Matthew Hinton / Associated Press
Tulane players celebrate their team’s victory against Central Florida at the end of the American Athletic Conference championship NCAA college football game in New Orleans, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022.
Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022 | 2 a.m.
The college football regular season has wrapped up, with bowl games right around the corner starting December 16. That means it’s time to take account of the best sportsbook performances among the 131 Football Bowl Subdivision teams from throughout the year with our seventh annual College Football Betting Awards.
Here are the winners in our six established categories. The final three awards are more subjective but were chosen after careful consideration from closely monitoring the betting market all season.
Team of the Year: Tulane (Team with the nation’s best record against the spread)
Last year’s winner: Michigan
The Green Wave finished 11-2 both straight-up and against the spread, culminating one of the best seasons in program history with an American Athletic Conference Championship Game win against UCF. If the expanded, 12-team College Football Playoff took effect this year and not in 2024, Tulane would have received an automatic bid as the highest-ranked Group of Five conference team. Instead, Tulane will face USC in the Cotton Bowl. The Trojans will need to be careful; the Green Wave already knocked off Big 12 champion Kansas State and a participant in last year’s College Football Playoff, Cincinnati, outright. USC opened as a 1-point favorite over Tulane in the game.
Achievement Award: TCU (Team that furthest eclipsed its over/under preseason win total)
Last year’s winner: Utah State
The Horned Frogs were expected to be competitive but not dominant while breaking in their first new coach in 22 years this season, with Sonny Dykes taking over for Gary Patterson. Instead, Dykes brought the program to new heights—its first-ever nod for the College Football Playoff. TCU came into the year with an over/under win total of 6.5 games but pulled off the perfect regular season with a 12-0 straight-up record. Kansas State edged TCU in overtime of the Big 12 Championship Game, but those contests don’t count toward the win total anyway. A couple of other teams went over their win total by five victories—Tulane and Duke—but TCU was the only one to beat it by 5.5 games.
Covering Streak of Excellence: Oregon State (Team with the longest current winning streak against the spread)
Last year’s winner: North Texas
The upcoming Las Vegas Bowl, scheduled for December 17 at Allegiant Stadium, will feature the nation’s hottest team to bet on when Oregon State faces Florida. The Beavers have covered six straight dating back to October 15, including a 38-34 regular-season finale comeback victory against rival Oregon as 1-point underdogs, plus a hard-fought 24-21 loss to 10-win Washington as 4.5-point underdogs. Oregon State used one of the nation’s most experienced rosters and best rushing attacks to go 10-2 against the spread, contending for Team of the Year before Tulane pulled away with its conference championship.
Bettors’ Choice: USC (Team that made the most money for gamblers through point-spread victories)
Last year’s winner: Michigan State
A lot of big-money professional bettors spent the season betting against the Trojans in coach Lincoln Riley’s first year, but that was outweighed by the masses of recreational gamblers backing them every week. The latter group was mostly rewarded, as the Trojans went 8-4 against the spread during the regular season before a 47-24 Pac-12 Championship Game loss to Utah at Allegiant Stadium. Quarterback Caleb Williams, the expected Heisman Trophy winner, typically produced in the big moments, with three of the Trojans’ point-spread losses coming in games in which they were big favorites and the outright outcome wasn’t in doubt. USC is bound to be a popular bet again next season with Williams due back for one more year, but Riley will need to surround him with more muscle in the trenches to take the next step.
Bookmakers’ Choice: Penn State (Team that made the most money for the house through point-spread victories)
Last year’s winner: Arkansas
Penn State is technically tied with Oregon State for the nation’s longest covering streak, giving the Nittany Lions a tiebreaker in a category that had many deserving candidates. The Big Ten has two teams in the College Football Playoff—No. 2 Michigan and No. 4 Ohio State—but it had three great sides this season, including No. 11 Penn State. The Nittany Lions covered against the Buckeyes, barely sliding within the number in a 44-31 loss as closing 15.5-point underdogs after money came in against them all week. Similarly, Auburn was a popular choice when it hosted Penn State in Week 3 and closed a 2-point favorite before the Lions mauled the Tigers 41-12 on the road. Coming through in those two high-profile spots, and in a couple of other instances, was enough to earn Penn State the nod here.
Underdog of the Year: South Carolina (Team that performed the best with the odds stacked against it)
Last year’s winner: Baylor
No team ended the season on more of a high than the Gamecocks, who crushed the College Football Playoff hopes of both SEC East divisional rival Tennessee and in-state rival Clemson with upsets in back-to-back weeks. South Carolina shocked Tennessee 63-38 as 23.5-point underdogs and then snuck past Clemson 31-30 as 14-point underdogs. The Gamecocks’ reward is a Gator Bowl berth against Notre Dame, and the early line has them as an underdog again, this time by 4.5 points. South Carolina also knocked off Texas A&M and Kentucky as an underdog in back-to-back weeks in the middle of the season.
This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.
