Hitting a college football underdog bet is one of the best feelings!
Here, we'll update our underdog betting report each week to see how much money you could be up when hammering the 'dogs, or whether you want to stray away from them.
College Football Underdog Records
| Dog SU | Dog ATS | 10-Pt Dog SU | 10-Pt Dog ATS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 193-660 | 424-406-23 | 31-398 | 219-201-9 |
The win ratio stinks but that's to be expected! The underdog has only won 193 matches outright through a full 13 weeks of college football. But, the 10-point underdog SU is even lower, cashing in just 31 times in the same span, not budging in Week 13's rivalry meetings.
But, we don't necessarily need the underdogs to win to be profitable, do we? The underdogs may go down to defeat, but the scoreboard won’t be as tilted as people think, which allows them to cover the spread more often, especially in 10-point spread occasions. So far this season, it's been a toss-up with the underdog and 10-point 'dogs covering a little over half of the time. But now, they've finally tilted both spread records in their favor.
Here’s the same table as above but highlighting the profitability of each so far this year:
College Football Underdog Profitability
| Dog SU | Dog ATS | 10-Pt Dog SU | 10-Pt Dog ATS |
|---|---|---|---|
| -$22822.62 (-228.2 units) | -$2034.51 (-20.3 units) | -$22590.0 (-225.9 units) | -$194.28 (-1.9 units) |
Just as we thought, you'd be down a massive chunk of change if you blindly bet on the underdogs outright this year. Throughout the season, we watched the 10-point 'dogs ATS chart shift back-and-forth between plus-money territory. From Week 5 to Week 13, the profit jumped from -$285 to +$405.71. But, one weekend had that deflating where that now stands at -1.9 units for a sad -$194.28.
Here’s your slate of 10-point dogs for on the college football conference championship calendar:
- New Mexico State +10.0 (vs No. 24 Liberty)
- No. 3 Washington +10.0 (vs No. 5 Oregon)
- No. 18 Oklahoma State +14.0 (vs No. 7 Texas)
- No. 16 Iowa +23.5 (vs No. 2 Michigan)
Consider this alongside our college football computer picks when building your college football betting strategy parlays for this week’s slate of games.
How College Football Underdog Betting Works
Betting on college football can be daunting with all the conferences and teams, but one great way to get started is to have a ride-or-die strategy, like betting on the underdogs.
It’s easy and profitable, and all you need are the basics of sports betting. In your college football sportsbook, you’ll find odds that can be listed as American odds (-500), fractional odds (1/5) or decimal odds (1.20). We use American style here, but you can often swap between formats at any book.
Those odds are then used to help you gauge and value the different kinds of bets. Here’s an example of a moneyline bet (using American odds), where you would just have to pick the straight-up (SU) Sportsbook of the contest:
Ohio State Buckeyes -130
Michigan Wolverines +240
In this case, Ohio State is the favorite, paying out $100 in profit for every $130 you bet. Michigan is the underdog, as shown by the plus (+) sign, paying out a higher amount if the Wolverines were to upset the Buckeyes.
College Football Underdog Betting: Against The Spread
While betting moneyline or straight up can be very profitable for the upsets, you can always lean on spread betting if you don’t want to hope for a massive upset.
In spread wagering, the underdog is given a set number of points that they can’t lose by (or they can win outright), whereas the favorite has to win by a certain amount. Here’s an example:
LSU Tigers -7.5 (must win by eight or more points)
Alabama Crimson Tide +7.5 (can lose by seven or fewer points, or win)
