Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
03/03/2009 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The first college basketball tournament I covered was so long ago that many basketball fans wouldn't even remember the name of the conference.
I spent the first weekend of March, 1979 covering the Pacific Coast Athletic Association tournament in the shadow of Disneyland at the Anaheim Convention Center. I wasn't quite prepared for 12 hours of basketball, watching four quarterfinal-round matchups from 12 noon to 12 midnight, but over the years the concept has grown on me.
Eventually, the University of the Pacific, led by a 6-10 center named Ron Cornelius, held off Utah State to earn an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament - an event that had just expanded to 48 teams that year. UOP's tournament experience would last just one game, as the Tigers were waxed in the opening round.
Years later, the PCAA changed their name to the Big West Conference, so that ESPN could promote something called "Big Monday," with games from the Big East, the Big 10 and the Big West. The PCAA moniker slipped into the dark recesses of history.
Thirty years after my first tourney experience, the concept of the postseason basketball tournament - first started by the Southern Conference in 1922 - is still going strong.
The next two weeks of the college basketball season are among my favorites in the entire sports calendar. Like most college basketball fans, I love having the chance to see teams you seldom see on national television battle their way into the NCAA field.
If it were up to me, I'd make the conference tournaments a do-or-die proposition for every league, with only regular-season conference champions immune from the sudden death of the tournament format.
Three conference tournaments tip off on Tuesday night at campus sites with first round action - the Big South, the Horizon and the Ohio Valley, as March Madness commences.
The Big South will have seven teams trying to end Winthrop's four-year stranglehold on the league's automatic bid, though it might be asking too much for the Eagles to repeat in 2009.
Winthrop, which has offered up some memorable March moments in recent NCAA tournaments, has been rebuilding this year with an 11-18 record and will be on the road at UNC Asheville, and in every subsequent game, if it hopes to unleash some postseason magic.
A year ago, that matchup had an NCAA bid attached to it in the Big South championship game, with Winthrop winning 66-48 at UNCA. This year, the Eagles and the Bulldogs will just be trying to extend their seasons until Thursday.
Radford (18-11) comes in as the top seed in the Big South and will host beleaguered High Point (9-20) in the quarterfinals. The Highlanders could get pushed by two other stalwart teams from No. 2 seed VMI (22-7) and No. 3 Liberty (21-10). VMI entertains Coastal Carolina and Liberty meets Gardner- Webb in the first round.
Few people probably remember VMI making back-to-back trips to the Elite Eight and the Sweet 16 in 1976-77, with future-NBA performer Ron Carter leading the way. The Keydets haven't been back to the NCAA tournament since.
The Big South's semifinals and final will be televised on Thursday night and Saturday by ESPNU and ESPN2, respectively.
The Horizon League, another loop that has pulled off some inspiring NCAA upsets in recent years, also gets started on Tuesday night with its 10-team event. Former giant killer Cleveland State, the third seed at 21-10, is the highest-seeded team in action in the first round.
Many people probably still remember Cleveland State marching to the Sweet 16 in 1986 with wins over Indiana and St. Joseph's before David Robinson and Navy knocked them off, 71-70.
The top two seeds, Butler (25-4) and Wisconsin-Green Bay (22-9) will wait until Saturday to get started in the semifinals, which are on ESPNU. The championship game will be played at Butler's historic Hinkle Fieldhouse on March 10 and televised by ESPN.
The OVC gets into the swing of things on Tuesday with quarterfinal action at campus sites before moving to Nashville's Sommet Center for the semifinals and final. Top-seeded Tennessee-Martin has put together a sparkling 21-8 campaign, but the Skyhawks will need three more wins to get their first NCAA bid.
UTM opens play by hosting Tennessee Tech (12-17), but will likely receive bigger challenges from defending champion and No. 2 seed Austin Peay (17-12), or No. 3 Murray State (18-11) - a 13-time OVC tournament champion.
One of my earliest memories of watching the NCAA tournament was seeing a colorful player named Fly Williams leading Austin Peay in the early 1970s. And I nearly witnessed a No. 16 seed beat a No. 1 in the 1990 Southeast Regional in Knoxville, TN, when Popeye Jones and Murray State pushed Michigan State to overtime before losing 75-71.
The OVC will have its semifinals and final televised on Friday and Saturday by ESPNU and ESPN2 as the first conference to conclude its tournament.
Tournament play will kick off on Wednesday in the Atlantic Sun and the Patriot League, on Thursday in the Northeast Conference and the Missouri Valley, on Friday in the American East, the Colonial Athletic Association, the Southern and the West Coast and on Saturday in the Big Sky.
For a college basketball fan, whether at the arena or watching on television, it's hoop nirvana.
<< Juve's Ranieri taking cup seriously
Turin, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri has promised to
take the Coppa Italia seriously, despite Wednesday's meeting with Lazio adding
to his club's current fixture congestion.
The Turin club are in semifinal firs
<< Hull's Geovanni apologizes to Brown
Hull, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hull City midfielder Geovanni has apologized
to Tigers boss Phil Brown for his petulant reaction to being substituted during
Sunday's 2-1 home defeat to Blackburn Rovers.
The Brazilian was furious with Bro
<< John returns to Cottagers
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Striker Collins John has returned to Fulham
after enduring an unhappy loan spell with NEC Nijmegen.
The Cottagers had hoped that the 23-year-old would make a permanent move to the
Netherlands in the summe
<< Wright's late goal helps Dons draw Mirren
Paisley, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tommy Wright scored in the 90th minute and
Aberdeen tied St. Mirren 1-1 on Tuesday.
Craig Dargo scored in the 78th minute at St. Mirren park, but his side lost the
lead in the closing seconds. Wright plac
Jets ink free agent S Leonhard, re-sign FB Richardson >>
Florham Park, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Jets agreed to terms with
unrestricted free agent safety Jim Leonhard and re-signed fullback Tony
Richardson to a one-year deal on Tuesday.
Terms of Leonhard's contract were not
Jags re-sign DE Wyche >>
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Jacksonville Jaguars re-signed oft-
injured defensive end James Wyche to a new contract on Tuesday. Per club
policy, length and terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The 26-year-old Wyche has
Ottawa stadium agreement deadline extended >>
Hamilton, Ontario (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Canadian Football League has
extended a deadline imposed to reach a stadium agreement with the city of
Ottawa in the continued effort to bring a CFL franchise back to the country's
capital
This Week in Auto Racing March 6 - 8 >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After two weeks on the West Coast, the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns east to one of the fastest tracks on the
circuit, Atlanta Motor Speedway. The Camping World Truck Series kicks off the
Atlanta
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting