2005 Kent State Golden Flashes Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

Kent State provided college football sports bettors an incredibly wild ride against the odds in the three preceding seasons leading up to 2004. In 2001 The Golden Flashes cashed in an incredible eight out of their final nine games against the odds. There was a violent sports handicapping market correction in 2002, however, as Kent State was a bankroll bombing 1-9 against the sports betting line. Once again, in their following season of 2003, Kent State provided another sharp change in direction of the sports betting odds value as they went 8-3 against the online sports betting sites and casino sportsbooks. By judging the patterns of their three previous seasons, Kent State was likely to offer little sports betting value at the start of 2004.

Sure enough, Kent State dropped four of their first five games against the odds in 2004. Their problems began right from the start as they were blown out at Iowa 39-7 as 30-point dogs. Next came a cover as 12-point road dogs at Rutgers in a 21-29 loss. As a 6-point home chalk, Kent State next lost to Akron straight up 19-24. Following that was a 21-24 loss at Central Michigan as 1.5-point chalks ad then the streak ended at Miami of Ohio, a MAC powerhouse, where as 19-point dogs Kent was blown out 27-47. At that point most online sports betting blogs that gave any attention to the MAC wrote Kent State off and, as a team in a league that got little attention, Kent State became virtually anonymous to the sports handicapping community.

No longer overvalued and, in fact, with the sports betting market having gone in the other extreme, Kent State was due to make a correction after their blowout loss at Miami of Ohio. Traditional MAC power Marshall came calling to Kent and was installed as a 13.5-point chalk. Marshall was living off of it’s past prestige, however, and was not at the same level of some of their previous teams of the past and Kent State proved to be a good sports handicapping value in a 17-27 loss.

The good performance against Marshall served as a springboard for Kent the rest of the way, as the Golden Flashes won and covered their last four consecutive games against the odds, making for a streak of five (including the Marshall game) straight payoffs to end their season. Kent State has continually been a sports handicapping lesson on value against the line.