2005 Maryland Terrapins Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

The Maryland Terrapins shocked much of the sports handicapping community with a 10-2 record both straight up and against the odds as they beat the online sports betting boards seven straight weeks to start that season before there was any kind of market correction. Incredibly enough, in their very next season, the Terps went 11-3 straight up and 9-4 against the odds to turn a solid profit for the second consecutive year. There was finally a correction made by the sports betting odds makers in 2003 and Maryland dropped five of their first seven games against the pointspread as the sports betting dynamics finally started to even out, though they did rally to beat the sports betting odds in their final five games of the season as some of the value of 2001-02 returned for those with football picks on the Terps.

Finally, in 2004, there was no more real sports betting value on the Terps as they were a fully respected program within college football and a routine candidate to make the list of football picks for many sports bettors. This usually means trouble and that was, indeed, the case of the 2004 Terrapins.

Maryland’s utter lack of value was apparent to many experts in sports handicapping in their 2004 opener when they were ridiculously installed as 16.5-point home chalks against a solid Northern Illinois team that had defeated them in 2003. The Terps barely escaped 23-20, which was a portent for things to come, as in their very next game Maryland was again clearly overpriced as 25-point home chalks in a 45-22 win against Temple. The Terps next covered at West Virginia as 6.5-point dogs in a 16-19 loss and then walloped Duke 55-21 as 16.5-road chalks. At this point Maryland was 3-1 straight up and 2-2 against the odds and many sports betting bloggers again had the Terps on their “A” list of football picks. Unfortunately it was too late as the Terps would prove to be no sports handicapping bargain, and in fact, prove to be a rip off.

Maryland dropped four of their next six games against the odds as they were clearly overvalued to meet the demands of the general sports betting public. Wiser members of the sports handicapping fraternity could see the obvious warning signs of Maryland’s weak offense and avoided the Terps or took the extra value offered by the sports betting odds makers on their opponents.