College football betting favorites off to blazing-hot start this bowl season
Andrew Caley
Bowl season can be a tricky thing to handicap. With almost entirely non-conference matchups it’s hard to evaluate how certain teams will stack up. Mix in long layoffs, travel and motivation it can be difficult to pick a side. Well, we are just about a week into the 2018-19 bowl season, and here’s hoping you’ve made it as simple as laying chalk, as favorites have gotten off to a blazing-hot start.
After Marshall's 38-20 victory over South Florida in Thursday night’s Gasparilla Bowl, betting favorites are a perfect 8-0 straight up and a more impressive 7-1 against the spread through the first seven bowl games. Heck, even the lone ATS loss is debateable. Georgia Southern defeated Eastern Michigan 23-21 as 2.5-point favorites in the Camellia Bowl, but the number spent much of the week at -1. So, they could be 8-0 ATS depending on the much you got.
Not only have favorites been covering the spread this bowl season, it hasn’t really been all that close. In five of the seven bowls, the favorite has covered the number by at least two touchdowns, and in four of the seven, they have done so by three. Overall, favorites are covering the spread by an average of 17.3 points per game through the first seven matchups.
Unfortunately, these things tend to have a way of evening out. Favorites cashed just 49.6 percent of the time throughout the college football season. But if you’re looking to keep riding this chalky trend here are the upcoming bowl favorites for this weekend:
Birmingham Bowl: Memphis -3 (vs Wake Forest)
Armed Forces Bowl: Army -5 (vs Houston)
Dollar General Bowl: Buffalo -1.5 (vs Troy)
Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii -1 (vs Louisiana Tech)
Andrew Caley
Bowl season can be a tricky thing to handicap. With almost entirely non-conference matchups it’s hard to evaluate how certain teams will stack up. Mix in long layoffs, travel and motivation it can be difficult to pick a side. Well, we are just about a week into the 2018-19 bowl season, and here’s hoping you’ve made it as simple as laying chalk, as favorites have gotten off to a blazing-hot start.
After Marshall's 38-20 victory over South Florida in Thursday night’s Gasparilla Bowl, betting favorites are a perfect 8-0 straight up and a more impressive 7-1 against the spread through the first seven bowl games. Heck, even the lone ATS loss is debateable. Georgia Southern defeated Eastern Michigan 23-21 as 2.5-point favorites in the Camellia Bowl, but the number spent much of the week at -1. So, they could be 8-0 ATS depending on the much you got.
Not only have favorites been covering the spread this bowl season, it hasn’t really been all that close. In five of the seven bowls, the favorite has covered the number by at least two touchdowns, and in four of the seven, they have done so by three. Overall, favorites are covering the spread by an average of 17.3 points per game through the first seven matchups.
Unfortunately, these things tend to have a way of evening out. Favorites cashed just 49.6 percent of the time throughout the college football season. But if you’re looking to keep riding this chalky trend here are the upcoming bowl favorites for this weekend:
Birmingham Bowl: Memphis -3 (vs Wake Forest)
Armed Forces Bowl: Army -5 (vs Houston)
Dollar General Bowl: Buffalo -1.5 (vs Troy)
Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii -1 (vs Louisiana Tech)