Championship Angles
By Marc Lawrence
VegasInsider.com
It’s Championship Week and with it the reward of a ticket to the Big Dance to all the teams who will be cutting down the nets immediately after their conference tournament championship game.
Before knee jerking and playing on teams in title games that on paper look to be the better squad, instead pay close attention to these four College Conference Championship Game moneymaking scenarios.
You could end up padding your NCAA Tournament bankroll.
Note: all results are prior to this year’s tourneys and are since 1990…
Home Teams in Title Games – Use Them, Don’t Abuse Them
Home is where the heart is. It’s also where the money is in championship games. That’s confirmed by the fact that ‘on-board’ teams are 36-14 straight up and 28-21-1 against the spread.
If these home advantaged teams lost one or fewer games at home on the season they improve to 22-1 SU and 15-7-1 ATS, including 15-1 SU and 12-3-1 ATS if they are hosting a No.1 or No. 2 seeded opponent.
Best of all, these one-loss wonders are 6-0 both SU and ATS if the opponent did not cover the number in its semifinal contest.
Dogs With a Higher Win Percentage Have Little to No Bite
As rare as it may seem, teams with the better record are not always favored in Championship Games. Believe me, when the linemakers install the opponent with an inferior win percentage the favorite in the game he’s knows what he’s doing. That’s because underdogs with a better win percentage are just 16-25-2 ATS in these games.
And if the favorite owns a win percentage of .700 or more, the dog dips to 6-17 ATS.
Better yet, puppies with a better record who arrive to the title game off back-to-back SU and ATS wins are a lowly 1-9 ATS.
Buyer Beware!
Size Matters
Having been there and done that goes a long way toward a team’s success in conference title games.
That’s confirmed by the fact that team who won 27 or more games the previous season use that weight to their advantage, going 63-39-3 ATS in these affairs.
Put them up against a No. 4 or lower seed and they improve to 29-2 SU and 23-7-1 ATS, including 16-0 SU and 15-1 ATS if they defeated their lightweight opponent in a most recent contest.
Ain’t No Stopping Us Now
Momentum can carry a team a long way, especially when they arrive to the championship game of their conference tourney.
No. 1 or 2 seeded favorites that enter off three wins in a row by an average win margin of 20 PPG or better are 17-1 SU and 14-4 ATS.
Put them up against an opponent that failed to cover the spread by more than six points in its last game and they zoom right to the head of the class, going 13-0 SU and 12-1 ATS.
There you have it, four time-tested Championship Game theories to ponder for Championship Week. Get your dancing shoes ready…