The demand for college football betting mean a huge supply of odds and markets posted at online sportsbooks every week. There are 130 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools and dozens of games to bet on each week from late August until early January.
Whether you root for the Maryland Terps, Navy Midshipmen, or your alma mater across the country, there are plenty of college football odds to find in Maryland. Below find live college football lines direct from MD online sportsbooks.
This week’s college football odds: Moneylines, spreads, totals
Check the latest NCAA football lines on offer at Maryland online sportsbooks below. These are NCAA football odds straight from online betting sites in Maryland. If you see a game you want to bet, just click on the odds to go directly to the sportsbook, claim your bonus, and start getting your bets in.
BetMGM Sportsbook Disclaimers: Bonus bets expire in 7 days. One new customer offer only.
21+. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-gambler.
You won’t see every single game listed here, though; for those you need to check our full odds feed here.
How to bet on college football online
To get started with online college football betting, you first need to pick a sportsbook and create a new account. Reaching the signup page can be done in several ways, including clicking on one of our many links to the sportsbook of your choice, which will bring you directly to where you register.
Bettors can download the app or visit the sportsbook homepage to begin the process. But if you do either of those, be sure to take one of our Maryland sportsbook promo codes with you to activate the best welcome bonus possible. Once you’re there, take these steps:
- Fill out all required information (name, address, email, upload photo ID, etc.) in the designated fields. If you reach the signup page on your own, ensure that you enter one of our promo codes to activate your bonus.
- Go through all the terms of service and agree before submitting. This will complete the registration process and establish your new sportsbook account.
- Once your account is set up, click the Deposit button to invest funds to wager with.
- Enter the amount you wish to deposit and complete the transaction. The amount deposited will immediately reflect in your new balance. If you were to receive a first deposit match bonus, that will reflect in your balance as well.
- Start placing bets!
At the end of the registration process and with each financial transaction, you will receive a confirmation email to verify your new account and every deposit or withdrawal. Your transaction history will also be available in the sportsbook application. To place wagers, you will need to be physically located inside the borders of Maryland or another state that legally accepts wagers.
How college football lines work
From late August until early January, college football is one of the sports that dominate the calendar, especially on Saturdays. Each week, there are dozens of games, and bettors have access to each one of them. Here are the options you can expect to find for NCAA football betting at Maryland online sportsbooks:
- Moneyline: A wager on which side will win the game. Favorites have a negative symbol next to their line and require bettors to risk more than they stand to win. Underdogs have a plus sign next to the moneyline and can earn bettors more than what they risk.
- Point spread: Bettors are picking a team to ‘cover’ the spread, which evens out the game from a gambling perspective. Favorites must win by more than the point spread, while underdogs can win your wager by losing the game by fewer points than the spread indicated.
- Totals: Betting whether the combined score of both teams goes over or under the total set by oddsmakers. Similar to the spread, the total for both the over and the under will be the same on both sides.
- Props: Wagers on in-game events that are not the standard full-game moneyline, spread, and total. Not as many are available for college football, but each game should have some props such as individual team totals.
- Live betting: Wagering on the game after it has already begun. Popular markets during the contest include moneylines, spreads, and totals. Maryland online sportsbooks allow for wagers before the opening kickoff and throughout the game.
- Futures: Involves placing bets on events that will take place in the future such as a conference champion or the College Football Playoff Winner.
In some states such as New Jersey, bettors are unable to wager on games being played by teams located in the state. Luckily, no such rule exists in Maryland and all of these markets should be available for betting on the Terps and Navy, among others in the state.
How to read college football betting lines
Before you can win any money at Maryland online sportsbooks, you first need to know how to read betting lines. For all the Maryland football fans out there, let’s use a Terrapins game as an example to show you how it all works:
| Spread | Moneyline | Totals | |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Virginia | -6.5 (-108) | -230 | Over 49.5 (-110) |
| Maryland | +6.5 (-112) | +180 | Under 49.5 (-110) |
The most common bet types are moneylines, spreads, and totals. These are the markets you see when you first open up a sportsbook app, so it’s important to know exactly what you’re looking at and how to bet on each one. From there, we’ll move on to props, futures, and live betting.
NCAAF moneylines
Betting moneylines means simply picking one team to win the game, regardless of the score. Figuring out how moneylines work is easily done if basing all of your calculations on the number 100.
The favorite, which is West Virginia, has a negative moneyline, and whatever the line says is the amount bettors need to risk for every $100 in profit. At -230, anyone betting on WVU needs to risk $230 to win $100.
Betting on the underdog, in this case, Maryland, involves betting on the line with the plus sign next to it. The underdog moneyline represents the amount the bettor stands to win if they risk $100. At +180, a $100 bet on Maryland can win $180 in profit.
College football point spreads
College football teams aren’t all equal, and that’s where the spread comes into play. It evens out the game for bettors, as oddsmakers set a spread that is equal on both sides with the hope that the betting action is split between the two teams.
Favorites have a negative sign next to their spread and must win by more than the number to ‘cover’ the spread. That means if West Virginia is -6.5, they’ll need to win by seven or more to cash your bet. With a -108 line attached, bettors will be asked to risk $108 for every $100 in profit. Compared to the moneyline, spread betting on favorites offers a better payout because the team must win by a certain amount.
Underdogs have a positive sign next to their spread and cover the number by losing by a lesser amount than the spread indicates (or win the game outright). A wager on Maryland +6.5 means needing the Terps to lose by six or fewer if they don’t win. At -112, bettors need to lay $112 for every $100 in winnings.
While many point spreads will have the same line (also called ‘juice’) attached on both sides, we can see that our example doesn’t. Even though the spread is equal for both teams, it’s common for slight differences in the prices.
NCAA football totals (Over/Under)
Over Under bets are very simple to understand, as they only ask the bettor to choose whether the combined score of the game will go over or under the number set by oddsmakers.
With the total set at 49.5, a combined score of 50 or more points is an over while anything at 49 points or fewer is an under. In this case, both sides are -110, requiring a $110 risk to win $100 in profit.
Totals are similar to spreads in that the over and under will be the same number, but it’s possible for the lines attached to those totals to vary a bit as well.
Betting on NCAA football futures
Futures betting on college football means wagering on an event that will be settled at some point down the road. These futures betting markets are mostly related to teams but can also involve individual players. Popular examples of NCAA football futures include the following:
- A national champion (College Football Playoff Winner)
- Conference winner
- To Reach Conference Championship
- Division winner
- Heisman Trophy winner
While some futures options disappear once the season begins, conference winners and markets involving the College Football Playoff are likely to remain available throughout the season with regularly updated odds.
Several online sportsbooks will have futures related to college football, but sites such as BetMGM Online Sportsbook, DraftKings Sportsbook online, and FanDuel Sportsbook online are known for their variety and options.
Prop bets for college football
Props are becoming more popular in all betting circles, including college football. There isn’t nearly as much to choose from compared to NFL games, but there are still some props related to NCAA action, including team totals and lines for quarters and halves rather than the full game.
Once the College Football Playoff arrives, the prop betting markets increase tenfold, and the options make it look like an NFL game or even the Super Bowl. Dozens of additional categories are added, including props based on individual player statistics and many other in-game events such as touchdown scorers, field goals, and punts.
Betting on college football during the game
Thanks to online sportsbooks being able to update odds as the game progresses, live betting has become much more common for all sports. Bettors can wager at virtually any point throughout the game, from the opening kick until late in the fourth quarter.
On Saturdays, nearly every game on the schedule has live betting odds available for several markets, including moneylines, spreads, and totals.
3 essential NCAAF betting tips for beginners
Betting on college football isn’t easy, especially at the beginning. The sheer volume of games and the number of betting options can be overwhelming, and it’s hard to know exactly where to start. While there are several steps to take for new bettors to give themselves the best chance of success, keep the following college football betting tips in mind:
- Remember NCAA football rules: It’s important to keep in mind that football rules are not universal, as the college game is unique to the pros in some ways. For example, the clock stops after a first down and receivers only need one foot in bounds to make a catch. These things can lead to many more points than an NFL game.
- Focus on specific conferences: Because there are so many teams to cover, bettors would do well to focus on specific conferences and the teams within them. After a few weeks, it is likely that you’ll develop targeted expertise on these teams and may be able to spot valuable betting lines.
- Be selective with your bets: Another thing that the busy college football schedule can do is coerce bettors into wagering on more games. But the more bets you place, the harder it is to turn a profit. Bettors need to be selective and have some discipline when it comes to betting on Saturdays.
NCAAF bowl game betting in Maryland
The NCAA football year concludes with bowl season, which serves as the postseason for Division 1-A, also known as the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Bowl games are invitation-only matchups that take the place of the traditional playoff tournaments we see in other sports, and they take place from early December until early January.
The goal of all college football teams is to reach a bowl game, as it is usually seen as a mark of success for the season. In total, there are close to 40 of them in total with varying levels of prestigiousness. The most popular set of bowl games is played toward the end of bowl season and is referred to as the New Year’s Six. It includes the following:
- Sugar Bowl
- Orange Bowl
- Fiesta Bowl
- Rose Bowl
- Sugar Bowl
- Peach Bowl
These games are generally played on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, with two of them rotating each year to count as the semifinals in the College Football Playoff. Check the latest New Year’s Six Bowl odds right here.
College football playoff betting
At the end of the season, the top four teams in the nation are invited to the College Football Playoff (CFP) to determine the champion. The CFP is the equivalent to the Final Four in NCAA basketball, and these are the only four teams that have a chance to win the title at the end of the season.
The CFP isn’t only the most popular futures bet in the sport throughout the season. When it arrives, these three games are treated like the Super Bowl by sportsbooks. There are a seemingly endless number of betting options with dozens of additional prop and micro betting markets being added for the occasion. There’s no doubt these are a couple of the biggest betting days of the year in the United States.