College football week 9 thread: The Midshipmen Who Stare at Goats

There are good weeks and bad weeks, but in general I'm about even over the course of the season. So yeah, Vegas is Vegas. If you want to figure out how to really do this and make money at it, @exmediahack has written and executed the playbook far better than I — or most people — ever could.

I'm also a nickel-and-dime recreational sports gambler. I've always said my goal is to start with about $100 and not have to go back to the ATM for more all season. This week's bets pay for next week's, hopefully with a little left over for lunch or to build a cushion for the inevitable bad week. I'll bet $50 or $60 a week spread over six or seven games, so as long as I break even on that I'm covered for next week.
If things go right, I'll turn that $100 into about $300 by the end of the season and me and my wife will go out for a nice Christmas dinner. If they don't go right, then I've spent $100 or $200 on a hobby over the span of three months and I've had some fun.

One thing I really enjoy about this is how it gets me following a wide range of college football. I live in SEC country, but betting on UCLA, BYU or Wyoming on a regular basis gets me watching those teams and their conferences. Or you get weirdly invested in a random late-night game like Hawaii-Nevada or Washington State-San Diego State and you're dialed into football until 1 a.m. It takes you down a rabbit hole to a whole other segment of the sport you otherwise wouldn't give a crap about (and probably with good reason, in some cases). That's pretty fun to me.

 

What's the owl's equivalent of a rabbit hole?

 

Owl catches and eats the rabbit, right?

 

I think so and I think UMass played somebody twice recently as well.

 

Gambler dictionary:

Even = down a decent amount
Down = waaaaaay down
Won a little = won a little

 

If you believe Reddit, Temple over VT in 1998.

 

Good week for the Kennesaw State football program.

 

TOO SOON

 

Man, I'd like to see Navy drop Notre Dame Saturday. Ditto for Army dropping them later in the season. Unlikely, I know, but those are both very good service academy teams and I love the sound of those upsets.

 

At the heights of my betting (2019-22), I got really deep into:

Korean baseball
Russian table tennis
Bundesliga
England Championship
WNBA
MLS Western conference
Mountain West football
Mexico Liga MX
Turkish soccer
La Liga
USL

It was fine for those years as I build the bankroll.

I’ve written about it before. I HAD to make money those years to pay for college out of my pocket. And I did. The 43k I made went to two years of college (tuition and housing) and allowed me to catch up on my retirement and be able to keep paying for it.

I’m entering a different phase of my career as the $150k+ news anchor jobs are going away and I’m unsure when the blade will catch me. But it will eventually.

When that happens, I will return to Tropical America and find a job with zero real responsibility and ride it out until I draw social security and my 401k at 70.

I’ve “won” sports betting. Like when you win Super Mario as a kid.