Just a brief rundown of this week's picks.
Indiana (+17.5) at Iowa
Indiana is a becoming a solid Big Ten team. They aren't likely to win many more games in the league or make a bowl game, but they have been competitive. I'm probably a bit biased by seeing them give Michigan a run for their money, but I think they have some solid pieces.
Iowa is solid and talented, but not particularly explosive. The Hawkeyes' average margin of victory at home is only 4 points this season, and that includes games against IAA Northern Iowa and Sun Belt powerhouse Arkansas State. Add in that Iowa is coming off a tough three game stretch that included a home nail biter against Michigan, and tough road trips to Wisconsin and Michigan State, and the Hawkeyes appear primed for a let down. Not enough to lose outright, but enough not to cover a 17.5 point spread against an underrated team.
UNDER - Purdue at Wisconsin (53)
This one is based a lot on feeling and past performance. These are two average teams that scream for an average game. I don't see either of these teams scoring more than a few touchdowns, so 53 just seems out of range.
For the record, a few others I feel good about this week, but aren't in my top two.
Boston College (-5.5) over Central Michigan
UNDER - NC State at FSU (64.5)
New Mexico State (+44) over Ohio State
Georgia Tech (-405) over Vanderbilt
Mississippi (-195) over Auburn
Nebraska (-500) over Baylor
Oklahoma State (315) over Texas
UNDER - Mississippi State at Kentucky (45)
UNDER - New Mexico at San Diego State (52)
USC (-3) over Oregon
Michigan State (-3.5) over Minnesota
Louisville (-2.5) over Arkansas State
Friday, October 30, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
CF - HR Weekend Wrapup
50% does not make this fund grow, but it doesn't kill it either. I whiffed pretty badly on the Oregon / Washington pick. I felt pretty good with my rationale, but obviously I underestimated Oregon. They look great and just keep building momentum going in this weekend's home game with USC. Of course, I will seriously consider picking USC this coming weekend (opened at -3), but I have to see what else is out there and the over / unders before I go there.
Auburn at LSU went more along the lines of what I was expecting. Auburn needed a late TD to even get to 10. It looks like Les Miles made some nice adjustments during the bye week and LSU's offense is in sync going forward. Definitely something to consider going forward. I'd say any o/u under 40 is an easy over and anything over 50 is an easy under for LSU at this point.
Here's where we stand at this point. Still working to get back to even, but the massive bleeding seems to have stopped.
Friday, October 23, 2009
This Week's CF-HR Picks.
I will get into some of my 0ther funds in the near future, but let's stick to the college football high risk fund. Here are the two to take for this week (with some minor justification).
Washington (+10) over Oregon
In my mind, these are two teams with deceiving records. Oregon is solid and has some nice wins (including thrashing Cal) but their best work has been at home. In their two road games, they lost the punch fest to Boise State and won a blah game against an unimpressive UCLA team.
Washington has played a tough schedule which has included hanging with LSU and beating USC. They have momentum, an experienced quarterback, and a historically strong home field advantage. They have played their losses close (heart breaking losses to ND and ASU could easily have them 5-2). There's just no reason to think they can't beat Oregon at home, let alone stay within 10.
UNDER on Auburn at LSU
Auburn stormed out of the gates offensively, but have been slowed down considerably in the last few weeks once they got to the heart of the defense happy SEC. LSU has played their typical brand of solid defense this season, especially at home. They have yet to give up double figures at home. I think LSU will put some points on Auburn, but not enough to offset the very few Auburn will manage. If Auburn doesn't get past 14 or 17 at the most, that requires LSU to put up 35 to get to the o/u number, and I just don't see that happening.
So that's that, let's see if my uptick continues.
Washington (+10) over Oregon
In my mind, these are two teams with deceiving records. Oregon is solid and has some nice wins (including thrashing Cal) but their best work has been at home. In their two road games, they lost the punch fest to Boise State and won a blah game against an unimpressive UCLA team.
Washington has played a tough schedule which has included hanging with LSU and beating USC. They have momentum, an experienced quarterback, and a historically strong home field advantage. They have played their losses close (heart breaking losses to ND and ASU could easily have them 5-2). There's just no reason to think they can't beat Oregon at home, let alone stay within 10.
UNDER on Auburn at LSU
Auburn stormed out of the gates offensively, but have been slowed down considerably in the last few weeks once they got to the heart of the defense happy SEC. LSU has played their typical brand of solid defense this season, especially at home. They have yet to give up double figures at home. I think LSU will put some points on Auburn, but not enough to offset the very few Auburn will manage. If Auburn doesn't get past 14 or 17 at the most, that requires LSU to put up 35 to get to the o/u number, and I just don't see that happening.
So that's that, let's see if my uptick continues.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
CF - HR. Performance
Let no one say I'm skewing this to make me look good. This fund has been rough so far this year, but I think it's turning around. I'll try to give my feelings on the picks in the weeks to come, but at this point, here's where we stand.
At this point, seven weeks into the season, this fund is sitting at a 26.6% loss. Back on September 26 we were at well under 50%, so the trend is going in the right direction. All in all, I'd say the jury is still out on this fund and a profit is still possible. Stay tuned for further updates.
At this point, seven weeks into the season, this fund is sitting at a 26.6% loss. Back on September 26 we were at well under 50%, so the trend is going in the right direction. All in all, I'd say the jury is still out on this fund and a profit is still possible. Stay tuned for further updates.
2009 College Football High Risk Fund (CF - HR) - Definition
Ground Rules:
- Saturday games only.
- Picks may only be against the spread (ATS) or over / under (o/u). No money lines.
- Only two picks each week.
- Wager 25% of fund value on each pick.
- Assume standard -110 payout for wins.
- All lines from www.jimfeist.com, mainly because I like his layout.
Theory:
- Very little upkeep required. Bets only need to be placed once a week.
- High risk, high reward. A 2/2 weekend will increase your fund 45.5% while 0/2 weekend will drop you 50%. 1/2 gets you a 4.5% loss.
- Only requires you to identify two good lines out of 50+ games each week, theoretically making it easier.
- Saturday games only.
- Picks may only be against the spread (ATS) or over / under (o/u). No money lines.
- Only two picks each week.
- Wager 25% of fund value on each pick.
- Assume standard -110 payout for wins.
- All lines from www.jimfeist.com, mainly because I like his layout.
Theory:
- Very little upkeep required. Bets only need to be placed once a week.
- High risk, high reward. A 2/2 weekend will increase your fund 45.5% while 0/2 weekend will drop you 50%. 1/2 gets you a 4.5% loss.
- Only requires you to identify two good lines out of 50+ games each week, theoretically making it easier.
It begins...
Question: Do I know enough about sports that I could outperform a standard 401(k) betting on sports?
Answer: Let's find out.
The whole idea began late last year while chatting with an ivestment savy friend from work. He was heavy into trading and was actually making a good deal of money, even in the awful Wall Street conditions of late '08. His basic mantra was that you have to pay attention, be interested, and be willing to take a risk. As much as I like the idea of money, I am just not that interested in the whole financial market scene. I am interested in sports though. Really, really interested. College football, college basketball, MLB, NHL, NFL, NBA... I like them all. If there's a Michigan or midwest bend to it, then all the better.
The plan at this point is to create a couple different "funds" and see how they do. The main disclaimer at this point is that this is all completely hypothetical for two reasons. One, after looking around, it appears that the legality of using off shore betting over the internet is sketchy at best. I have no interest in even chancing getting into legal trouble. Two, I'm basically too afraid of losing my money to really bet it. At this point at least. Anyway, I start each fund with $500 and follow some sort of guidelines and see how they do. I started this in the beginning of September and the idea just came to me to turn it into a blog. I have no idea how to promote such a thing (or if I even want to), but I figured I'd start posting it somewhere public so that if it does happen to work out, it will be at least somewhat transparent. Anyway, that's the plan, so let's see how it goes.
Answer: Let's find out.
The whole idea began late last year while chatting with an ivestment savy friend from work. He was heavy into trading and was actually making a good deal of money, even in the awful Wall Street conditions of late '08. His basic mantra was that you have to pay attention, be interested, and be willing to take a risk. As much as I like the idea of money, I am just not that interested in the whole financial market scene. I am interested in sports though. Really, really interested. College football, college basketball, MLB, NHL, NFL, NBA... I like them all. If there's a Michigan or midwest bend to it, then all the better.
The plan at this point is to create a couple different "funds" and see how they do. The main disclaimer at this point is that this is all completely hypothetical for two reasons. One, after looking around, it appears that the legality of using off shore betting over the internet is sketchy at best. I have no interest in even chancing getting into legal trouble. Two, I'm basically too afraid of losing my money to really bet it. At this point at least. Anyway, I start each fund with $500 and follow some sort of guidelines and see how they do. I started this in the beginning of September and the idea just came to me to turn it into a blog. I have no idea how to promote such a thing (or if I even want to), but I figured I'd start posting it somewhere public so that if it does happen to work out, it will be at least somewhat transparent. Anyway, that's the plan, so let's see how it goes.
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