The eighth year of our annual College Football Betting Awards strikes closer to home than ever before. There’s a local, regional and Las Vegas Bowl-participating victor spread across the six established categories.
Without further ado, here are the winners. The first three honors are cut-and-dried, while the final three require some subjectivity but were picked after careful consideration and closely following the betting market all season.
Team of the Year: Arizona (Team with the nation’s best record against the spread)
Last year’s winner: Tulane
Expectations were low for the Wildcats coming into the year, but they ended up putting together their best season since 2014 with 9-3 straight-up and 10-2 against-the-spread records. They fell just short of reaching the Pac-12 Championship Game via a two-point overtime loss to USC and a seven-point defeat to undefeated Washington, both games in which Arizona easily covered the spread. The Wildcats found a star in quarterback Noah Fifita, who began the year as the backup, and the prolific passer will lead them into a marquee matchup against Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on December 28.
Achievement Award: Northwestern (Team that furthest eclipsed its over/under preseason win total)
Last year’s winner: TCU
The betting market was more efficient this season, as for the first time in the history of the betting awards, no team beat its win total by more than four games. Both Arizona and Northwestern went over by four games, but the former got the marquee honor. Northwestern deserves its own nod, given that many suggested it would be the worst power-conference team coming into the season. The Wildcats were rocked by a hazing scandal that resulted in the firing of coach Pat Fitzgerald a month before their first game. Former defensive coordinator David Braun became the interim head and earned the full-time job with a 7-5 straight-up season when the betting market tabbed the Wildcats for only three wins. They’ll make their first-ever Las Vegas Bowl appearance December 23 against frequent visitors Utah at Allegiant Stadium.
Covering Streak of Excellence: Ball State (Team with the longest current winning streak against the spread)
Last year’s winner: Oregon State
The Cardinals won’t be playing in a bowl game, but they’ll head into next year considered a potential darkhorse Mid-American Conference championship contender after building some late-season momentum. Ball State covered its last six games behind physical, workhorse running back Marquez Cooper and a ferocious defense. That was enough to steal this category from New Mexico State, which deserves an honorable mention for having covered in eight straight games before a 49-35 loss to Liberty as 10.5-point underdogs in the Conference USA championship game.
Bettors’ Choice: Penn St. (Team that made the most money through gamblers via point-spread victories)
Last year’s winner: USC
The Nittany Lions scored garbage-time touchdowns in the final minutes as a big favorite to cover on three separate occasions this year. While the late-game aggression enraged many who bet against Penn State, there were far more who benefited from coach James Franklin’s apparent and long-rumored desire to use any means necessary to cover point spreads. Penn State was popularly bet in all but a pair of games this season—big-time showdowns against Ohio State and Michigan. Those were appropriately two of the only three times the Nittany Lions failed to beat the point spread, further locking up their case for this award.
Bookmakers’ Choice: Alabama (Team that made the most money for the house through point-spread victories)
Last year’s winner: Penn State
It feels unnatural to tab the best college football program of the past 15 years for this distinction, but Alabama didn’t get bet to the same level as it has in the past this season. Sentiment soured on the Crimson Tide after an early-season upset loss to Texas, and the line moved against them in virtually all their biggest games for the rest of the season—against Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Tennessee, LSU, Auburn and Georgia. Alabama went 5-1 against the spread in those games, showing this year’s group wasn’t as far off from a vintage Nick Saban-coached team as initially thought. The results also put a dent in some of the world’s biggest bettors’ bankrolls, as it takes a lot more parlay cards and small wagers to move spreads as far as they regularly shifted against the Crimson Tide.
Underdog of the Year: UNLV (Team that performed best with the odds stacked against it)
Last year’s winner: South Carolina
UNLV went 5-0 against the spread as an underdog in the regular season. No other team in the nation that was an underdog at least twice stayed perfect. The Scarlet and Gray’s run ended in the Mountain West Conference Championship Game when it fell 44-20 to Boise State as 2-point underdogs but their résumé here was already too far above the other contenders. UNLV also tied with Oregon and Miami (Ohio) for the second-best against-the-spread record in the nation at 10-3. Coach Barry Odom’s first season at the helm was highly successful, both on the field and in the sportsbook.
This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.