
Betting College Football Spread
The spread is a popular option because it can be more forgiving than betting on a matchup straight up. Simply put, you’re not betting on a team to win the matchup but rather to cover a spread. So what does it mean to cover the spread exactly?
Sticking with the example above, we can see that Arizona U is favored on the spread. We can imply this because they are facing a -11 ½ line to cover while Hawaii is facing a + 11 ½ point line. So in order for Arizona U to cover the spread they would have to win this matchup by more than 11 ½ points. On the other hand, Hawaii needs to either upset Arizona U lose by less than 11 ½ points to cover the spread. We’ll be going over some explicit examples so you can feel confident in what covering the spread means.
Arizona U Wins 42-30 || Here Arizona U won by 12-points so they covered the 11 ½ point spread.
Arizona U Wins 44-33 || Here Arizona U won by 11-points so they did not cover the 11 ½ point spread.
Arizona U Wins 52-10 || Here Arizona U won by 42-points so they covered the 11 ½ point spread.
Betting College Football TOTALs
Betting on the TOTALs line is fairly straight forward. All you’re betting on is how many points will be scored in a given game. Obviously this calculated by taking the points one team scored and adding it to the points the other team scored. Above the over/under is set at 42 points. If you want the over, you would take the top line, Arizona U. Similarly, you would take Hawaii for the UNDER. The vig is the same for both lines but sometimes they can vary.
