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2010 Sun Belt Conference Tournament PreviewNCAA Basketball Betting Lines03/03/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2010 Sun Belt Conference Tournament will be held entirely at neutral sites, as Convention Center Court and Summit Arena in Hot Springs, Arkansas will serve as the venues for the event. All 13 teams are set to take part in the tourney, making this one of the more challenging conference championships to win. Troy, Middle Tennessee and North Texas all tied for the best record in conference at 13-5 and after the tie-breaker scenarios were worked out, the Trojans landed the top seed. The Mean Green took the second seed and the Raiders the third. The top three spots in this event receive a bye directly into the quarterfinals. The rest of the field is forced to play a first-round bout. The winner of this tournament gets the right to represent the Sun Belt in the NCAA Tournament. The Sun Belt Tournament kicks off on Saturday, as the eighth-seeded Florida Atlantic Owls meet up with the ninth-seeded South Alabama Jaguars. FAU finished fourth in the East Division standings at 10-8, while USA was fifth at 8-10 in the same division. The Owls, who have 14 wins overall, have improved greatly from last season, when they finished just 6-26 and 2-16 in league play. The Jaguars meanwhile, have taken a step back from a 20-win campaign in 2008-09, as they are 16-14 at the moment. USA though, has had good success in this event, winning it five times. The second game of the opening round features the fourth-seeded Western Kentucky Hilltoppers against the 13th-seeded New Orleans Privateers. The Toppers came on strong down the stretch, winning six straight games to finish third in the East Division at 12-6. The recent run also pushed the team within a victory of its sixth straight 20-win campaign. WKU is the most decorated team in this event, owning seven titles, including the last two. As for UNO, this will be its last run with the Sun Belt, as the program is expected to drop to the Division III level. The Privateers stumbled to a 3-15 finish, owning the worst record in the conference. UNO, which is 0-3 against WKU in this event, last took home the tourney title in 1996. First-round action continues with the fifth-seeded Arkansas State Red Wolves taking on the 12th-seeded Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans. The Red Wolves placed second in the West Division at 11-7, marking their best league record since the 2006-07 season. ASU, which split a pair of meetings with UALR during the regular season, is out for its first tourney title since 1999. The Trojans, meanwhile, have never won this event despite capturing 16 victories. UALR won the West Division last season at 15-3, but stumbled to a sixth place finish this year at 4-14. In yet another first round bout, the sixth-seeded Denver Pioneers lock horns with the 11th-seeded FIU Golden Panthers. Denver finished in a three-way tie with UL-Lafayette and FAU, but was awarded the highest seed after the tie- breaker scenario played out. The Pioneers' 17 overall wins are their most since the 2004-05 campaign, and they are 6-9 in the SBC Tournament since joining the league during the 1999-00 campaign. For FIU, it made headlines by hiring Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas to be the head coach. The move certainly brought publicity to the program, but not much else. The Panthers placed last in the East Division at 4-14 and carry an eight-game losing streak into this event. The first round will wrap up with the seventh-seeded UL-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns battling the 10th-seeded UL-Monroe Warhawks. The Cajuns went from 7-11 last season to 10-8 in the conference this year. ULL is 18-13 all-time in the Sun Belt Tournament, including three championships. On the opposite side, ULM dropped its final four games of the regular season and finished fifth in the West Division at 6-12. The Warhawks lost both meetings with ULL during the season, but by a total of just seven points. ULM is just 1-3 in this event, losing in the first round each of the past two seasons. The quarterfinal round of the Sun Belt Tournament begins on Sunday and top- seeded Troy will make its first appearance against the winner of the FAU/USA matchup. The Trojans won their final five games of the regular season to earn a share of the conference title and East Division crown. It is the program's first title since winning the Atlantic Sun regular season crown in 2004. Troy, which is 2-4 all-time in this event, earned a bye for the second straight year. The second game for the quarterfinals will feature the winners of the WKU/UNO and ASU/UALR pairings. The second-seeded North Texas Mean Green will take the court for the first time in the quarterfinals against either ULL or ULM. The Mean Green won eight straight down the stretch to win its first-ever West Division title at 13-5. The team's No.2 seed is the highest since joining the league in 2000. At 21-8 overall, North Texas has now posted at least 20 wins in four straight seasons for the first time in school history. The Mean Green is 8-8 all-time in this tourney, winning its lone title in 2007. The quarterfinals conclude with the third-seeded Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders facing the survivor of the Denver/FIU pairing. Winners of their last three games, the Blue Raiders grabbed a share of the East Division title along with Troy. It marks the first time the program has won a share of any league title since 1988-89. The team's 19 wins are also the most since the 2004-05 campaign. Middle Tennessee owns a winning record in this event at 11-9, but has yet to take home the hardware.
<< 2010 Sun Belt Tournament Preview
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2010 Sun Belt Conference Tournament will be held entirely at neutral sites, as Convention Center Court and Summit Arena in Hot Springs, Arkansas will serve as the venues for the event. All 13 teams are se
<< 2010 Northeast Conference Tournament Preview
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How did changes to college football betting rules affect bettors?The 2007 college football rules changes that were implemented to shorten games are now history. The NCAA rules committee did what they set out to do; games were cut by an average of 14 minutes per game last season. There were also, on average, 14 fewer plays per game. We’ll get into how that did (or didn’t) affect games in regards to the pointspread a bit later. While the NCAA rules committee may have had the betterment of the game in mind, they'll now “turn back the clock” for next season. Two key rules have now been overturned by the NCAA committee for the 2007 season, something definitely for the better. For those of you who may not remember what those rules actually were, let us refresh your memory. 1) The first one was actually starting the clock on a kickoff as soon as the kicker touched the ball rather than waiting until the returner touched it. The problem here was near the end of the half (or game), if the team leading was kicking off, they could milk the clock by intentionally running offsides and then re-kicking. They could run 10-15 seconds off the clock each play while taking just five-yard penalties each time. They could run the clock down and simply cause the half (or game) to end on a kickoff, keeping the opposing offense off the field. In 2007, the clock will now start when the returner touches the ball as it had before last season. 2) The second rule dealt with starting the clock after a change of online football betting possession rather than waiting until the ball was snapped. This took a lot of time off the clock throughout the game as teams changed possession, however it caused the most problems late in games (or halves). Rather than huddling up and calling a play, the offensive team would have to rush onto the field as the clock started. This was a definite disadvantage to a team that was trying to come from behind late in the game. This year the clock will start on a change of possession, after the ball is snapped. How did those rules affect the college game last year and will it make a difference this year when it comes to the pointspread? We commonly heard two theories when it came to these changes. First, it would affect scoring negatively. Second, it would hurt favorites as they would have less time and fewer plays to cover the number. Did the rules hurt scoring? Yes. It seemed obvious that shortening the game by what amounted to 14 plays would push scoring downward. That was the case last year. Of the 119 Division 1A teams, 69 squads scored fewer points in 2007 than they did in 2005. Just 48 teams had a higher PPG scoring average and two stayed the same. Almost 59 percent of the teams in college football last year had a lower PPG average than they did in 2005. Expect more scoring in 2007 as we revert back to the old rules. Did the rules hinder favorites from covering the number in 2007? Not really. Last year the favorites posted an overall spread record of 336-350-16 (48.9 percent). The year before, favorites were 316-326-13 (49.2 percent). In 2004, the favorites were 316-339-2 (48.2 percent). In fact, college football favorites have been above 50 percent for the season just once in the last seven years (in 2003). Last year’s numbers fell right in line with where they have been historically. How about big favorites? The rules must have hurt them? Maybe a little bit. Double-digit favorites last year came in at a 47.8 percent clip compare with an average of just over 50 percent over the last seven years. Since 1980, favorites of -10 or more have covered at exactly a 50 percent clip (measured over 6,716 games). Even bigger favorites must have struggled? Not really. In fact, it was just the opposite. Favorites of three TD’s or more were 59-54-2 last year (52.2 percent). Since 2000, those same favorites (-21 or higher) hit at 51.3 percent and since 1990 came in a clip of 50.3 percent. Stepping it up a notch to four TD favorites or higher, we actually see they've covered at a much better rate last season than before. Last year, favorites of -28 or more were 31-21-1, or almost 60 percent. Historically, four-TD-or-higher favorites have come in at a 50.7 percent spot since 2000 and only 48.9 percent since 1990. The “perceived” problem with the favorites covering at a reduced rate really never came to fruition. Bottom line is, there might be some more scoring in 2007, but no real revelations when it comes to finding any pointspread golden nuggets. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on college football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards. |
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