NCAA football betting lines explained

Betting on NCAA Football (American college football) has become very popular, as there are many NCAA betting lines for punters to take advantage of. Pretty much all college football betting lines are for Division 1 games and there is 130 teams in D1.

So, with a season from September to January, when most of the bigger bowl games and the National Championship take place, there is no lack of football betting lines. Like the many NFL betting lines, there is great value in finding value for NCAA football betting lines with all the options available. Click here for general information about the NCAA football competition and betting on it.

Below we will outline the most popular NCAA football lines and some tips on how to bet them.

Best ICE HOCKEY betting sites

#1	Live Betting Odds Bovada Claim a 50% deposit bonus up to the value of USD $250	Visit Bovada Bovada Review

The Point Spread

The point spread is put out by football betting sites in order to try to get even betting action on games. The spread will show, which team is the favourite and which one is the underdog. The betting is balanced out, as the favorite will be getting points and the underdog will be getting points. Here is an example of a NCAA betting line:

Alabama -4.5 / Clemson +4.5

In this example Alabama is the favourite shown by the – in front of the number and Clemson is the underdog shown by the +. In this example Alabama must win by five or more points to win the bet and Clemson has to either win or lose by four or fewer points to win the bet. Alabama is giving 4.5 points up while Clemson is getting 4.5 points on their final score.

So, if Alabama beat Clemson 24-18 they covered the spread (4.5 points) with the winning margin six points. Often there will be a .5 in front of the number, as that takes the tie out of the equation considering a team cannot score a half a point. Let’s say the Clemson vs. Alabama game had a spread of Alabama -4 and they win 24-20. The winning margin is exactly the same as the spread, so the bet would be a push and the punter would get their original wager back.

Totals or Over/Under NCAA bet

The totals bet is simple to understand and also called the Over/Under bet. In this NCAA betting line you are picking if you think the total number of points scored by both teams would be Over or Under the total put out by the football betting site. If the bookie puts out a total of 44.5 on the USC vs. Notre Dame game and USC wins 24-23 the total number of points scored is 47. Therefore, since the total went over the posted total the Over would be the winning bet and the Under would be the losing bet.

Just like the spread if there is no .5 and the total number of points scored is the exact same as the total posted by the online bookie than the bet is a push and the punter would get their original stake back.

NCAA Moneyline bets

NCAA moneyline bets are like the spread picking a team to win, but instead of a spread number the favourite and underdog are shown by inflated odds. An NCAA moneyline bet would look like this:

Alabama -150 / Clemson +140

The – and + still represent the favourite and the underdog, but in a NCAA moneyline bet you are betting more to win less on the favourite and betting less to win more on the underdog. You get a better payout betting on the underdog, but they lose more often than they win. In using $100 to show in an easier manner, you can bet the amount you want, in the example above you will have to wager $150 to win $100 on Alabama and bet $100 to win $140 on Clemson.

The bigger the favoyrite the less favourable the payout will be. This is why it is a good idea to use the moneyline when there is only a slight favourite in a game.

How to make parlay bets on NCAA Football

A parlay bet is betting on multiple games in one bet where you get a better payout, but you have to win all the games in the bet. If you had a three-game parlay you will have to win all three games for the bet to be a winning one. However, the more games you bet in a parlay the better the payout it is but the harder the bet is to win. For parlay bets you can have the spread or the moneyline as well as totals.

There are also teasers and pleasers, which are parlay bets where you can change the spread or moneyline, but the payout is not as good changing the NCAA betting lines in your favour.

Proposition Bets

A proposition bet is also called a prop bet and it is one that has nothing to do with the outcome of the game. There are not as many NCAA prop bets as there are for NFL betting line prop bets, but the bigger the game, especially bowl games, the more prop bets there will be at NCAA football betting sites.

There are NCAA prop bets for teams and players, and some have even payouts and ones that are inflated. Just a few NCAA prop bets are which player will score the first TD, will a team score a field goal in the first half, will Quarterback A or B throw for the most yards, and will there be a safety in the game?

These are just a few examples of the many prop bets available and, again, the bigger the game the more of these types of bets are available.

Betting lines and futures bets

The futures bet is betting on the future outcome of an event and while there is not a huge futures market for NCAA betting lines punters do have options. The most popular futures bet is what team will win the National Championship and what player will win the Heisman Trophy, which is the top player in college football.

Most of the others are betting on teams to with their respective conferences. The odds will change for these types of bets in the season and the odds you get when making the NCAA betting lines are the ones you are locked in on no matter how much they change.

For example, in early June 2019 the two best teams with the best NCAA betting spreads to win the NCAA title are Alabama ($3.25) and Clemson ($3.50).

How to place an NCAA line bet

There are many great NCAA online betting sites that accept USA punters, with these generally licensed overseas. There is some regulation surrounding sports betting in the USA being implemented in recent times, but most of the country is still betting with offshore sites.

Overseas NCAA fans can bet with many online betting sites although BettingPlanet strongly recommends betting with regulated and legal gambling operators if you are able to. If a betting site offers markets on the NCAA it is almost certain they will also offer lines on football.