It's easy to get overwhelmed amid the myriad college football bowl games that will be played between Dec. 20 and Jan. 4. But fear not, Insider is here to help. We've asked our experienced group of gambling experts, including Chad Millman, Dave Tuley, Phil Steele, Evan Abrams, Brian Edwards, David Solar, Wunderdog and Sal Selvaggio, what they're focused on during bowl season.
Below we provide:
Chad Millman's seven rules for betting bowl games.
Vegas Rankings of every bowl team.
The best system bets for this bowl season from David Solar of Sports Insights.
Handicappers' five best ATS bets, SU bets, O/U bets and potential upsets.
Top five public teams according to Jay Kornegay of the Westgate Las Vegas.
Enjoy and good luck this bowl season.
Key links:
CFB bowl schedule »
CFB PickCenter »
ESPN's CFB Bowl Mania »
All odds courtesy of the Las Vegas Westgate sportsbook as of Tuesday, Dec. 16.
Chad Millman's Seven Bowl-Bonanza Rules
Here's a primer that outlines the factors professional bettors consider when wagering on bowl games. Quotes are courtesy of Kenny White, the current COO of Don Best Sports, and Vegas vet Bryan Leonard.
1. How a team ended the regular season: "Were they on a run to make the bowl, or did they lose a lot?" White asks.
2. How much excitement a team will have headed into the bowl: "You're looking for a team that is thrilled to be there and looking forward to the game," White says.
A subset of No. 2 is bowl experience, but not for the reason you think: "I'm more likely to give a team a higher ranking if it hasn't been to a bowl for a while because that will generate excitement among the program and fans," White says.
3. How much time off a team has had before the bowl: "When you are not playing, it's hard to simulate game speed. It's like driving on the highway at 30 mph," White says.
4. The weather on schools' respective campuses: "The SEC, Pac-12, even the ACC tend to do better in the bowls than the Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East," White says. "I think the warm weather has a lot to do with that. Thirty days of practice in warm weather before a bowl game helps you get a lot more done than practicing in a bubble or outside in a cold climate."
5. Throw away any games against non-bowl competition. "What you want to do is see how a team stepped up in class," Leonard says.
6. Emphasize a team's road performance over its home performance.
7. Consider how the conference is doing in bowls.
CFB Vegas Rankings
The CFB Vegas Rankings are the composite power ratings of a panel of professional handicappers and college football statisticians, including fellow Insider Phil Steele, Vegas handicapper Brian Edwards and Bruce Marshall of The Gold Sheet. The ratings are meant to compare the relative strength of the teams if they were to meet on a neutral field, which is what we get in bowl games (except for rare cases).
It's not surprising that our No. 1 and No. 2 teams are Alabama and Oregon, and all three handicappers gave the Crimson Tide and Ducks those ratings. Where we saw a difference was in the No. 3 and 4 spots; some liked Ohio State then TCU, while others liked TCU then Baylor. Just like the College Football Playoff committee, there was a simple difference of opinion when it came to team value.
To show how close these rankings are, Alabama is ranked a perfect 50, but there are 11 different teams within 10 points of Alabama and 19 different teams within just 12 points of the Crimson Tide.
