25 observations from the football and sports wagering worlds:

1. The biggest winners in the sports betting arena in the last year are local bookies. Online competition had damaged local bookmakers, even driven a lot of illegal bookies out of business, but the locals are thriving once again thanks to the actions of Congress last fall. Bill Frist’s last minute attachment to the Port Security Bill of legislation that interfered with the banking relationships of internet wagering companies re-opened the door to what was a dwindling business for most.
2. Those resurgent bookies and bettors who paid and collected at the legendary Fuzzy’s Place in Atlanta will have to find someplace new to meet up. Described by one mathematically-oriented patron as “Cheers + Moe’s Tavern + blues”, Fuzzy’s appears to be out of business, and it looks like the title of “Settle Up Capital of Atlanta” is up for grabs in the North Georgia sports betting community.
3. LSU partisans don’t approve of my opinion of Les Miles, but facts are facts. After Saturday’s miraculous push at Alabama, Miles is now 6-14-2 against the spread in SEC conference play. The Tigers haven’t covered a pointspread since their September 15th win over Middle Tennessee State. This is a team that simply doesn’t meet expectations on a weekly basis.
4. The ground game was prominent in college football last week. Led by Arkansas (541 yards rushing), East Carolina (491), Illinois (448), and Air Force (437), nine teams ran for over 300 yards in Saturday college football. The only thing that kept a winning pointspread result being available for all nine of them was Miami (314 yards rushing on 60 attempts) completing a single pass in the entire game in their home loss to NC State.
5. Of the 13 teams in the MAC, only Central Michigan (6-4) and Ball State (5-4) have winning records overall. The conference is a far cry from the days of Big Ben and Turner the Burner pulling off major upsets in non-conference play and competing at a high level within the loop.
6. Obviously a lot of things have to happen, but a 6-way tie for the SEC East crown with everyone having a 4-4 conference record is possible.
7. The pointspread can really be a great equalizer. Syracuse is 7-25 since Greg Robinson took over and has been outgained in 28 of those 32 games. Yet nobody has gotten rich riding the demise of the SU program, as the Orangemen are an almost respectable 15-17 against the pointspread in those 32 games.
8. Notre Dame is not taking on the kind of helpless Air Force team that marked the tail end of the end of the legendary Fisher DeBerry’s tenure (Flyboys were 6-15 their last 21 under DeBerry) on Saturday. Former NFL offensive coordinator Troy Calhoun has opened up the Falcon offense in a way that matches his talent, still running the ball 75% of the time but with a mix of formations and misdirection. The result is a 7-3 record and an impending bowl berth.
9. Notre Dame’s “tough schedule” excuse is far less persuasive than it was a month ago. Georgia Tech, Michigan State, Purdue, and UCLA are all among the teams that aren’t nearly as good as we thought we were back when they played the Irish. And it has likely been a while since the Irish lost to a team that gave up 59 point in regulation to a 1-AA team, but ND lost to Navy a week after the Middies 59-52 loss to Delaware.
10. UTEP stands for “U Take ‘Em Points” this fall, as a favorite has yet to cover in a Miner game. You know about the Texas comeback over Oklahoma State, but were you aware that Rice went on a 28-0 4th quarter rampage in their improbable win over UTEP Saturday?
11. The underdog in a UTEP game looks promising again Saturday. Although the Miners have given up over 500 yards in every conference game this season, they are laying five points on the road to a Tulane team that features the nation’s leading rusher in Matt Forte.
12. Cal hosts USC in a game far less important than it appeared to be a few weeks ago and Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Ted Miller makes an interesting case that both Jeff Tedford and Pete Carroll may be on to greener pastures next fall. Miller sees the momentum building in the Reggie Bush investigation being dangerous for Carroll while Tedford may simply get sick of the naked hippies in the trees interfering with the planned stadium and facilities expansion.
13. If Baylor coach Guy Morriss is really finished (which one reporter claims might not be a done deal), why was he even brought back this season? Last year the Bears looked primed for a big year (for them) but an avalanche of injuries killed them. This year with a new offense implemented by young players, it was clearly a year of building for the future. Now this year will have been a waste of time as a new coach (former Baylor great Mike Singletary?) is brought in to install new systems for another rebuilding year in 2008.
14. When South Florida fell behind Cincinatti 31-14 in the first quarter the flood of scoring included only two offensive touchdowns. USF scored on an interception return and a kickoff return while Cincy blocked a punt for a TD and returned an interception for a touchdown of their own. By the end of Cincinatti’s 38-33 win the Bearcats had an 8-2 turnover advantage thanks in large part to four interceptions and a fumble by South Florida’s Matt Grothe.
15. UConn’s athletic director accused ESPN of using the Huskies home game with Rutgers as a pawn for their own business purposes last week by placing the game on ESPNU, which doesn’t have widespread clearance in the Nutmeg State. Many feel this is a tool that has been used time and time again by “the Worldwide Leader” to exert public pressure on cable companies.
16. Speaking of which, wait until the November 29th game between the Cowboys and Packers, with their huge national fan bases, is played on the NFL Network and only on the NFL Network. Jerry Jones is the henchman for the NFL in the effort to strongarm cable companies by instructing consumers to cancel their cable service. No word from utility expert Jones on whether a fixed or variable rate is preferable with your natural gas provider.
17. Led by Adrian Peterson’s 296 and Clinton Portis’ 196, nine NFL running backs ran for 100 yards or more last Sunday.
18. The Tennessee Titans sacked the opposing quarterback seven times on Sunday against the Panthers, tying the franchise record set against the Texans on October 9, 2005. In both instances the opposing quarterback was David Carr. Albert “Contract Year” Haynesworth sacked Carr three times and after the game said “I appreciate David holding the ball so long to help us out.”
19. In their five touchdown “drives” in the first half Monday night, the Steelers never once started in their own territory. Pittsburgh notched only 291 yards of offense in the entire game, though they had little reason to try to exert much energy to move the ball in the second half.
20. Eight winners in last weekend’s NFL scored over 30 points, with overs going 9-5 on the weekend.
21. The post-Super Bowl hangover is not afflicting the Colts. Indy was the first team to cover a pointspread against New England in their loss to the Pats Sunday. The Colts are 6-2 to the number and have covered their last five. Their two non-covers were by a total of 5 points in early road games at the Titans and at the Texans.
22. Buffalo has also covered five straight games, despite horrendous seasonal statistics both offensively and defensively. But the worm is turning there, as the Bills had been outgained in every game but in the last two weeks have outgained the Jets and Bengals by a combined 827-553.
23. Most professional bettors I know are losing unimpressively in the NFL. Why are the wiseguys getting beaten up in pro football? Check out RealWorldSports.com this weekend for the answer.
24. Rick Gosselin is a tremendous NFL writer, but does he really want to credit the Saints’ defense for the team’s turnaround? Sure the D has slowed down their last four opponents, but those opponents offenses are ranked 13th (Seattle), 27th (Atlanta), 32nd (San Francisco), and 16th (Jacksonville with Quinn Gray at quarterback).
25. You can subscribe to our newsletter The Maximum Profit Football Weekly for only $79 throught the Super Bowl. This week’s Max, with 12 pointspread selections backed by thorough analysis, will be rushed to you via email when you call 1-770-649-1078 to subscribe.

Thanks for reading this far. Good luck this weekend and be careful.