Best College Football Betting Sites in Massachusetts

Tips for New to College Football Bettors

Betting on college football works the same as any other sport.

Some wagers you place will have “-” odds, which means they’re favored to happen, while some wagers have “+” odds, which means they’re not favored to happen.

Of course, that means your profit will be lower than your risk for bets with “minus” odds, while your potential profit will be higher than your risk for bets with “plus” odds.

There are a variety of different types of bets you can place, which we’ll detail below, along with pre-game bets, live-game bets and season-long bets.

Here are some additional tips:

Know who’s playing: College football news doesn’t spread nearly as much as it does in the NFL. Teams could be missing key players due to injuries without that reaching the broader national media. Be sure to take a deep dive into potential injury and lineup news for the game you’re betting.
Consider level of competition: It’s easy to think a team looks unbeatable after they dominate a clearly overwhelmed unranked opponent. Season-long stats can also be easily skewed by simply having one or two more “gimme” matchups than a team’s opponent has. If you’re going to look into something like “passing yards per game” or “yards allowed per game” then you must make sure to factor in the context of previous opponents.

Reading College Football Odds

Odds are relatively easy to understand once you realize they are all in relation to a $100 bet or a $100 profit.

For “plus odds” bets, or underdogs, the number indicates how much you would stand to win from a $100 wager. So a +250 line tells you that a $100 bet would win $250 if it was successful.

A “minus odds” favorite bet tells you how much you would need to wager to stand to win $100. So a -250 favorite requires a $250 bet to win $100.

Calculating Your Payouts

You can use the $100 rule we just discussed in the section above for calculating your payouts, but there’s no need to do any math.

Any time you add a bet to your bet slip, your sportsbook of choice will tell you what the potential payout will be before you place the bet.

You’re free to enter any number you want into the stake portion of the wager and your payout will automatically be calculated for you.

Alternatively, most sportsbooks also allow you to enter a number in the “payout” field, and it will automatically calculate the wager size required to achieve that payout.

Massachusetts College Football Betting Markets

Unfortunately, betting on in-state college football teams is prohibited in Massachusetts.

The good news is that you’re not missing out on too much action, since there are only a few teams in your state, like Boston College and UMass.

That means you can bet on any other college football teams in other states, and you’ll have tons of different ways to do so.

Spread Bets

The spread was created to even out the playing field for lopsided matchups – allowing bettors to wager on games without being forced to take huge risks on massive underdogs or settle for miniscule payouts on massive favorites.

The spread is easy to figure out. If a team is giving points on the spread (indicated with a minus sign), they must win by more than that number of points.

For instance, if a team is -6.5 points on the spread, it must win by seven or more points to cover the spread.

However, a team getting points on the spread (plus sign) can cover the spread in multiple ways.

If a team is +6.5 points on the spread, it can cover the spread by winning the game or by losing by six or fewer points.

Odds on the spread are typically close to even money, with the most common being -110 odds on both sides. That means you’d get the same potential payout for betting on either side of the game.

Moneylines

If you want to bet on a team to win a game, betting on the moneyline is the way to go.

This leads to bets that are more likely to win on the favorites, and the potential for much bigger payouts on the underdogs.

In college football, moneylines can get especially crazy when you have massive mismatches. It’s not uncommon to see a favorite of -2000 or more. That means you’d need to wager $2000 just to stand to win $100 (or that your $20 bet would return just $1 in winnings). That’s not appealing to most bettors. On the other side, a +2000 underdog could pay out with big winnings, but that line also implies the bet would have only a 4.8% chance of winning. Most bettors don’t want to settle for losses over 90% of the time just to get a potential for big winnings.

Some college football games are even such significant mismatches that sportsbooks won’t even offer moneyline markets. These games typically have massive spreads (think 35 or 40 points).

Over/Unders

If you are more confident in the scoring output of a game than picking a side to win (or cover the spread), you’ll want to bet over/under the total projected points.

Every game will have a projected total score. All you have to do is bet on over or under that projected number.

If a game has a total of 44.5 points, a final score of 24-21 (or more) will hit the over while a final score of 24-20 (or lower) will hit the under.

Similar to the spread, odds on the total points are close to even money, typically hovering around -110 on both sides.

Parlays

A popular way to bet on sports is by combining your best bets into a parlay.

Parlays are so popular because they offer a much bigger payout than you’d get by betting each wager individually.

However, they can be challenging to win because you must win every bet in a parlay.

For instance, if you bet on five different teams, your potential payout would include the odds for all five teams multiplied together. You would only win your bet if all five teams won — a single loss would make your entire bet a loser.

Teasers

If you like a parlay, but you want to make it easier to win, you can take a teaser.

Teasers add (or take away) points to spreads and totals that make the wagers more appealing. However, you should note that the payouts of teasers are significantly less than those of regular parlays.

For example, if you have a parlay of Kentucky +4, Michigan -14 and over the total points of West Virginia vs. Texas Tech at 57.5, a seven-point teaser would turn that into Kentucky +11, Michigan -7 and a total points of 50.5.

Futures

Futures bets are pretty well-named because they are bets that play out in the future.

These bets typically take all season long. They include betting on your team to win its conference, betting on which player will win the Heisman Trophy and even which team will win the National Championship.

Though you have to wait for these bets to play out, they are typically worth the wait because the odds are almost always long.

For instance, you could bet on some teams to win the National Championship at 10,000-to-1 odds.

Props

Prop bets allow you to bet on specific things happening within a game — like a quarterback throwing for over (or under) a certain yardage total, a running back scoring 2+ touchdowns in a game, etc.

Unfortunately, you cannot bet on player props for any college sports in Massachusetts.

You can still bet on team and game props however, like betting on which team will score first, how many points one team will score or betting on a team to win a quarter or half of football.

College Football Playoff Betting

You can bet on teams to make the College Football Playoff in the futures market of your sportsbook of choice, which can enhance your rooting interests all season long.

After that, you can also bet on all of the College Football Playoff games when they arrive.

National Championship Betting

Just like betting on the College Football Playoff, you can also bet on the National Championship.

This begins as a futures betting market. You can start betting on a potential champion before the season begins, and the market stays open through the entire season. Every week the odds will update as the college football landscape shifts.

And of course, when the game arrives you’ll be able to bet on it in a ton of fun ways.

College Football Live Betting

Betting on college football isn’t limited to pre-game wagers. You can bet on the games as they happen live and this can be particularly useful.

This way, you can double-down on a pre-game wager, hedge a bet, or wait until you get a feel for the game flow before you place a bet at all.

The odds on these games change by the minute, so make sure you act fast before they change.

Massachusetts College Football TV & Radio Coverage

You can watch all of your favorite college football teams all season long thanks to a wide variety of coverage on both television and the radio in Massachusetts.

How to Watch College Football in Massachusetts

Depending on which team you want to watch (and which game), you could have to watch one of many different channels.

Tons of channels are available to watch the best games of the week, including ESPN, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX Sports and the ACC Network (for Boston College).

How to Listen to College Football in Massachusetts

You can listen to Boston College football games on the team’s flagship radio station – WEEI (850 AM/93.7FM).

You can listen to UMass games on the team’s flagship radio station – WHMP (101.5 FM).

Massachusetts College Football Players

Massachusetts isn’t known for college football, but there are still a few teams worth watching. Boston College and UMass have had some fun seasons, and they both have some intriguing players you’ll want to keep up with this fall.

Here are some of the standouts you should familiarize yourself with:

Quarterbacks

Boston College: Thomas Castellanos, Grayson James, Jacobe Robinson

UMass: Taisun Phommachanh, Ahmad Haston, Ryan Jankowski

Wide Receivers

Boston College: Jerand Bradley, Lewis Bond, Jayden McCowan, Reed Harris, Jaedn Skeete, Dino Tomlin, Ismael Zamor, Nate Johnson

UMass: Frank Ladson Jr., Anthony Simpson, Sterling Galban, Sam Staruch, Jakobie Keeney-James, Keshawn Brown, Dallas Elliott

Running Backs

Boston College: Kye Robichaux, Treshaun Ward, Jordan McDonald

UMass: Jalen John, Cookie Desiderio, Da’Marion Alberic

Greatest Massachusetts College Football Players of All-Time

There have been some truly great college football players to play in Massachusetts.

Below you can find some of the best to ever play on the gridiron for the best teams in Massachusetts.

Boston College: Don Allard, John Bosa, Anthony Castonzo, Gosder Cherilus, Marc Colombo, AJ Dillon, Art Donovan, Zay Flowers, Doug Flutie, William Green, Will Harris, Matt Hasselbeck, Mike Holovak Chris Hovan, Bob Hyland, Zion Johnson, Pete Kendall, Mathias Kiwanuka, Luke Kuechly, Harold Landry, Chris Lindstrom, Matt Milano, Mike Mamula, Tom Nalen, Joe Nash, B.J. Raji, Bill Romanowski, Matt Ryan, Steve Schindler, Justin Simmons, Fred Smerlas, Chris Snee, Ernie Stautner, Bill Thomas, Joe Wolf and Damien Woody.

UMass: Kole Ayi, Todd Bankhead, Steve Baylark, Lou Bush, Jeremy Cain, Tony Chambers, Liam Cohen, Bill Cooke, Brian Corcoran, Victor Cruz, Harry Curran, Bernie Dallas, Vlad Ducasse, Bill Durkin, Frederick Ellert, Harold Gore, Emory Grayson, James Ihedigbo, Rene Ingoglia, Andy Isabella, Shannon James, Bruce Kimball, Greg Landry, Joe Lojko, Dick MacPherson, Ed McAleney, John McCormick, Bob Meers, Jeromy Miles, Milt Morin, Gary Pearson, Noel Reebenacker, Isaiah Rodgers, Josh Samuda, Khari Samuel, Steve Schubert, Tajae Sharpe, Marcel Shipp, Terry Swanson and Phil Vandersea.

Best College Football Betting Sites in Massachusetts

By Jason Schandl | Aug 23, 2024

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