The Thanksgiving Holiday weekend is a great time to reconnect with family and friends in a four-day celebration. It is also one of the best times of the year to bet on college football at your favorite online sportsbook.
This happens to be the final weekend of the college football regular season, and traditionally it offers the best rivalry games in the sports. One game at the top of the list in the SEC pits the Auburn Tigers against the Alabama Crimson Tide. This has grown into one of the most heated rivalries on the board.
The ACC’s Clemson Tigers face off against the SEC’s South Carolina Gamecocks in that state’s biggest clash and the annual grudge match between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines in the Big Ten ranks high on the list.
Starting on Thanksgiving night and running right through Saturday, almost every college football game on the betting board adds a bit more drama between two teams that do not like each other all that much.
Betting heated rivalries in any college sport dials up both motivation and emotion. For most of these players, this will be the biggest game of the year. For anyone playing in their final season, these battles become some of the most memorable games of their college football career.
While the Oddsmakers can use factors such as current playing form, overall talent, current injuries, and playing conditions to set the lines for these rivalry games, it gets hard to factor in the impact of motivation and emotion when releasing the opening spread.
The automatic lean should go towards the home team, and that should be heightened if they are opened as underdogs. Any team in a bitter rivalry getting the points should attract some interest. There will be more than a few cases where the favorite does have the overall edge, no matter how high the spread. Yet, every underdog will take the field with a chip on its shoulder and something to prove.
These are the type of games were recent betting trends do carry some more weight in the overall handicapping process. Some rivalries tend to go back and forth over the years, with the home team holding the edge. Sometimes the favorite simply dominates the series, and sometimes the underdog always finds a way to keep the game close.
By studying and understanding the history of the series and, more importantly, the recent results both straight-up and against the spread, you can gain some valuable insight into possible future results.
Betting trends alone is not the only way to bet these rivalry games. Current factors weigh heavily as well. This is when an accurate injury report can be worth its weight in gold. Most of these year-end matchups are head-to-head conference games that may carry some weight for that year’s division title.
There are also inter-conference matchups that have no bearing on the conference title race. In those situations, nicked up players may be rested if that team has to play a conference title game the following week. Case in point would be the annual Clemson vs. South Carolina game. The Tigers may choose to rest certain players to get them ready for the ACC title game the first Saturday in December.
Every rivalry showdown needs to be broken down on face value but do not underestimate the role that motivation and emotion can play in the actual outcome.
