The NCAA college football season is underway and you’re looking for more good sources of information and analysis to inform your bets. You’ve come to the right place as we’ve listened to hours of podcasting and prognosticating to bring you our picks for the best sports betting podcasts covering college football.
The pods run the gamut from quick listens to deep dives, from analytics to more holistic-minded approaches. Some with more jokes, others with fewer. To make some suggestions for additions, hit us up at @sports_handle. (And check out our list of top sports betting podcasts unspecific to a particular sport.) In no particular order or ranking:
Best College Football Sports Betting Podcasts — Analytics, Matchups and More of Various Run Times
‘The Sharp 600’
Listen on iTunes here and on Stitcher here
If you’re pressed for time, look no further than “The Sharp 600.” The show’s motto is, “Give us 10 minutes and we’ll give you the arsenal necessary to successfully navigate the sports betting market.” Sometimes they’ll run heavy to 15-18 minutes but you get the idea — it’s concise.
Brought to you by San Francisco sports radio host Covers.com analyst Joe Fortenbaugh, during football season you’ll find a pod once a week about the college football slate. Fortenbaugh provides a variety of statistics, trends and perspectives on the betting market, and will give out best bets for that week with quick justifications. Fortenbaugh brings in high-quality guests, which have included respected oddsmaker Chris Andrews, the sportsbook director of the South Point Hotel & Casino, VSiN guys Joe Ostrowski and Gill Alexander, data analyst Ed Fang, pro handicappers and many more.
‘Bet the Board’
Listen on iTunes here and or at Soundcloud here.
A stark contrast from “The Sharp 600” timewise, “Bet the Board” is for folks who want to dive for serious depth and an understanding of college football matchups, personnel, coaching styles and tendencies, advanced stats, player mentalities, the betting market and beyond. In their college football previews that ran between 90 minutes and two hours, the tandem of host Todd Fuhrman and pro bettor/handicapper PayneInsider covered all the power conferences for examinations of key metrics, information, and schedule analysis to inform totals and future bets.
You can find Fuhrman on SI.com, CBS and now FOX Sports 1 on the new show “Lock It In.” During the season, they put out their college football podcasts on Wednesdays, covering exciting Top 25 clashes and others games presenting value. They won’t cover every game, but select contests in greater detail with a typical run time about and hour or 1:15. Keep in mind they aren’t going to spoon-feed you picks — rather, information and guidance, with picks here and there.
ESPN Chalk’s ‘Behind the Bets’
Listen on iTunes here and get the podcast archive at ESPN right here
Hosted by ESPN Chalk editor Ben Fawkes alongside fellow ESPN-ers Doug Kezirian, Chris “The Bear” Fallica, and “Stanford” Steve Coughlin, this foursome (not all at the same time) takes on the sports betting world — with a heavy focus on college football by Coughlin and Fallica. (BTB also covers an array of events and sports wagering topics.)
Stanford Steve appears on Scott Van Pelt’s “Bad Beats” segment and writes a weekly picks column during the college football season for Chalk. And you’ve seen The Bear on College Gameday on TV or perhaps in person. Put simply, these college football gurus are plugged into everything happening in the college game — from X’s and O’s, depth charts, coaching changes, team tendencies and more. They’re well-versed and have good chemistry, typically breaking down games involving teams in the power conferences — the SEC, PAC 12, ACC, Big 12 and Big 10. And from an information standpoint, they also have ESPN’s lineup of dedicated power conference reporters at their disposal.
‘VSiN’s Early Odds’
Listen on iTunes here and Art19 here
Hosted by Chicago native, VSiN contributor and a voice on 670 The Score Joe Ostrowski, this twice-a-week podcast is distributed on Mondays (hence “Early Odds”) with college football recaps, and on Wednesdays with rotating guests to make picks along with Ostrowski. As with others, “Early Odds” is not purely about college football, mind you — the podcast also covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA, and horse racing, as the sports calendar turns. This season’s college football prep began in late July with this podcast.
Ostrowski is polished on air and draws quality guests, recent ones including Warren Sharp of Sharp Football, CBS Sports’ Will Brinson and Yahoo! Sports’ Matt Harmon. The regular house guest for Mondays is Golden Nugget assistant sportsbook director Aaron Kessler, who brings the behind-the-counter perspective. The guys look at point spreads, line movement, totals, futures, prop bets and more. This presentation is straightforward, or, put another way, there’s no fluff or BS. Of course, you’ll get some levity and jokes in the mix but ultimately this pod gets right to the point on need-to-know subjects, with an average run time of about 45 minutes.
[Also See: 63 Essential Sports Bettors to Follow on Twitter]
‘Beating the Book’
Listen on iTunes or get the archive over here
Alexander’s “Beating the Book” is a great podcast for sports bettors hungry for college football analysis, especially during bowl season. Host for VSiN program “A Numbers Game,” the analytics-minded Alexander uncovers betting edges for all the bowls, as he coins bowl season “the most wonderful time of the year.”
Alexander brings a smooth sports radio presence and guests to review lines, prices, strategies, advanced stats and a multitude of factors for college football matchups, marquee and otherwise. During most of the fall, “Beating the Book” focuses on the NFL but come bowl season, the show previews every single bowl game. The Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl? Every single one, folks. (If you’re a SiriusXM subscriber, you’ll also hear Alexander’s “A Numbers Game” on channel 204 Monday-Friday 10 a.m. ET to 12pm ET.)
‘Bang the Book’
Listen on iTunes and here at the Bang the Book website.
Also on our list of overall top betting podcasts, “Bang the Book” is hosted by Adam Burke and is a great source of information and quality analysis for college football bettors. Burke grinds daily and he digs deep — beyond the teams that will play on national television. For example on this preseason podcast, Burke and Ralph Michaels from “WagerTalk” dive outside the box and indulge in an in-depth analysis on teams in smaller conferences such as Conference USA, where Florida Atlantic University (4/5) and Marshall (7/2) are the favorites to win the conference.
In future recordings on “Bang the Book,” unlike in many other programs, you will be sure to hear more about C-USA and the other FBS Group of Five conferences — the American Athletic Conference (AAC), Mid-American Conference (MAC), Mountain West Conference (MW) and the Sun Belt Conference. Betting value does not reside only in the Power 5. Bringing his passionate style of podcasting, tune into Burke’s show for quality guests to gather great college football intel — five days a week from August through the end of March Madness. Sports betting hibernation has ended!
