2005 Ohio State Buckeyes Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

Ohio State is a “name brand” college football team in a “name brand” college football conference; The Big Ten. sports bettors must be careful when getting involved with including Ohio State on their list of football picks because the Buckeyes are often a poor value against the odds due to the general public often throwing money their way. The Buckeyes entered 2004 with two losing seasons in their previous three against the odds and yet many sports betting bloggers were touting their merits for 2004, predicting a Rose Bowl berth. Wiser sports handicapping veterans, however, were more skeptical and took a wait and see approach.

Ohio State stumbled out of the gate in 2004, leaving the general sports betting public holding an empty bag as the Buckeyes dropped four of their first six games against the odds, while going only 3-3 straight up. This was a classic sports handicapping lesson about “name brand” teams being mindlessly overrated by an ignorant sports betting public that did not bother to do its college football homework, for it they did, they would have immediately picked up on Ohio State’s many problems from inexperience to off the field controversy.

The Buckeyes’ slow start did manage to accomplish one positive, however, they began to regain their sports betting value as the masses of asses abandoned OSU after their 7-33 debacle at Iowa, which ended that opening string of six games. With their value being restored, and now being under the “radar screen” of the general sports betting public, Ohio State was ready to pounce.

The Buckeyes began a two-game homestand against Big Ten patsies Indiana and Penn State. All of a sudden Ohio State was somewhat of a bargain and made a reasonable 13.5-point chalk against Indiana, winning 30-7. Against Penn State OSU prevailed 21-10 as 6.5-point chalks.

Their previous struggles served to create outstanding sports handicapping bargains and, in fact, Ohio State finished 2004 with a record of 5-1 both straight up and against the odds. While Ohio State was not as good as they were made out to be early, they were also not as bad as they were made out to be in the season’s second half, which made them a super sports handicapping example of value fluctuation in 2004.