Week Three of the college football season is already here. After opening with a nice win on California we were let down last week by Nebraska as Colorado rolled past them for an easy victory. Our College System of the Week article record now stands at 41-26-4 ATS the last seven seasons.
Each week during the football season once the games go final, we begin our research. Part of that process includes searching for possible situations that may lead us to a winner the following week or later in the season.
One interesting situation that presented itself this week looks at what happens to teams that have gone on the road as large favorites and lost the game straight up. We wanted to know if they rebound with a solid performance or if they struggle to get motivated in their next game especially when they are installed as underdogs.
The database qualifies one game this week that matches our situation. It is a matchup that features a team we played against in Week One in our System of the Week. We used the California Golden Bears as our play on team in their game versus the Mean Green of North Texas. The Bears did not let us down, winning 58 to 21. This time though the roles are reversed with the Mean Green qualified as the play on team in our System of the Week.
Last week the North Texas Mean Green were on the road at Florida International installed as -11.5-point favorites and lost 46 to 39. In that loss the Green’s defense gave up 514 yards of total offense to the Panthers. A closer look at that loss we see that five offensive turnovers by North Texas played a huge role in the loss. Turning the ball over that many times puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the defense. They will have worked this week to correct those issues before traveling to Ruston.
Their opponent this week will be the Bulldogs of Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs have also faced the Panthers of Florida International this season that came back in their opener as they hosted the Panthers. In that game they were favored by twelve points and came away with a 22 to 17 victory. Last week LA Tech hosted a non-conference foe in Northwestern State and defeated them 51 to 21. The fact the Bulldogs are not coming off a conference straight up and against the spread victory is the final qualifying parameter for our system this week.
Our system reads like this. In Games 2-8, play ON a road underdogs of 2-25 points off a SU loss as a road/neutral site favorite of ten or more points versus an opponent not off a conference SU & ATS win. These underdogs have posted a record of 21-5-2 ATS for eighty-one percent winners against the spread covering the spread by an average of 8.29 points per game. What we have here is a group of rebounding road dogs which bring home the cash on Saturday in Ruston. Play North Texas plus the points.
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