College Basketball Betting

Bettors Look To Smaller Conferences For Easy Profits

Because they are less familiar to oddsmakers, some of the more obscure Division I colleges often end up logging interesting betting trends. Those trends frequently go hand-in-hand with unforeseen success.

Let's take a look at a couple of these lesser known schools, some of which could end up in the Big Dance.

George Mason plays in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) and is enjoying a tremendous season having built a 22-6 record overall and a 15-3 record in conference play. The Patriots have made significant improvements from last season when they went 16-13 straight up (SU) and 10-8 versus conference foes.

Their success this year has also put smiles on the faces of handicappers who've been placing bets on the Patriots. George Mason is 15-7-2 against the spread (ATS). That's a winning percentage of about 63 percent. Their ability to cover the spread is not surprising when you consider that the Patriots lead the CAA with a scoring margin of +11.5 (No. 14 in the nation).

The Patriots also have an interesting record on the total. Just nine of 24 games with a posted total have gone OVER, which is about 34 percent. This is partly a reflection of the Patriots' defense which is allowing the fewest points in the conference at just 59 ppg (No. 13 in the nation).

Heading into the CAA conference tournament, George Mason will be battling it out with NC-Wilmington, who is also having a great year both straight up and against the number. The Seahawks were also 15-3 SU in conference play and tied with the Patriots atop the CAA standings.

Although they finished the regular season with one more loss than George Mason (22-7 SU), the Seahawks actually had a slightly better ATS record at 18-8-1 ATS. That's a winning percentage of 67 percent.

Over in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), Missouri St. is having a stellar season at 20-7 SU overall and 12-6 in conference play. While they finished second behind Wichita St. in the conference standings, the Bears had the best betting record in MVC at 18-8 ATS.

Heading into Friday's conference tournament game versus Northern Iowa, the Bears were 8-2 ATS in their past 10 games. They were also 3-7 on the OVER/UNDER.