West Virginia Mountaineers Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

Expectations for a Big East title were flying high at Morgantown, WV before the 2004 season, as well as at online sports betting blogs where many experts in the sports handicapping community were posting the praises of the West Virginia Mountaineers and touting them as a solid “go with” team for anyone’s list of weekly football picks. The Mounties were coming off back-to-back bowl seasons and the Big East looked ripe for the taking.

The Mounties disappointed no one in their first two games with easy wins and covers at home over East Carolina and then at Central Florida. West Virginia hung on to beat Maryland at home 19-16, failing to cover as 6.5-point chalks and then bombed 1-AA James Madison in a game that was not lined to improve to 4-0 straight up and 3-1 against the odds. Little did anyone know but this was to be the high point of the season for the Mounties.

West Virginia next lost 13-19 as 3-point dogs at tough Virginia Tech, which was no disgrace but did expose them, to many in sports handicapping, as a potential “pretender” as far as elite status went. West Virginia bounced back, however, with a little better value as the doubts began to set in, and won and covered at Connecticut and then home against Syracuse to improve to 6-1 straight up and 4-2 against the odds.

Once again the general sports betting public looked favorably upon West Virginia and many didn’t think twice at the thought of having to lay 15-points with the Mounties at Rutgers next. West Virginia proved to be overvalued and barely escaped with a 35-30 win. Even worse was the following week, in which as 28-point home favorites against Big East doormat Temple, West Virginia could only win 42-21.

Panic set in at Morgantown and amongst some members of the sports handicapping community the following week when, as 7-point home favorites, West Virginia was blown out by Boston College 17-36. That was the final confirmation to many sports betting bloggers and the general public as well, that the Mounties were overrated. Incredibly enough, however, West Virginia still had a shot at the Big East title on Thanksgiving Night and was a 3-point chalk at Pitt, losing 13-16. An 18-30 loss to Florida State in the Gator Bowl as 9-point dogs ended a stretch of five consecutive failures against the odds by West Virginia.