What the heck was that? Louisville was the No. 3-ranked team in the country, and a popular early choice to be a No. 1 seed in March. They have four established guards, a near-certain lottery pick in forward in Earl Clark, and last year's High School Player of the Year at center. On Sunday night they played the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, a team best known for b ...  read more

There's a whole lot going on in the NHL that should be of interest to bettors, so let's not waste time:

Hot, But Soon To Be Not

There is no team in the NHL playing better right now than Vancouver. They have points in nine straight games, and 11 of the last 12. That puts them comfortably on top of the Northwest Division, and third in the conference. Th ...  read more

We're settling into the slow, steady rhythms of the middle of the NHL season when nothing happens too quickly. This is when we start to learn which teams are here to stay, and which ones are just killing time until golf season starts. To an outsider that may all sound a bit dull, but to hockey fans this is heaven. It's also pretty exciting when there are owners l ...  read more

The college basketball season is slowly but surely get underway. It will be a while before people start paying a lot of attention, but it's never too soon to start making some college basketball predictions. College basketball culminates in the single best spectacle in sports, but there is a lot of excitement and intrigue between now and the madness of March. As ...  read more

It's simply amazing to me how perfectly in sync the Pac-10 Conference is this year in terms of football and basketball.

Both football and hoops seemed to peak last season as national powers, and with a mass exodus of its top performers the league has degenerated into a free-for-all. There is the stalwart program - USC in football and UCLA in basketball - ...  read more

We are halfway through the NFL season, give or take. This is a good time, then, for us to take a look at the teams that are being particularly kind to bettors, and those that are soaking the money bet on them in gas and lighting a match. Here, then, is a look at the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

The Best

Tennessee (7-0 ATS) - Despite the Vinc ...  read more

A - Alexander, Shaun. The incredible fall from grace has taken a potentially brief detour to the nation's capital. The former MVP needed a job, the Redskins needed running depth, and Daniel Snyder is more than happy to spend money without thinking about it - it was a match made in heaven. Not surprisingly, Alexander had almost no impact in his first game since he ...  read more

I wish I could have started this column out with some good news as far as last week's selections are concerned. However, that is not the case. We did nail a nice 5-unit winner with Penn State, as they completely destroyed Wisconsin, 48-7. We also had a nice winner with Mississippi State ending Vanderbilt's perfect season, but those two wins did not come close to covering ...  read more

The Option Offense in football is one of the most venerable and classic nuances of America's New National Pastime. The Wishbone. The Wing T. The Single Wing. The very thought of The Option brings one back to Yesteryear, Better Days and Days of Yore. Those were simpler times - The Option reflects that - and a Golden Time when speakeasies, jazz, hard work and ra ...  read more

A - Anderson, Derek - A year ago the Cleveland Browns' QB and his team were one of the best stories in the league. Now it seems almost certain that his days as a starter, at least for now, are nearing an end. Anderson has been, in a word, brutal. He reached a new low this week against Baltimore, completing just 38 percent of his passes, with three picks and just ...  read more

Even though it’s still early in the college football season, a few teams have already packed it in. One of those teams is Syracuse. We used them as a selection two weeks ago at the dome against Akron and I felt that was a make-or-break game for them. The latter turned out to be the case, as they lost by double digits and they were pounded by Penn State last week, 55-13. I wanted to us ...  read more

Last year we tracked the opening steam movements of lines in both college football and the NFL. The idea was to see if the "sharp" money was really that, or if the idea of trailing these severe early line movements was merely a myth. Well, I'm glad to say that we are back at it this season and ready to build on last year's research.

Here is the basic met ...  read more

A - Appalachian State. A former Michigan man took it upon himself to avenge the crushing embarrassment dished out to the Wolverines by App State last season. Les Miles and his LSU Tigers emphatically popped the Mountaineers' balloon with a thoroughly overwhelming 41-13 victory. We didn't learn a lot about LSU's offense in the game, but we did see that the defense is going to ...  read more

Once again it’s that time of year, as this is the kickoff issue for our annual Fourth Down and Inches. What was most gratifying about the past weekend was that our top selection, Temple, completely destroyed Army, 35-7. I spotted that game early in the summer and, believe me, it would have been a rough Saturday had that game gone down Friday night. This is a much-improved Owls team, a ...  read more

A - Arizona Cardinals. The Cards beat the Raiders, 24-0, this week, but it wasn't nearly as promising as it might sound. Matt Leinart is supposed to be emerging as a star by now, but he was truly terrible in his half of play - four completed passes and three interceptions. Kurt Warner was much better in the second half. So much better, in fact, that the ageless f ...  read more

Having a legitimate salary cap in the NFL makes competency, not money, the most important asset a GM can have. The average salary of the eight Pro Bowl quarterbacks last year was $6.6 million. The Chicago Bears dished out over $8 million for the revolving quarterback circus of Brain Griese, Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton-that's not exactly getting your moneys wo ...  read more

"Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face."

- Mike Tyson

I know what you mean Mike. I do. See, in the world of the Betting in the National Football League, expectations, perceptions, and preparation are fundamental components of achieving success. And everyone has a plan, until they see some 255-pound gorilla of a linebacker spear his ...  read more

A - Artest, Ron. The Rockets are clearly looking to win while they still have a solid core in place. That's pretty much the only reason that they would take the gamble they have - adding Ron Artest to their line-up. There's little doubt that Artest is as good as anyone defensively. He's just also a locker room menace, and he can rip a team apart and cause trouble ...  read more

A - Anthony Kim. didn't win the Canadian Open this week - Chez Reavie did. Still, his eighth place finish deserves a bit of discussion. In his last nine tournaments he has won twice, finished second once, and had two more top-10s, including the British Open. He's made over $3 million in that stretch, and is sitting in fifth in the money list. Keep in mind that he ...  read more

With NFL training camps just around the corner now is the time we should be getting our head around how we think things are going to turn out by the time the playoffs roll around. That's easier said than done. A good place to start, though, and to get back into the swing of thinking about football again, is to look at the odds for each team to win their division. ...  read more

There is a rare break in the constant stream of action that makes up the baseball season, so it is a natural time to take a step back and evaluate where we are at. One thing that we can do now is consider who is likely to hit the most home runs on the season, and then to see if we can make some money from that belief. Bodog has odds listed for a dizzying number o ...  read more

College football is just around the corner, so it is a good time to look at college football season win totals. Looking at the totals this far after they have been released is mostly a frustrating situation - there isn't much value at all in the ones that seem to be the most straightforward or obvious. The only thing that makes sense to me in these situations is ...  read more

A - A's. Not only was there a ridiculous amount of money spent on a 16-year-old pitcher, but it came from a very unlikely team - Oakland. The A' s signed Michael Inoa to a minor league contract that included a $4.25 million signing bonus. The guy may be young, but he obviously has enough ability to make a team lose their heads - he's 6 foot 7, and he throws in th ...  read more

The Wild Card Weekend of the Arena Football Playoffs was completed last week and the underdogs dominated, covering all four games and winning three of them straight-up. The AFL playoffs follow the NFL prototype with six teams in each conference making the playoffs and the top two seeds in each earning a bye. That being said, a major difference is that there are onl ...  read more

A - Arnold, Benedict. If you aren't a hockey fan or a Canadian then you can't really understand the Toronto Maple Leafs. They are usually terrible and they haven't won a Cup since 1967, yet in the eyes of the team and their fans they are the only team that matters. Leafs fans are like really annoying Red Sox fans circa 1999. You can imagine, then, how thrilled fa ...  read more

The draws have been selected for the 2008 Wimbledon Championships set to serve from June 23 to July 6 as five-time defending Champion Roger Federer will have to face Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic if he wants to return to Centre Court. There is a possibility for an all-Williams' final on the women's side if defending Champion Venus Williams can get ...  read more

A - Andruw Jones. We won't have Jones and his oddly spelled first name to kick around for a month or more. Jones had surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee on Tuesday and will miss four to six weeks. You'd never guess it if you just look at their payroll, but this is pretty much the best thing that could have happened to the struggling Dodgers. Jones, ...  read more

Recent reports have named Barry Melrose as the next coach of the Tampa Bay Lighting. Yes, this is the same Tampa Bay Lighting that won a Stanley Cup under John Tortorella in 2004. Tororella is still under contract to coach the Lighting next season but the team is in the process of being solid to Oren Koules. Many believe Koules is looking for a fresh start and has tabbed ...  read more

One of the hardest but most important tasks baseball handicappers face is deciding which pitchers are good value, and which one aren't worth risking your money on. The best and most obvious way to do that is by looking at statistics. Win-loss record and earned run average are the tools that most bettors rely on most heavily, but they can sometimes be misleading. ...  read more

A - A-Rod. After almost a month out of action, last year's MVP is back and in solid form. He's not lighting the world on fire, but he's not slumping either. What is more notable is that his team, the biggest disappointment in the league after the Tigers, has got their act together since his return, winning five of six. Of course, those six games have been against ...  read more

For North American sports fans European soccer can be incredibly confusing. Not only do teams play in their regular league, but they also play in ongoing tournaments like the Champions League that seem to never end. On top of it all, the players on the teams regularly go to join their national squads to play in friendly matches or to qualify for the World Cup or ...  read more

A - Angels. Anaheim (or whatever they are supposed to be called) should be relieved and thrilled to have John Lackey back in the fold. After all, getting a guy who was 19-9 last year back in the rotation can never be a bad thing. The Angels picked an odd way to show their joy, though. He allowed just one run in seven innings in his season debut against the White ...  read more