Handicapping Saturday College Basketball

Charles Dickens said it best in A Tale of Two Cities, when he penned the now-famous line, "They were the best of times. They were the worst of times."

Little did Dickens know that many years later his words would be the perfect analogy of Saturday college basketball from a sports betting perspective.

The great thing about a typical Saturday during college basketball season is that bettors have no shortage of games to consider when it comes time to place a wager.

The bad thing about a typical Saturday during college basketball season is that bettors have no shortage of games to consider when it comes time to place a wager.

Simply put, there's too many games on a Saturday for a bettor to have time to study all of them, Making matters worse, is that games start extremely early, another factor that works against bettors, as they tend to rush their handicapping by trying to get through the entire schedule.

Another factor that works against bettors is that with such a large number of games, it's easy to bet too many and just one bad day can really eat into a bettors' bankroll.

I've seen more than one good college basketball handicapper do well during the week on a consistent basis, only to turn around and habitually give back everything on Saturdays.

The purpose of this article isn't how to pick winners, but how to maximize the potential for surviving college basketball Saturdays by throwing out a few suggestions as to making the best use of your time.

Study Conferences

One method some well-known sports handicappers use for Saturday is to look at only the games from a select group of conferences and eliminate the others. This factor alone will eliminate the vast majority of the 90-95 games and leave 20 games to handicap if a bettor chooses three or four conferences.

Bettors also tend to do a bit bettor when studying a select group of conferences, as they begin to get a better feel for the teams and can often spot potential advantages against the point spread.

Bettors should concentrate on the lesser-known conferences, as that is where some of the best wagering opportunities arise.

Treat Saturday as a Weekday

One main advantage sports bettors have during the week is that they have all day to study games, with contests typically not starting until 7 p.m. EST. By eliminating all of the games that start prior to that time, bettors can turn a hectic 95-game schedule into a much-more manageable number of around 40 games.

The extra time a bettors has to handicap the night games should result in a higher winning percentage, which will more than make up for any potential good wagers missed during the day games.

Treat Saturday as Two Days

Other handicappers will look at Saturday as two individual days, treating the early games as one day, and the late games as essentially a separate entity.

One reason this method can work is that the lines for the early college basketball games are released on Friday evenings, leaving that time to handicap those games, with Saturday morning and afternoon left to study the night games.

Bettors will most likely know the results of the early games before placing their wagers on the late games, so bankroll adjustments can be made to help maximize profits or minimize losses.

Summary

Far too often Saturdays become the day that makes or breaks college basketball bettors over the course of the season, with profits or losses exceeding the other six days combined.

Sports bettors need to remember that Saturday is just another day in the grand scheme of things and keep on the lookout for any edge they can find.