2005 Buffalo Bulls Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

Buffalo entered the 2004 season coming off three straight losing campaigns against the odds. There was a time, not to long ago, when Buffalo was somewhat of a “trendy” choice amongst sports bettors as a large dog but that “secret” eventually leaked out to the greater sports handicapping and betting community, thus, shooting the value of these wagers down. Buffalo was just 14-19 against the odds, in fact, from 2001-2003.

Buffalo started off the 2004 season with a road cover at Eastern Michigan, losing 34-37 as 6-point dogs. Some sports bettors thought that this could be a sign as Buffalo’s re-emergence as a “value dog” but that theory was quickly shot down in Buffalo’s next three games as they lost all of them both straight up and against the odds as double digit underdogs.

With all of their value shot, Buffalo next hosted Central Florida and was installed as 7.5-point dogs. This was a decent sports handicapping value against another near anonymous team and Buffalo blew them out with a 48-20 straight up win.

Most online sports betting blogs continued to ignore Buffalo, however, and with good reason. The Bulls were a terrible football team from a non Bowl Championship Series conference and not even reliable in their former favored role as large dogs against the sports betting line.

The big win against Central Florida proved NOT to be a cure for the Bulls, who proceeded to drop three of their next four games against the odds, losing all four of those games straight up to virtually shatter whatever little sports handicapping appeal that they had. In their last two games Buffalo was blown out by Marshall 14-48 and by Kent State 7-33. Buffalo stood at 3-6 against the odds heading into their final two games.

As 5-point home dogs in their home finale against Central Michigan, Buffalo won a stunning 36-6 victory. Many sports handicapping experts saw a potential letdown situation for the Bulls in their season finale at Connecticut, and that turned out to be the case as Buffalo lost 29-0 as 25-point dogs to finish 4-7 against the odds in 2004