The Distress Can – and Will – Happen in College Football

The SEC is good again. USC has a team with tons of talent. Ohio State looks strong but folds in big games. Some things stay pretty consistent each and every year in college football. Want another one to add to the list? How about that big upsets will happen, every single week, in college football. That means you can’t just bet on the favorites. Sometimes you have to bet on your instincts (and be prepared to be made fun of when they backfire completely!)

Everyone has their own system for betting on college football games. The best rule to follow is that upsets are to be expected. When making your picks , keep these common upset scenarios in mind.

If a team has just won a game important to them, they might be too happy, relaxed and confident to prepare properly for the next game. If the opponent is from the conference and is unranked, they know the opponent very well even if they’re not a BCS Bull team. If a team is playing a primetime game on national TV with all the attention on them and they’re not used to the stage, watch out. There are more situations to pay attention to, but these are good ones to start with.

Upsets have already been happening in the 2008 season. USC has lost to Oregon State when everybody and their mother practically wrote USC into the BCS Championship game. Everybody was even predicting the Oregon State game to be a “let down” game for USC, and low and behold, it turned out to be true. Ole Miss beat Florida with some big plays and a little bit of luck. Of course, anything can happen in the SEC. But what do both of these games have in common? They were unranked, conference opponents!

Some unranked upsets are harder to predict though. Especially when an unranked team doesn’t play in the Bowl Subdivision! It was just last season when Appalachian State beat Michigan in the Big House. And Bowl games aren’t safe from the upset either. Anybody remember the all-time great game between Boise State and Oklahoma? There goes the theory that the big time program will always win the big game.

With some nontraditional powers in the Top 25, some more of those BCS Bowl game upsets could happen this year too. BYU, Utah and Boise State are all teams that could shock a big power in front of a national audience in a big bowl game. Wake Forest and Connecticut aren’t known for their football programs, but they have enough talent that they could factor into some all-time memorable upsets in a big bowl game as well.

The point is this, you always have to be prepared for the upset. Look out for those upset situations highlighted above. Never go on autopilot when you’re making your online bets. No team and no game is ever guaranteed or 100%. Dig into the matchup and find the upset before it happens to rake in some cash.