How To Bet on College Football
College football is one of the most popular sports in the US. Believe it or not, its popularity surpasses even the NFL’s in some states. And that also translates well into sports betting.
College football betting is also extremely popular among punters. While the season is relatively short, going from late August to early January, it has plenty of action going on.
For those who aren’t entirely familiar with college football betting, this guide has everything you need to know.
Learn more about the best college football betting markets, the college football betting lines, college football info, and more.
College Football Basics
NCAA college football has three divisions. However, there is a bit of a catch here:Division I is split into two subdivisions:
The Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS for short, and the Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS.
Whenever we talk about college football betting, it usually refers to the FBS, which has the biggest college football programs in the US. There are 131 FBS teams.
Here is a fun fact: while the NCAA recognizes the FCS winner as the national champion, the FBS does not have an officially recognized national champion.
Instead, the winner is determined by the College Football Playoffs, or CFP. FBS members agree that whoever wins the CFP is considered the champion, even if they’re not actually recognized by the NCAA.
But any team can, in fact, claim a national championship. Over the course of its history, the FBS has had quite a few disputed titles. And we don’t even have to go that far to find one: in 2017, even though Alabama had won the CFP and had effectively been crowned the FBS champion, UCF declared itself as the champion as well.
The Knights were the only undefeated team at the end of the season and therefore considered themselves the rightful title holders.
The FBS consists of 131 schools and ten conferences, although seven of these teams play as independents and aren’t affiliated with any conferences. Teams play a few games outside their conference at the start of the season, but the bulk of the schedules consists of conference games. Independent teams are free to pick their opponents.
Until 1992, the FBS did not have a championship game. Instead, the champion was instead determined by national ranking – and that’s the reason why there are so many disputed titles.
Teams dissatisfied with the final classification would simply declare themselves as national champions. In 1992, the FBS schools agreed to create the Bowl Coalition, establishing a National Championship game between the 2 top teams in the rankings.
The Bowl Coalition became the Bowl Alliance in 1995, and the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in 1998. In 2013, the BCS changed its format to create a four-team bracket, becoming the CFP.
At the end of the year, the FBS also holds the Bowl Season. Bowls allow conference champions to face off against each other in a single postseason game.
Winning a Bowl could boost their chances at the #1 rank. Nowadays, although Bowls do not play a big role in the national rankings, they still carry a lot of importance for the programs, in particular for the up-and-coming ones.
The Bowl Season currently has 43 games and is arguably the best time of the year for college football betting.
The six most important games of the Bowl Season are played on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day; they are fittingly called the “New Year’s Six”.
Every postseason, two of the New Year’s Six bowls are selected as the CFP semifinals. The winners face off in the CFP National Championship Game in January.
College Football Betting Explained
Sportsbooks offer betting odds on college football info all season long.
There is a wide range of college football betting markets available:
| Moneyline | Simply wagering on the outcome of a game, on which team will win. |
| Over/Under | A very popular betting market in which you pick whether the match’s combined score goes over or under the NCAAF odds provided by the bookmaker. |
| Future Bets | Wagering on a future event: the national champion, conference champions, which player will win the Heisman, and so on. |
| Point Spreads | Both teams are given a handicap, which is negative for the favorite and positive for the underdog. The favorite covers the spread and therefore wins the bet as long as it wins the game by a margin large enough to make up for the negative handicap. The underdog covers the spread if it loses by a margin smaller than its handicap, or if it wins the game by any score. |
| Prop Bets | Wagering on propositions is not necessarily related to the game score. Will the game go overtime? How many yards will the quarterback throw? How many first downs will be scored in the first half? Which teams will make it to the CFP? |
| Parlay Bet | A bet which combines multiple individual bets into one, multiplying their respective odds to award a bigger payout. However, if one of the parlay legs loses, then the entire bet will lose. You need to win all legs of a parlay to win the bet. |
College Football Betting Tips
| Explore different betting markets, especially in matches involving only one team that’s near the top of the national ranking. Most games in these cases tend to be one-sided beatdowns. Moneyline betting odds offer little to no return in such games, and you should look for better alternatives. | During the year, and especially during the Bowl Season, always check which players are available. With the NFL Draft approaching, many star players opt out of Bowl games, which can completely shift the college football betting lines. | The Sagarin football ranking is a reliable tool for college football betting. During the BCS era, Sagarin’s system was used to determine the national rankings. The Sagarin ratings allow bettors to determine the favorite for a game and predict point spreads. |
College Football Betting Examples
| Odds for the 2022 Heisman Trophy have Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud as the mid-season favorite at +100, meaning a $100 payout for every $100 bet. Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker comes next at +200, followed by Michigan running back Blake Corum and USC quarterback Caleb Williams, both at +1400. | Ohio State is also the mid-season favorite for the 2022 national championship. The Buckeyes have +180 odds to become the champions, paying $180 for every $100 bet. Reigning champion Georgia comes next at +190. | Using the Sagarin system, a hypothetical CFP National Championship Game between Ohio State and Georgia would have the Buckeyes (103.13 ratings) as 7.29 favorites over the Bulldogs (95.84 ratings). |
Pros vs Cons of College Football Betting
🔹 Pros:
🔹 You have 50-plus games every week to wager on, allowing for plenty of combinations. College football easily offers some of the best variety in betting markets, betting lines, and betting odds.
🔹 Betting adds some extra incentive to follow the college football season, including the less relevant matches.
🔶 Cons:
🔸 There is a lot of variation in betting lines. Some games are incredibly one-sided, with double-digit margins well into the 30 points. Other games are very close, being decided by one possession. Finding the right betting markets requires a bit of work.
🔸 With so many games going on at the same time, it can get hard to keep up with everything. You will probably have to ignore a few matches to fully concentrate on winning the right bets.
Summary
College football is one of the most popular sports in the US, with passionate fan bases and entertaining games. Being able to bet on NCAAF games only adds to the fun. College football has very good odds as well, and you can have a great time following the NCAAF games while winning with pretty nice payouts. Obviously, it’s difficult to keep up with everything that goes on for all 131 teams, but this doesn’t take away from the many positives of college football betting.
College Football – FAQs
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