College Basketball Against the Spread Betting Trends

With a little more than a month of the season completed, college basketball fans all around were able to get a better grasp on the strength of each team and how they stack up against the spread. Although it still is a small sample size and many high ranked teams haven’t played many other high ranked opponents, covering the spread is important and proves that good teams can stretch the lead out. 

Strong Teams ATS:

Baylor (6-0-0) (+12.7)

Drake (7-0-0) (+13.1)

Winthrop (5-0-0) (+12.7)

Liberty (7-1-0) (+7.8)

Northwestern (5-1-0) (+10.8)

Not much of a shocker to see Baylor here, however, to some rookie bettors that tend to only look at the big names and bet on them, it is easy to look at some of these weaker conferences and pick games from them where the lines may be more forgiving. 

Weak Teams ATS:

Arizona State (1-6-0) (-9.0)

North Illinois (0-7-0) (-13.2)

Duke (1-4-0) (-11.6)

Michigan State (2-6-0) (-7.6)

Kentucky (2-4-1) (-6.9)

With a couple of big names here, this should look to scare some bettors who like to look at the big names with some being Duke and Michigan State. It is also very interesting to look at and see the difference in records between Michigan State (6-2) and Kentucky (1-6) and still they are almost identical in ATS numbers. Although all these weak teams aren’t the worst, this should still be of some significance next time when deciding to bet for or against some of these teams. 

Takeaways:

After reading this, what should a bettor understand? It’s clear that the big dogs aren’t the move right now unless the lines are extremely favorable, however, this negative trend for these bad teams could allow for an easy pick as the lines could favor the other team as well if they know that they are not consistently covering. Happy Holidays and Happy Betting!