Sportsbook Ratings

For the most hardcore NCAA football fans across the country, there really isn’t anything quite like December and January when bowl season gets underway. The new year will bring with it several quality BCS games, including the Discover Orange Bowl, which will pit the ACC champions against then Big East champions in a tale of two teams that not enough people seem to be talking about. While West Virginia reached No. 23 in the country on the heels of a three-game winning streak that included a win over Cincinnati as a team they needed to beat with a couple of games to play, the Clemson Tigers had little trouble in the ACC, where they managed to knock off Virginia Tech twice, including a dominant performance in the conference championship game.

While there is little doubt that they deserve to be in this game, the Tigers have to be thinking about what could have been if they had not dropped their final two conference road games, which included losses at Georgia Tech and North Carolina State. Clemson opened the year with eight straight wins, including three against nationally ranked opponents. Meanwhile, after losing two of three from the end of October in to November, the Mountaineers had to rally with three straight wins to get in, and will enter this game with a fighter’s mentality with the chance to prove that they belong. The pay head bookies will have Clemson listed at the favorites, and they are likely to win, but depending on the sports betting spread don’t count out a tough West Virginia team that has peaked at exactly the right time.

When it comes down to the college football season and the outlook for this year’s Heisman trophy, it is pretty obvious that the general media and fan base both believe and are pushing for Stanford Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck to win this year’s honor. The reason for their support is simple, as a talented quarterback that has all of the tools to be the prototypical NFL starter. But in light of the Cardinal losing to Oregon in their PAC-12 showdown, and Luck struggling to elevate his game against top competition, another name should be in the conversation for Heisman voting, and that is Alabama Crimson Tide running back Trent Richardson.

Unlike Luck, who has the luxury of playing some of the softer defenses in the PAC-12 to pad his numbers and build his resume, the Alabama running back Richardson has been absolutely dominant in college football’s toughest sports betting conference all season. The Crimson Tide have not lost in regulation all year, including four wins over nationally ranked opponents and playing some of the top defenses in the country. Richardson has been an integral piece in the team’s success, and has rushed for 1,380 yards and 20 touchdowns while averaging an incredible 5.8 yards per carry. Considering the Luck struggled against Oregon, it is reasonable to doubt how well he would perform in a full season in the SEC. Richardson has been a force all pay head year and has his team in contention for a national title, and that is something that should not be overlooked.

The college basketball pay head season has not even got underway yet, and already all of the talk is surrounding the North Carolina Tar Heels and their ability to chase a national championship. The fact that this team hasn’t even played a game yet makes any talk of championship banners premature, not to mention that they still face a tough road in the ACC regardless of whether or not the Duke Blue Devils take a significant step back. What is definitive at this point is that this UNC team will get a ton of attention this coming season, and regardless of the circumstances surrounding that hype, a big part of their success will come down to being able to perform under that spotlight.

The Tar Heels have been ranked No. 1 in the preseason polls seven times before, and on only two occasions have gone on to win a national title. While this year’s installment is by far the most talented in quite some time, there are still intertops questions of chemistry and resilience throughout the course of a season. The experience and guidance of a head coach with as much knowledge as Roy Williams will help in the process, but how fast the Tar Heels are able to speed through that learning curve as a unit will go a long way in determining their success. Harrison Barnes and company proved last year that nothing is guaranteed when they took down the Duke Blue Devils to clinch top spot in the ACC standings, and although they eventually fell to their ACC rivals, they now understand how fragile their sports betting position is.