2005 Texas Longhorns Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

The Texas Longhorns are one of college football’s “name brand” teams and have taken sports bettors on quite a roller coaster ride over the past few seasons. In 2000 Texas beat the sports betting odds in seven of their final nine games and then covered six of their first ten games of 2001 to make for a nice 13-6 sports handicapping run. A market correction took place, however, beginning with their final three games of 2001 and extending through their first eleven games of 2002 in which Texas beat the sports betting odds in just four of those fourteen games. Just as the sports betting public soured on the Longhorns and began to keep them off their lists of football picks, Texas went on to cover their final two games of 2002 and seven of their first ten games of 2003. They then proceeded to drop two of their final three games against the odds of 2003. To say that Texas had somewhat of a schizophrenic reputation within the sports handicapping community would be a bit of an understatement. Although a “name brand” team with a unanimously acclaimed boatload of talent, Texas’ inability to beat Oklahoma each year was reflective of their overall sports handicapping appeal.

After a 65-0 blowout win as 26-point home chalks against North Texas, the Longhorns underachieved against the odds winning their next three games straight up, but losing all three of those game for sports bettors. Many sports betting bloggers posted opinions that this performance was a direct reflection of head coach Mack Brown, who they believed did was not getting the maximum performance out of the team.

The annual “Red River Shootout” was next for Texas, who was installed as 7-point dogs against Oklahoma in a 0-12 loss, which soured a lot of sports betting bloggers on the Horns. After a lackluster 28-20 win as 13.5-point home dogs against Missouri, Texas lost much of whatever remained of their sports betting appeal. The time was ripe for a sports handicapping market correction.

Texas was clearly undervalued as 1-point dogs at Texas Tech, as proven by their 51-21 statement-making win. The win at Lubbock served as a springboard to a run of five consecutive straight up wins, with four of those wins getting the cash for sports bettors. The strong finish placed Texas in the Rose Bowl, where as 7-point chalks against Michigan they won a thrilling 38-37 game, but failed against the high sports betting odds.