College Football Parlay Bets
- Best College Football Parlay Bets
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- Best College Football Parlay Bets This Week
- A parlay is a type of sports bet in which you combine multiple individual bets (typically 2-10 bets) into one bet or “card.” Combining the bets gives you worse odds to win, but a larger reward for winning.
- The most popular college football bet is against the spread (ATS). Against the spread betting isn’t about picking a winner of the football game, it’s about picking the team who will cover the spread. Let’s say you bet your money that Team A covers the spread (wins by a certain amount of points), Michigan State -6.5 for example.
Traditionally, parlays can be bet from 2-12 teams but some sportsbooks out there are starting to test the waters with parlays up to 15 or more teams. The attraction to parlays that most bettors have is the ginormous payouts which can be achieved with a very small amount risked. Let’s take a look at a college football parlay payout chart. I cover some of this math in my article on football teasers in case you’re interested in how it is calculated, but for now let me state at BetOnline 6-team fixed odds parlays for football give you odds of -111.92 per team and BetOnline 8-team fixed odds parlays for football give you odds of -111.67 per team. For BetOnline parlays it’s. . Two of the three largest college football bets FanDuel accepted on Saturday were on Florida to cover the 5.5-point spread against Texas A&M: $49,000, and $25,000 on the Gators -5.5.
You may be confused as to what that means. For years it was a battle cry amongst my roommates and me, particularly during football season, and when you got to yell it, chances were you were buying drinks that night. But what does it mean, and what’s a parlay?
What is a Parlay?
A parlay is a type of sports bet in which you combine multiple individual bets (typically 2-10 bets) into one bet or “card.” Combining the bets gives you worse odds to win, but a larger reward for winning. The larger the amount of wagers included in your parlay, the larger the payout.
In order for a parlay bet to win, you must win each individual bet on the card. For instance, let’s say I bet the Patriots, the Ravens and the Texans all to win their games on any given Sunday. If all three win, I will get a much larger payout than if I just bet each game individually. However, if any of those teams lose their bet, the entire card is lost.
The only exception is in the case of a “push,” which is the gambling term for a tie. If one of the games on the card pushes, that wager is removed from the parlay. So, in the case of our three team bet above, if the Ravens tied their game, it becomes a two bet parlay. If the Patriots and Texans then win their games, the bet pays out as a 2 team parlay. The payout will be smaller than if they all three won, but hey, you still win some money!
While the odds of winning large parlays (5-10 wagers combined) are relatively low, they allow you to risk a small amount of money for a potentially large reward. For instance, a 10 team parlay bet purchased for $25 would pay out over $16,000 if you won every game.
Now that you understand the basics, let’s look at what kinds of bets you’ll be pairing together to make your fortune!
Types of Parlays
Over/ Unders
Over/Under bets (or bets on the “total) are wagers made on the total amount of points that will be scored during any given game by both teams. The sports book sets the “line,” which is the number you will be basing your decision on. You bet on whether you think the total amount of points scored will be over or under that number.
Over/Under, or Totals, bets are very common in betting parlays because they allow you to make multiple bets on the same game. A common strategy is to bet which team you think will win, and then parlay that bet with whether you think the game will go “under” or “over.”
So, let’s say your Uncle Tony got a tip that Aaron Rogers has a secret shoulder injury, and it will be difficult for Green Bay to throw the ball. The line is set a 53.5. Plus, they are playing the Browns, so you still think they will still win. You may want to bet Green Bay and the under. So you are betting that Green Bay will win the game, but it may be lower scoring due to the injury, and thus the total points scored by both teams will be less than 53.5.
You may have noticed the half a point I included in the example above. In sports betting these half points are called “the hook.” The sportsbooks use half points for most bets, especially over/unders, which limit the opportunities for a push. They “hook” bettors into one side of the bet or the other.
Point Spreads
Point Spreads, commonly referred to just as “the spread,” are what makes sports betting interesting. Without them, we could all just bet the favored team every week, make a lot of money and break Vegas within a month.
A point spread evens the playing field between teams by taking points from the favored team and giving them to the underdog. So, for instance, the Chiefs are playing the Colts in what is expected to be a tightly contested game. The Colts are favored to win by a field goal.
On the sportsbook board, or the betting site, this would look like “Colts -3” or “Chiefs +3,” depending on which side you wanted to bet. So, if you bet the Colts -3, but the Colts win by 1, you actually lost that bet by 2 points. If you bet the Chiefs +3, congratulations, you won!
How many points the underdog gets, or the size of “the spread,” depends on how mismatched the teams are. In the NFL, the spread rarely goes about 13.5 or so, but in sports like college football, you routinely have teams cover 60 point spreads.
While the point spreads themselves add a degree of complication to the bets, there are additional options that can really add to the fun. They’re called Teasers and Pleasers—my heart rate picks up a little just typing those words out for you!
Teasers
As far as I’m concerned, Teaser parlays are the greatest thing to happen to sports betting since the invention of the online casino. A teaser bet allows you to move that point spread that we discussed above in a way that’s favorable to you, the bettor (typically between 6 and 7.5 points). You get less of a payout if you win a teaser parlay, but it does improve your odds of winning.
So, in the example of the Colts and the Chiefs above, we had the Colts favored by 3 points. If you “teased the line” 6 points, then you’d move that Colts spread from -3 to +3.
You add 6 points to the spread that’s already given. Now you have a bet on the team that’s already favored, and now you win your bet whether they win outright as is predicted, or if they lose by less than 3. I like your chances!
What’s even better is that you don’t have to just tease the point spread, you can tease the total or over/under as well! So, if the point spread was 53.5 as it was in our example earlier, you could tease that line all the way down to 46.5 (7 point teaser), and then bet the over. Or, you could bet the under by moving the over/under up to 60.5. Like taking candy from a baby.
Pleasers
Moneyline
Moneyline bets are the last little wrinkle to parlay betting that we will discuss here. These bets remove the point spread from the equation. It’s a bet based straight up on the winner and loser of the event. It’s you saying “I don’t care about all those numbers and that other mumbo jumbo; I think my team is going to win and that’s that!”
Moneyline bets can be very profitable if you can predict an upset. However, if you bet the favored team moneyline, the payout will be less. How much less depends on how largely favored the team you bet on is.
You are able to mix moneyline bets with point spread bets on a single parlay, however you cannot mix them with either teaser/pleaser bets. On those cards, if one wager is teased/pleased, you must tease/please them all.
It’s Week 10 of the college football season and that means we are back with our favorite parlay of the week. This bet includes a few favorites and a few underdogs to increase the odds. Let’s take a look at our top college football parlay among SportsbookWire’s college football picks and predictions.
College football parlay picks, predictions and best bets
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Friday at 11:40 a.m. ET.
Leg 1: Michigan -3 (-110) at Indiana
Our first leg of the parlay will feature Michigan (1-1) covering a field-goal spread over Indiana (2-0). After a disappointing loss to Michigan State last week, look for the Wolverines to bounce back in a big way in this critical Big Ten matchup. Michigan has won six straight games at Indiana and should be expected to take care of business here in its third game of the season.
Also see:Michigan at Indiana odds, picks and prediction
Best College Football Parlay Bets
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Leg 2: Florida at Georgia -3 (-115)
Arguably the best matchup of the week features two SEC powerhouses facing off with Georgia (4-1) taking on Florida (3-1). The Gators have a ton of talented weapons on offense, but the Bulldogs have the defensive backs to slow down their offense. Expect this game to be close throughout, but for Georgia to win by at least 4 points.
Leg 3: Stanford at Oregon -7.5 (-115)
This line is surprisingly low considering Oregon has won 12 of its last 13 games and its offense was one of the best in the nation over that stretch. While the Ducks will be ushering in a new quarterback after Justin Herbert left for the NFL Draft, expect the team to score into the upper 30s and easily cover this spread Saturday evening.
Leg 4: Clemson at Notre Dame (+155)
With QB Trevor Lawrence (COVID-19) out of the lineup, Clemson (7-0) could be in big trouble against Notre Dame (6-0) this week. Clemson nearly lost to Boston College last week and Notre Dame is one of the better teams in the country. The Fighting Irish have won 10 straight home games, so take them to upset the Tigers and win outright.
Special College Football Betting Promotion:
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College Football Parlay Bets Picks
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Leg 5: Washington State (+105) at Oregon State
In their first game without head coach Mike Leach, the Washington State Cougars are slight road underdogs to the Oregon State Beavers. The final leg of our parlay will be taking Washington State’s money line for the outright win. The Cougars hav won six straight games over Oregon State and the Beavers have been an awful home team over the last two seasons.
5-TEAM PARLAY Bet $100 to earn a profit of $3,388.20
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College Football Parlay Bets Odds
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Best College Football Parlay Bets This Week
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