Football Is Back, But Don't Bet On It!

Football fever continues to sweep through high school and college campuses everywhere and onto NFL stadiums across the country.  Football is America's game and it seems as though everyone is affected by football - even if it's just the increased traffic that occurs before or after a game as thousands upon thousands of fans all go into a stadium optimistically and either leave jubilant or disappointed.  There are a ton of observations from the first couple of weeks of football, but here are a couple of things that have caught my attention and captured my interest for the season to come.

Baylor quarterback, Robert Griffith, will
try and keep the Bears on the winning
track on a day other than Friday this year.

Friday Night Lights
Historically known for being the night when high school football teams take the stage, the college teams are taking over Friday night so far this year.  The Friday night games involving the teams from Week 1 (TCU vs. Baylor) and Week 2 (ASU vs. Missouri) have been two of the best games of the season so far.  In Week 1, Baylor outlasted TCU 50-48, but only after nearly blowing a 24-point lead going into the 4th Quarter of the game.  In fact, TCU took the lead 48-47 after being down 47-23, but quarterback Robert Griffin led the Baylor Bears to the game-winning field goal with only 1:07 left.  In Week 2, Arizona State eventually beat Mizzou in overtime after blowing their own 14-point 4th Quarter lead.  ASU, who consistently lost late-game leads in 2010, hopes that 2011 will have more happy endings than lost opportunities.  If these games are any indication, then Boise State at Toledo (who almost beat Ohio State at Ohio State on Saturday) will be a must-watch game even before College Football Saturday.

USC quarterback Matt Barkley (7) carried
the Trojans past the Utes, but not without
some expensive controversy.

Don't Bet On It
The Utah Utes recently joined the Pac-12 conference, and were welcomed to the league by playing at perennial powerhouse USC at the Coliseum.  USC displayed its superior talent throughout the game, but the Utes played tough and hung with the Trojans by forcing 3 turnovers and had a chance to tie the game at 17 with a 41-yard field goal, and that's where things went wacky...all the way to Vegas.  The Trojans blocked the potential game-tying field goal, picked up the loose ball, and ran the ball to the end zone as time expired for a touchdown and an apparent final score of 23-14.  However, the officials on the field ruled that due to an excessive celebration penalty (the entire USC ran onto the field when the kick was blocked) the touchdown didn't count and the game was over.  But over 2 hours later, the Pac-12 stepped in and ruled that the on-field officials had made a mistake and that the touchdown should have counted.  No big deal, right?  No apparent difference between winning and losing, right?  Right, unless you were in Vegas.

Although there were hundreds of games to bet on this past weekend, the game
that caused the greatest commotion in the Vegas sportsbooks was a late-night
game on the West Coast between new Pac-12 South rivals, USC and Utah.

According to most sports books, the Trojans were favored to beat the Utes by 8 points.  So the final 6 points were the difference between a 3-point win for USC and a 9-point win by USC, or in other words the difference between winning and losing a bet on the game.  According to Todd Furman, senior race and sportsbook analyst for Caesars Entertainment, his sportsbook didn't recognize the change made by the Pac-12.  "We graded the bet at 17-14," Fuhrman said. "We don't recognize overturned results.  Every book can operate how they choose.  However, they should have addressed it in their house rules."  In other words, not in my house!

The Las Vegas Hilton is one of a few books that are going by the updated score of 23-14, meaning they will be paying out USC tickets in addition to the Utah tickets that were already previously cashed when Utah beat the spread at a temporary final score of 17-14.  It pays to bet at the Hilton.  The MGM Mirage was another sportsbook that was dismayed when the game's score was eventually changed as most of the betting action was on Utah to beat the 8.5 point spread, and had paid out the winning prior to the score being amended by the Pac-12.

Speaking of spreads, BYU is a 4.5-5 point favorite over Utah in the annual "Holy War".  Of course, that is presuming that the BYU offense will be able to score at least 4.5-5 points on Saturday.  Stay tuned for my preview and prediction for the "Holy War" later this week.