College Football Rivalry Week Betting Myth To Avoid

College football rivalry week is here. As a big fan of college football, this is one of my favorite weeks of the season. Whether it is Ohio State/Michigan, Alabama/Auburn, Wisconsin/Minnesota, UCLA/USC, Ole Miss/Miss St, or even an under the radar rivalry like Louisiana/ULM this week is full of emotion. Betting these games can be tricky, but I wanted to focus on talking about one common idea out there that I believe can get people into trouble when betting these rivalry games.

It’s a rivalry game, so just throw the records and statistics out the window because none of that matters at all. You’ll hear that several times if you listen to television previews of these games or even some radio or podcast previews of these rivalry showdowns. There are always going to be some results that surprise, but that is the case every single weekend in college football. It will be easy after the fact for someone to say there is that one specific result that proves that the records and stats don’t matter. Hindsight is always 20/20, but as bettors we have to predict what will happen before the game kicks off.

I do not subscribe to the theory that none of the stats these teams have built up over the course of the year matter. The records also matter. I don’t want to handicap any college football games without the data in front of me. I’m certainly not going to just discount all the work these teams have put in all year. Does it matter that Team B has a terrible offensive line and Team A is fantastic at pressuring opposing quarterbacks? Of course it does! The rivalry game alone doesn’t fix that issue.

Now, if you have a coach that has fared very well as an underdog or has consistently fared very well against that specific rival, that is data that can matter. Maybe they can consistently put together a great game plan for this rival. That’s not the same thing as saying throw everything else out the window! 

It will be a fun rivalry week, but I would be very careful of throwing everything out the window that these teams have done over the course of the long season!