Lamar to visit Hawaii as part of 12-game schedule

NCAA Football Betting Lines

02/09/2012 - Beaumont, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lamar University football will visit the University of Hawaii as part of a 12-game schedule announced Thursday.

Football Championship Subdivision teams usually play a maximum of 11 games, but the Cardinals are allowed to play the 12 games under NCAA rules because of the Sept. 15 game in Honolulu.

Lamar will play another Bowl Subdivision team when opens the season at Louisiana-Lafayette on Sept. 1. It is the first meeting between the programs since the Rajun Cajuns extended their series lead to 16-10 with a 42-33 win in 1989.

"I'm excited about the coming season and the schedule we will play," Lamar head coach Ray Woodard upon said. "We have some challenging road games with the two FBS contests.

"It will be a great way to open the season against longtime rival Louisiana- Lafayette, and, of course, there's the trip to Hawaii. That should be a lot of fun for the players, the coaches and the entire travel party."

Lamar will play six home games. The Cardinal will host Prairie View A&M (Sept. 8), Langston (Sept. 22) and McMurry (Oct. 13, Homecoming) in non-conference action and host Southland Conference foes Southeastern Louisiana (Sept. 29), Sam Houston State (Oct. 27) and Nicholls (Nov. 10).

The Cardinals also will visit four Southland opponents, Northwestern State (Oct. 6), Central Arkansas (Oct. 20), Stephen F. Austin (Nov. 3) and McNeese State (Nov. 17).

Lamar restarted its program in 2010 and has gone 9-13 in two seasons, including 4-7 in 2011.

2012 Lamar Football Schedule

Sept. 1, at Louisiana-Lafayette, Lafayette, La.

Sept. 8, Prairie View A&M, Beaumont, Texas

Sept. 15, at Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii

Sept. 22, Langston, Beaumont, Texas

Sept. 29, Southeastern Louisiana*, Beaumont, Texas

Oct. 6, at Northwestern State*, Natchitoches, La.

Oct. 13, McMurry (Homecoming), Beaumont, Texas

Oct. 20, at Central Arkansas*, Conway, Ark.

Oct. 27, Sam Houston State*, Beaumont, Texas

Nov. 3, at Stephen F. Austin*, Nacogdoches, Texas

Nov. 10, Nicholls*, Beaumont, Texas

Nov. 17, at McNeese State*, Lake Charles, La.

* - Southland Conference game

Wwthesims NCAA Football Betting News

<< Gonzalez will retire next month
Santiago, Chile (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chilean star Fernando Gonzalez says he expects to retire from the ATP World Tour next month. The former Australian Open runner-up, who has been plagued by hip, knee and back injuries over the las

<< Lafayette-Lehigh to play 150 in NYC?
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - As if the 150th meeting between the Lafayette and Lehigh football teams wasn't special enough ... How about an extra special venue? The Express-Times of Easton, Pa., reported Thursday about the concept o

<< Houston acquires Kandji from Colorado
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Dynamo have acquired forward Macoumba Kandji from the Colorado Rapids in exchange for a conditional draft pick. Kandji, 26, has played 57 regular season matches over five seasons in MLS. H

<< Breen prepares Pants On Fire for return
Hallandale Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Saturday marks a big day for trainer Kelly Breen with the return of his 2011 Belmont Stakes champion Ruler On Ice. The four-year-old gelding is one of the favorites for the $500,000 Donn Handica

<< San Jose signs Wondolowski to new contract
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Earthquakes signed two-time MLS leading scorer Chris Wondolowski to a new deal Thursday, although per league and team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Wondolowski has led MLS in

Nets' Bogans headed for surgery >>
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Nets announced Thursday that guard Keith Bogans has been diagnosed with a complete tear of the deltoid ligament as well as a fractured left ankle. Bogans, who signed with the Nets on

Rangers ink Cruz to two-year deal >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The two-time defending American League champion Texas Rangers have agreed to a two-year contract with outfielder Nelson Cruz, the team announced on Thursday. The 31-year-old Cruz batted .263 wit

Tsonga will open for France in Vancouver >>
Vancouver, BC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will get France going Friday in its opening-round Davis Cup tie against host Canada. The world No. 6 Tsonga will meet Vasek Pospisil in the first singles

Bartoli lands in Paris quarters >>
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French crowd favorite Marion Bartoli was an easy second-round winner Thursday in Paris. The second-seeded former Wimbledon runner-up handled Croat Petra Martic 7-5, 6-1 on Day 3 at the Open GDF Suez. B

Ten-man Lazio rallies to defeat Cesena >>
Rome, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lazio, which had a player sent off 34 minutes into the match, rallied from two goals down Thursday for a 3-2 win over Cesena in Serie A action at the Stadio Olimpico. Abdoulay Konko was sent off after the hal

Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.