There's been plenty of talk about how college football has changed in recent years, but it's not the only industry that's undergone a dramatic shift. You're here reading this column right now because you want to know what I think about college football games this week from a gambling perspective. People have been betting on sports since their creation.
Seriously, thousands of years ago, a Roman turned to his friend at the Coliseum and said, "I'll bet you that lion is going to kill him," and his friend said, "You're on." Except, you know, they said it in Latin, not English. What's changed recently is how much easier it is to do so. You used to have to call a guy who knew a guy, or worse, actually leave your house and go to The Guy.
Now you just pick up your phone and 10 seconds later your bet is in, and there's nothing to do but wait and see if you win. You can even place other bets while you wait for the outcome of your bet! The problem is, while it's easier than ever to bet, it's harder than ever to win, particularly in college football.
Entire rosters change over the offseason. A lot of the data you could once rely on to make an educated guess about how strong a team would be the next season has gone out the window. It's always been an educated guessing game, but we're all less educated than ever before.
That makes these early-season games tricky. Hopefully, we get lucky and start 6-0. And if that doesn't happen, at least we'll learn something from what we saw.
Or, at least, we'll try to. Regardless, at least we have games to pick! I will start by saying right from the jump that I am not trying to figure out how many guys who failed to make an NFL roster this summer will be on LSU's roster.
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