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How College Football Polls Different From Odds & Point Spreads

One thing that we love about the college football polls is how they affect the point spread. You see the writers of America who cast their votes for who is better than who have different reason for doing so than the guys who set the lines. The writers might want to create a stir, be different, and last but not least, they don’t know as much about the teams on a national scale as they think they do. Compare that to the odds makers, whose sole job it is to decided which team is better than another and by how many points. They only care about one thing, and that is getting the college football odds right so the books make money.

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Now you can use this knowledge to your advantage. Anytime a Top 5 team is playing an unranked team you can bet that the public is just itching at the bit to lay the points. They don’t really take into account that the ranked team has another top 5 team coming up next week on the schedule, or the week before they got done playing a shootout against a fierce rival. These are the things that the odds makers, and you as a handicapper need to factor in before making your college football picks for the week.

We decided to show you just how different the points of view are, by comparing the latest odds to win the BCS championship with the top 25 AP poll. Let’s see just how different the opinions are between the experts and the sports writers.

AP Top 25

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. USC
4. Oklahoma
5. Florida
6. Missouri
7. LSU
8. West Virginia
9. Clemson
10. Auburn
11. Texas
12. Texas Tech
13. Wisconsin
14. Kansas
15. Arizona State
16. Brigham Young
17. Virginia Tech
18. Tennessee
19. South Florida
20. Illinois
21. Oregon
22. Penn State
23. Wake Forest
24. Alabama
25. Pittsburgh

Now here are the latest odds to win the BCS Title from most likely to least likely:

1. Southern California
2. Florida
3. Oklahoma
4. Georgia
5. Ohio State
6. Missouri
7. Texas
8. West Virginia
9. Clemson
10. Auburn
11. Virginia Tech
12. Kansas
13. Louisiana State
14. Wisconsin
15. Tennessee
16. Arizona State
17. California
18. Illinois
19. Michigan
20. Alabama
21. Texas Tech
22. South Florida
23. Penn State
24. Oregon
25. BYU

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Week 14 College Football Odds & Predictions
• Week 15 College Football Bowl Predictions
• 2008 College Football Bowl Games
• Memphis v. Ole Miss Football Spreads & Picks
• College Football Power Rankings: Week 14

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