LAS VEGAS — A review of choice college football selections and big movers on the eve of the season, with two bookmakers and select handicappers, must start with Iowa State and Northwestern.
The Cyclones have been in the eye of a sports-betting investigation, with the most conspicuous athlete being starting quarterback Hunter Dekkers.
South Point sportsbook director Chris Andrews called it “kind of a new thing” for his staff to process:
“What a fiasco. [Dekkers] is actually pretty good. Don’t know what will happen, so we took them off the board.”
Dekkers reportedly spent $2,799 on more than 300 wagers.
“A kid screws up the rest of his life on $10 bets?” Andrews said. “Crazy. But when I was [that young], I might have done something stupid.”
At the Westgate SuperBook, no number has moved more than Iowa at Iowa State, on Sept. 9, which started at pick ’em.
SuperBook executive vice president Jay Kornegay’s crew bumped it, and action helped move the Hawkeyes to five-point favorites. They removed it to evaluate backups Rocco Becht and JJ Kohl.
They had installed Iowa State’s season-wins total at 5.5, sliced it to five and then removed it, too.
“We wanted to do more research on [Becht],” Kornegay said, “who is someone they’re high on but has very little experience.”
At Northwestern, hazing allegations resulted in longtime boss Pat Fitzgerald’s dismissal. South Point action eked Rutgers from a five- to seven-point favorite when it hosts the Wildcats on Sept. 3.
The SuperBook has moved Rutgers from -4 to -6.5, but it hasn’t budged Northwestern’s season win total of three. DraftKings has three, too, with -110 (risk $110 to win $100) either way. It’s favored in only two games.
“An over/under of three is so low already,” Kornegay said, “so it’s hard to move it any lower.”
POTPOURRI OF PICKS
Since we prize chivalry, it’s ladies first with our ’cappers.
WagerTalk owner and Florida resident Kelly Stewart tabbed Texas Tech as the Big 12’s surprise team. She bet the Red Raiders Over 7.5 regular-season wins, which Draft-Kings had Monday at +110.
“While they’ll be slight home dogs to Oregon in Week 2, they avoid Oklahoma and have lots of offensive experience,” Stewart said. “Coupled with 17 returning starters, [coach Joey] McGuire’s squad is on my radar to win at least eight games.”
Also in the Sunshine State, Chicago native and professional bettor John Murges snatched Navy getting 20 points against Notre Dame on Aug. 26 in Ireland, the season’s first game.
Murges noted the Irish’s many appearances and sightseeing plans.
“Navy has much less planned, so football will be first and foremost,” he said. “Give me a disciplined Navy squad getting 20 points to cover against a distracted Notre Dame team. Irish 31, Navy 17.”
He risked $550 to win $500, and Murges hoped to make a similar wager at Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida, should it open in time.
Sam Panayotovich, another Illinois native and betting analyst at the New England Sports Network and FOX Sports, bet Buffalo Over 6 victories, which he nabbed at BetMGM at -125.
He highlighted coach Maurice Linguist’s two consecutive stellar recruiting classes, an ultrastable defense and improved offense with quarterback Cole Snyder, a Rutgers transfer.
“Don’t be surprised when the Bulls win eight games,” Panayotovich said.
At the Vegas Stats & Information Network, senior broadcaster/scribe and Indiana native Matt Youmans took Wisconsin, where new coach Luke Fickell’s Badgers will be favored in six home games and at least four road tilts.
Their season win total is 8.5, and Youmans bet Over at -120. He also has the Badgers to win the Big Ten West, at +130.
“Fickell has everything he needs to win in his debut with the Badgers,” Youmans said. “I project Wisconsin to go 10-2 in the regular season; 9-3 would be slightly disappointing, yet still enough to top the win total.”
BY THE BOOKIES
In his praise for, and expectations of, Wisconsin, Andrews is with Youmans. The Badgers miss Michigan and Penn State and get Ohio State at home Oct. 28.
The South Point has +800 odds on the Badgers winning the Big Ten and 75-to-1 on them winning the national championship.
“It’s hard to find value with futures,” Andrews said. “But if you’re looking to shoot the moon, that would be a team [people] might want to look at.”
Andrews has long bet against first-year coaches. However, TCU reaching the national title game last season under new boss Sonny Dykes made Andrews re-think that angle.
Fickell soared in Cincinnati, and he’ll have quarterback Tanner Mordecai from SMU.
“The landscape is changing,” Andrews said, “with the transfer portal and all that other stuff.”
In addition, Andrews is high on Illinois but very sour on the Miami Hurricanes.
Kornegay is a Centennial State native who included Colorado State-Colorado, in Boulder on Sept. 16, on his shop’s Games of the Year.
Both are favored in five games, and the Buffaloes have been whittled from 10-point favorites to nine. Kornegay went to Colorado State, and the SuperBook operates in Colorado.
“I’m fairly certain it probably isn’t a Game of the Year elsewhere,” Kornegay laughed. “But because it’s close to my heart and we operate in Colorado, it’s going to be on the board.”
