Appalachian State, Villanova stars headline All-America team

NCAA Football Betting Lines

07/26/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Appalachian State may have lost two-time Walter Payton Award winner Armanti Edwards, but it boasts a national-best seven players on The Sportsbook Betting Lines/Fathead.com Football Championship Subdivision Preseason All-America Team, led by senior linebacker D.J. Smith and senior safety Mark LeGree on the first team.

Defending FCS champion Villanova has the most players on the first team with three - senior wide receiver Matt Szczur, senior offensive tackle Ben Ijalana and senior linebacker Terence Thomas.

Smith, LeGree, Szczur and Ijalana were voted to the All-America first team at the end of the 2009 regular season by a national panel of sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries. Other 2009 first-team selections appearing on this year's preseason first team are Eastern Washington senior linebacker J.C. Sherritt, Grambling State senior defensive end Christian Anthony, Liberty sophomore place-kicker Matt Bevins and Arkansas-Pine Bluff junior kickoff returner Mareo Howard.

Szczur and Ijalana are two of 20 players on the Walter Payton Award Watch List of nominees for FCS player of the year. Sherritt, Anthony, LeGree and Smith are four of the 20 players on the Buck Buchanan Award Watch List of nominees for FCS defensive player of the year. The FCS' two biggest player awards, plus the Eddie Robinson Award which honors the national coach of the year, are presented by The Sportsbook Betting Lines and sponsored by Fathead.com.

The Big Sky Conference dominates the offensive backfield of the Preseason All- America First Team. The quarterback is Northern Arizona senior Michael Herrick and the running backs are Montana senior Chase Reynolds and Eastern Washington junior Taiwan Jones. Herrick's 3,356 passing yards were the fifth-highest total in the FCS last season. Reynolds rushed for 1,502 yards and 22 touchdowns and helped lead Montana to its second straight appearance in the FCS championship game, while Jones averaged 7.5 yards per carry and was second in the FCS in all-purpose yards per game (195.4).

Furman junior Tersoo Uhaa is the fullback, while seniors Jason Caldwell of Fordham and Tysson Poots of Southern Utah are the wide receivers, and senior Stephen Skelton is the tight end. Poots and Caldwell ranked Nos. 2 and 3 in the FCS in receiving yards per game at 120.1 and 113.8, respectively. Poots also finished No. 2 nationally in receptions per game (9.4) and points per game (10.0).

Joining Ijalana at tackle is South Carolina State senior Johnny Culbreath, while Missouri State senior David Arkin and Texas State junior D.J. Hall are the guards, and South Dakota State senior Ryan McKnight is the center.

Defensively, Anthony is joined at defensive end by Sacramento State senior Christian Clark. The defensive tackles are seniors Kenrick Ellis of Hampton and Martin Parker of Richmond. Stephen F. Austin senior Jabara Williams joins Sherritt, Smith and Thomas on the linebacking corps. The cornerbacks are Southern Illinois senior Korey Lindsey and Montana junior Trumaine Johnson, and LeGree is joined at safety by Dayton senior James Vercammen.

Joining Bevins (No. 3 nationally in points per game at 9.7) and Howard (No. 1 nationally in kickoff return average at 31.0) on special teams are Old Dominion sophomore punter Jonathan Plisco and Grambling State senior punt returner Kiare Thompson. Plisco's 44.8-yard average on 62 punts led the FCS.

Appalachian State is replacing Edwards, its four-year starting quarterback, but the returning talent on the team is vast. In addition to LeGree and Smith, the Mountaineers' national-leading total of Preseason All-America selections consists of senior running back Devon Moore, junior wide receiver Brian Quick, junior tight end Ben Jorden and senior defensive end Jabari Fletcher, who made the second team, and junior defensive end Lanston Tanyi, who made the third team.

Southern Illinois is second with five selections: Lindsey on the first team; junior fullback John Goode and junior tackle David Pickard on the second team; and senior safety Mike McElroy and senior place-kicker Kyle Dougherty on the third team.

In all, 87 players were selected to the Preseason All-America Team. The Southern Conference leads all leagues with 15 selections, followed by the Big Sky Conference with 12, including a national-best six on the first team. The Missouri Valley Football Conference has 11 overall selections and the Colonial Athletic Association has 10. Next are the Southland Conference with seven and the Southwestern Athletic Conference with six.

The Sportsbook Betting Lines/Fathead.com All-America Team will be announced on Dec. 22. In addition to the Payton, Buchanan and Robinson awards, TSN and Fathead.com team up for the FCS's most widely recognized weekly Top 25 poll and weekly awards honoring the nation's top offensive player, defensive player and special teams player. The Sportsbook Betting Lines will present its 24th annual FCS Awards Presentation, sponsored by Fathead.com, on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011 in Frisco, Texas - the night before the FCS Championship Game.

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.