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07/22/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - His season over late last fall, University of Maine football coach Jack Cosgrove enjoyed an opportunity to sit down and watch some NFL action on a Sunday afternoon.
Oh, was it ever "must-see TV".
First up, he caught Jovan Belcher, one of his former linebackers at Maine, make seven tackles for the Kansas City Chiefs against the Pittsburgh Steelers. After that game, the New York Jets and the New England Patriots aired on Cosgrove's TV, and he watched for Jets defensive end Mike DeVito and tight end Matt Mulligan, two of his former players, and Pats free safety Brandon McGowan, another of his former standouts.
"It was just like it was yesterday," Cosgrove said of the feeling of watching his former charges.
Schools like Florida, Miami-Florida, Oklahoma and Southern California are well- known for being pipelines to the NFL. Not so well-known is how Maine's smaller-than-12,000-student campus, tucked away in the northeast corner of the United States in Orono - nearly 250 miles north of Boston - holds its own in the Football Championship Subdivision.
No FCS program had more than Maine's seven NFL players last season, and the Black Bears hope to have eight or nine players on rosters this fall. An ESPN tracker of school breakdowns indicates Montana's banner 2010 crop of hopefuls gives it 10 players heading into training camps. Weber State has nine, while Massachusetts and Northern Iowa each has eight.
Considering the weather is often harsh in Maine during the prime recruiting period in December and January, luring NFL talent to Orono isn't easy. Often what players find at the CAA Football school helps to make them better players.
"It's a by-product of hard work and the things that the guys have accomplished here," said Cosgrove, who is 93-101 in 17 seasons at Maine. "Certainly, we're not as high-profile an institution and a football program as a lot of the others, in our league even. There's an environment here that I think is pretty conducive to success and growth. And we've had some young men who've had some ability and been overlooked in the recruiting process that have ended up here. This place has worked for them, the system's worked for them. The results have led them to be able to play this game after college.
"This place is a little bit isolated, a little bit off the beaten path. They say not too many people pass by Maine; you go to Maine, you turn around and go back. So it's worked for us. The guys that have come here have liked the environment."
Maine's NFL contingent includes San Diego Chargers inside linebacker Stephen Cooper, who is entering his eighth season and had 102 tackles and three forced fumbles last season. Maine takes credit for another linebacker, Lofa Tatupu, who spent his freshman year with the Black Bears before transferring to Southern Cal. He averaged 107 tackles in his first four seasons with the Seattle Seahawks before an injury limited him to only five games last season.
Jacksonville Jaguars special teams captain Montell Owens, who is entering his fifth season, was a Pro Bowl alternate last season. McGowan, in his sixth season, had 79 tackles and three forced fumbles with the Patriots a year ago, while Belcher was in on 48 stops as a rookie with the Chiefs. DeVito, now in his fourth season, had 28 tackles for the Jets, while Mulligan was mostly a practice squad player in his rookie campaign, although he caught one pass.
Offensive tackle Tyler Eastman went undrafted in April, but is in camp with the Chiefs. Rookie wide receiver Landis Williams was cut by the Denver Broncos, but is getting looks elsewhere.
"In Tyler's situation, it's really going to be interesting to watch," Cosgrove said. "He's going to a place where he has a [Maine] teammate in Jovan Belcher who's there. I'm sure he's already learned a lot about expectations and how to come in and be ready to go.
"Landis is going to have to make the plays that we saw him make at this level, be more competitive and show his skill level."
AROUND THE FCS
- You hear too much about college athletes being on the wrong side of the law. Southern Illinois offensive tackle David Pickard and tight end C.J. Robertson were the antithesis of that notion when they stopped a robbery earlier this summer.
The two were taking the Green Line home from a Chicago Cubs game when they noticed three suspicious people board the train, spread out and gesture to each other. At a stop, one of the youths swiped an older gentleman's iPhone and tried to exit the train. Pickard instinctively pancaked him to the floor, and then he and Robertson restrained him until police arrived at the next stop.
The accomplices got away, but riders cheered for the SIU pair. The thankful man whose iPhone had been taken was so grateful that he paid for the players' cab fare back to their stop.
- Grambling State is still awaiting the NCAA's decision on whether two-year quarterback Greg Dillon will be granted a sixth year of eligibility, a decision that will play a key role in the complexion of the Southwestern Athletic Conference race. Dillon's walk-on status at a university prior to Grambling gives the Tigers hope they he will be able to play again this fall.
"Not knowing is the tough part," head coach Rod Broadway said. "They need to let us know one way or the other, and we can move on. Now we'd love to have Greg back because he's been a tremendous player for us. And a tremendous leader."
- Let's get physical. Gardner-Webb has hired a pair of line coaches, Kris King to coach the offensive linemen and Bobby Godinez to coach the defensive linemen. King was an offensive lineman for the Runnin' Bulldogs and spent the 2007 and '08 seasons as a graduate assistant at Gardner-Webb before spending last season as a video assistant at UAB. Godinez, a former safety at San Jose State, arrived from a coaching stint at Mt. San Antonio College
- Old Dominion lost two starting linebackers to academic ineligibility, Mychael McJunkins and A.T. Aoelua. McJunkins led the Monarchs with 85 tackles last season, while Aoelua was third with 50. The Monarchs are entering their second season of play as an independent and will play in CAA Football in 2011.
<< San Francisco 49ers 2010 Training Camp Preview
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) -
REPORT DATES: July 30th (Rookies), July 31st (Veterans)
SITE: Marie B. DeBartolo Sports Center, Santa Clara, CA
CAMP OBJECTIVES: The 49ers' 2010 fortunes lie primarily with the continued
development of quarterback Ale
<< Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2010 Training Camp Preview
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REPORT DATE: July 30th
SITE: One Buccaneer Place, Tampa, FL
CAMP OBJECTIVES: With one of the youngest and least certain rosters in
football, August will be a critical month for the Buccaneers and head coach
Raheem Mo
<< Arizona Cardinals 2010 Training Camp Preview
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REPORT DATE: July 30th
SITE: Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ
CAMP OBJECTIVES: With Kurt Warner having joined an already substantial group of
Arizona retirees, much of the training camp focus will be on whet
<< Defending champ Petkovic ousted in Austria
Bad Gastein, Austria (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending champion Andrea Petkovic of
Germany was eliminated in the second round of the Gastein Ladies tennis
tournament.
France's Alize Cornet took out the top seed, 6-2, 7-5, on Thursday and
Pressel shares lead at Evian Masters >>
Evian-les-Bains, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Morgan Pressel shot a six-under 66
on Thursday to share the first-round lead at the Evian Masters with Melissa
Reid and Sun-Ju Ahn.
M.J. Hur and Song-Hee Kim are a shot back at five-under 67, wh
British Open champ Oosthuizen in the lead again >>
Stockholm, Sweden (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen
has played his way to the top of another leaderboard.
Four days after winning his first major, Oosthuizen shot a five-under 67 on
Thursday to share the firs
Jaguars sign third-round pick Smith >>
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Jacksonville Jaguars have signed
defensive tackle D'Anthony Smith to an undisclosed contract.
Smith was selected in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft after a standout
career at Louisiana Te
Reds activate C Hernandez, sign Isringhausen >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Reds activated catcher Ramon
Hernandez from the 15-day disabled list Thursday.
Hernandez landed on the DL earlier this month with inflammation in his left
knee, the same knee Hernandez had
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
Albert Pujols to be This Year's Home Run Champ Says Online Sportsbook
Barry Bonds is a 50-1 long shot to be this year's home run champ odds. The favorite to be this year's home run champ is none other than Albert Pujols, however.
Now that Barry Bonds is signed and in Giants camp, it is on to his pursuit of all of sports most prestigious records: the all-time home run mark. Bonds sits just 21 homers shy of tying Hank Aaron for the career mark at 755. Word out of Giants’ camp is that Bonds is the healthiest he has been in a few years. Bonds is just two seasons removed from his injury riddled 2005 campaign where he played in only 14 games and hit only 5 home runs. He did come back last year and had a solid season hitting .270 with 26 bombs. All eyes will be on Bonds this spring and summer not only because of his home run chase but his highly publicized steroid abuse allegations. If and when Bonds breaks the record, he surely will not get the positive attention one should for breaking a record that was once thought of as “unbreakable”. Despite Bonds decent season last year, he is just 50-1 at MySportsbook.com to lead the MLB in long balls this season.
Not surprisingly, the favorites to go deep the most times this season are Albert Pujols 5-1, Ryan Howard 6-1, David Ortiz 8-1 and Alex Rodriguez 12-1. With 49 homers, Pujols finished second in the National League behind Howard (58). Pujols is considered the favorite due to the consistent power numbers that he has posted since breaking into the league in 2001. Also one must consider the fact that he played in 16 fewer games then Howard did due to an injury. Howard smashed 58 homers in his first complete season of big league play en route to the National League MVP odds award. He silenced his critics by successfully hitting left-handed pitching. Howard also displayed the ability to use his power to the opposite field. Two attributes which should keep Howard amongst the league leaders in long balls for years to come. From the American League representatives, David Ortiz leads the field. Ortiz was second in the majors last year with 54 home runs. Except for 1999 when he only played in 10 games, Ortiz has improved on his home run numbers each year he has been in the majors (1997).
Be sure to log onto online sports betting site MySportsbook.com to check out the odds for who will lead the MLB in home runs this season. Below is just a sample of the players listed. With the highest credit card rates in the industry, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on baseball this summer.
World Series odds
Adam Dunn 15-1
Albert Pujols 5-1
Alex Rodriguez 12-1
Alfonso Soriano 15-1
Andruw Jones 25-1
Barry Bonds 50-1
Carlos Delgado 40-1
David Ortiz 8-1
Jermaine Dye 40-1
Ken Griffey Jr. 100-1
Lance Berkman 40-1
Manny Ramirez 20-1
Richie Sexson 40-1
Ryan Howard 6-1
Travis Hafner 20-1
Vladimir Guerrero 40-1
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.
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