11/17/2008 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - James Madison clinched the Colonial Athletic Association automatic bid to the playoffs on Saturday and retained its No. 1 ranking in The Sportsbook Betting Lines FCS Top-25 poll on Monday.
The Dukes (9-1) received 106 of 120 first-place votes and 2,986 points of a possible 3,000 following their 48-24 victory at home against then-12th-ranked William & Mary. JMU closes out the regular season this Saturday on the road against Towson.
Along with James Madison, the rest of the top 10 stayed the same this week.
Appalachian State (9-2) clinched the automatic bid in the Southern Conference by beating Elon 24-16 in the cold, rain, ice and snow of Kidd Brewer Stadium. The Mountaineers were rewarded by receiving 13 first-place votes and 2,871 points to stay on JMU's heels at No. 2 in the poll.
Cal Poly (8-1) won the Great West Conference title on Saturday night by downing UC Davis 51-28 and remained No. 3 in the poll. The Mustangs received one first-place vote and 2,623 points.
Northern Iowa (9-2) captured a share of the Missouri Valley Football Conference crown on Saturday with a 28-0 victory at winless Indiana State. The No. 4 Panthers barely held off No. 5 Montana by -- points. Montana (10-1) dumped winless Idaho State at home, 29-10.
Villanova (8-2) came in at No. 6 again after surviving a close call at home against Towson, 34-31, while Richmond (8-3) remained at No. 7 with a 31-14 victory at home over Delaware.
Weber State (9-2) had an off-week after wrapping up the Big Sky Conference auto bid last week and held on to the No. 8 position.
Wofford (8-2) used a solid 28-7 win at Samford to stay in the ninth position, while Southern Illinois remained at No. 10 by holding off South Dakota State 38-35 at home.
New Hampshire (8-2) picked up a crucial 52-21 victory at home against Massachusetts to improve by two spots in the new poll at No. 11. UMass fell from No.22 out of the top 25 for the first time since the final 2004 poll. The Minutemen had been ranked for 55 consecutive weeks.
Joining UNH in the second 10 are Central Arkansas at No. 12, followed by Elon, McNeese State, South Carolina State, William & Mary, Maine, Tennessee-Martin, Harvard and Furman.
Completing the poll are Colgate at No. 21, Liberty at No. 22, Western Illinois at No. 23, Jacksonville State at No. 24 and Tennessee State at No. 25. Jacksonville State returns to the poll after a three-week absence.
<< Line of Scrimmage: Rating the Divisions
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The word "arguably" has been kicked around
quite a lot by NFL pundits in recent weeks.
The Giants/Titans are arguably the best team in the league.
Kurt Warner/Adrian Peterson/Clinton Portis has arguably
<< Stuttgart manager Veh slams team, Gomez
Stuttgart, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stuttgart coach Armin Veh slammed his
side's performance in the goalless draw with Arminia Bielefeld at the weekend,
aiming particular criticism at striker Mario Gomez.
Veh fumed: "He ran too littl
<< Rangers host Senators aiming to extend win streak to three
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers will aim
for their third consecutive victory when they host the struggling Ottawa
Senators tonight at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers had lost four of five contests to beg
<< Sagnol worried over career future
Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayern Munich defender Willy Sagnol has
revealed he may be forced to quit the game through injury.
The 31-year-old France defender has been sidelined since Euro 2008 with an
Achilles injury which re
Pujols named NL MVP >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert
Pujols has been named the National League's Most Valuable Player, as voted on
by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Pujols, who won this award in 2005
Pair of Capitals lead list of NHL's Three Stars >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Washington Capitals forwards Nicklas Backstrom
and Alexander Ovechkin, along with Nashville Predators goaltender Dan Ellis,
were selected as the NHL's 'Three Stars' for the week ending November 16.
Backstrom
Falcons' Dubnyk named AHL Player of the Week >>
Springfield, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Springfield Falcons goaltender Devan
Dubnyk has been named the American Hockey League Player of the Week for the
period ending on Sunday, it was announced on Monday.
In three starts this week, Du
FCS weekly honors go to Gowins, Barnes, Parent and Warner >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Edwin Gowins, Ryan Barnes, Matt Parent and
Larry Warner have been named The Sportsbook Betting Lines's FCS national players of the
week.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Edwin Gowins, Stony Brook, 5-10, 220, Freshman
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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