| In college they have trends and in the pros they have | | | | great team, they played their rival Arizona at Arizona. |
| trends. There is one difference between the two | | | | At the time, Arizona State was ranked in the top 3 |
| though: NCAA teams stay truer to trends than the | | | | while Arizona was struggling to win 5 games. |
| pros. If a team is | | | | I was figuring the point spread to be in the minus 20's |
| 1-11 against the spread (ATS) on the first Saturday in | | | | for Arizona State. My mouth dropped when I saw the |
| October, most of the time that trend holds true. It's | | | | opening line: Arizona State -7. I said to myself that can't |
| funny sometimes because it's like both teams know | | | | be right but in fact it was. I thought to myself, even |
| that trend and it turns out to be a massacre on a | | | | being alumni of the University of Arizona, this was a no |
| Saturday morning. The scary part is that there are | | | | brainer bet, Arizona State all the way. Arizona State |
| trends on anything and everything! First Saturdays, last | | | | had a chance to be National Champs and even though |
| Saturdays, morning games, night games, afternoon | | | | Arizona was their rival it should be a blowout. For the |
| games, temperature trends, color trends, if the | | | | first half, it was a close game; I actually believe it was |
| quarterback or running back had so many yards the | | | | tied at halftime. But in the end Arizona St. did blow |
| game before trends, you name it, they have a trend | | | | them out 56-14. |
| for it...and the real scary part is a lot of times they hold | | | | A minus 7-point spread just shows how big a rivalry |
| true. In the college ranks, studying the trends is a great | | | | game is to a point spread. If you look at the rest of the |
| way to bet. | | | | games in that series since that 1996 game, not one |
| Rivalry games play a huge part in a point spread. A lot | | | | game is decided by more than 10 points! Rivalry |
| of times the teams are of equal talent and other times | | | | games usually stay rather close. Look at Florida |
| one team is really good and the other is rather crappy. | | | | Tennessee, those games are usually real close and |
| But if it's a rivalry game, the point spreads are usually | | | | those point spreads are just as close. Be careful with |
| pretty low no matter how good or bad the teams are. | | | | rivalry games, even though a team is much better than |
| A quick example: In 1996, when Jake "The Snake" | | | | the other, doesn't mean a for sure victory. |
| Plummer was playing for Arizona State and had that | | | | |