Penn State Nittany Lions Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

Penn State is another great example of a “name brand” college football team though the general sports betting public is finally catching on to this program’s demise of recent years. The Nittany Lions entered the 2004 campaign coming off a humiliating mark of 3-9 both straight up and against the odds in 2003. With just one bowl appearance in their previous three seasons the Lions faced a skeptical sports betting public in 2004, and many online sports betting blogs featured posts about head coach Joe Paterno being well past his prime on the sidelines.

Penn State was installed as 15.5-point home chalks in their 2004 opener against Akron and blew away the zips 48-10. This one solitary blow out win seemed to make zombies out of the general sports betting public, who immediately began to think of Penn State as a power team again based on this one win against a lightly regarded non-Bowl Championship Series team. Penn State’s sports betting odds value was shot as the final gun went off against Akron.

This was proven in their very next game in which they were absurdly installed as 3-point road chalks at Boston College against a proven Big East contender. Penn State was handled 21-7 and proven to be a not ready for prime time team against the odds. There were more than a few angry posts by sports betting bloggers who had Penn State at the top of their list of football picks that day.

Interestingly enough, after having been written off by most of the masses of asses after their loss at BC, Penn State became a decent bargain for value oriented members of the sports handicapping community and beat the sports betting odds in three of their next four games despite winning just one of those games straight up. Penn State stood at 2-4 straight up and 4-2 against the odds heading into the season’s final five games. Eventually, Penn State’s complete lack of offense caught up with them and they lost three consecutive games against the odds with the last one being a home loss to Northwestern 7-14 as 4.5-point chalks. At this point Penn State was a rare member of any list of football picks. With their value as a bargain now at an all time high, the Nittany Lions were an incredible 3.5-point home chalks against lowly Indiana and got the money in a 22-18 win. The then capped off the season with another win and cover over Michigan State 37-13 as 3.5-home dogs.