College Football Betting in Indiana
For sports bettors in Indiana, college football is, in a word, opportunity. There are nearly 800 NCAA football teams in the nation. While almost every angle of the NFL is covered multiple times, it is simply impossible to maintain the same level of focus for the landscape of college football.
If the idea of betting on college football appeals to you, you’ve come to the right place. Below, you’ll find the premier source of information about how to bet and where to bet on college football in the great state of Indiana including NCAA football odds direct from legal online sportsbooks.
Best college football betting sites in Indiana
Live College Football Odds
See below for a selection of real-time NCAA football odds for this week’s games. To see the full odds board, see our live sports betting odds page. Click on any game odds to jump directly to the sportsbook and register your bet. If you don’t already have an account, you can create one and claim our exclusive bonus bets/bonuses.
Use the drop-down menu to toggle between point spreads, moneylines and totals. Check the second tab for futures odds on the 2021 National Champion and Heisman Trophy winner. See our full breakdown of College Football Bowl Game odds here.
Indiana college football teams
Notre Dame Fighting Irish – The Fighting Irish are one of college football's most iconic teams. Notre Dame has a strong team every year and is always looking to challenge for a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Purdue Boilermakers – Purdue tends to favor basketball over football, but this team has been more competitive in recent seasons. There is optimism in West Lafayette as Purdue tries to build an annual bowl game participant.
Indiana Hoosiers – Like Purdue, Indiana is far better known for its basketball teams, but the Hoosiers are coming off a successful stretch lately. Indiana will no doubt be looking to build off those successes.
How does the college football season work?
Each team plays a full schedule of regular-season games. At the end of each year, the best teams compete in annual bowl games and, depending on their conference affiliations, conference championships.
While the college football season lasts for 15 weeks before conference championships and bowl games, the number of games each team plays can vary. In most cases, teams will play each team from their conference or their division one time during the regular season.
A committee of experts selects which teams will go to bowl games. Typically, teams need to win at least six games to qualify for bowl season.
College Football Playoffs & National Championship
Each year, four finalists are selected to play in the College Football Playoff, which consists of two semifinal games and a the National Championship game. The teams that win their playoff semifinal games compete for the national title.
The College Football Playoff committee determines which teams qualify for the playoff. Although their selections can be contentious at times, the process of selection and elimination usually result in a settled question about which team proved best during that year of play.
How to watch college football games
The college football week usually features games from Thursday through the weekend. However, Saturdays are the main day for college football in the US.
The channels that show these games range are usually national affiliate, local stations, or channels affiliated with specific conferences. Some of the most common broadcasting networks that show college football games are:
- ESPN
- FOX
- CBS
- ABC
Understanding college football bets
There are many different types of wagers available on college football games in Indiana. If you are new to sports betting, it can all seem overwhelming. So, let’s walk through some of the more common types of bets that you will encounter in the college football market.
Point Spread
A point spread bet is a wager about the eventual margin of victory in a game. For each game, the sportsbook establishes an estimated margin, known as the spread. Bettors then wager on whether they believe that the favorite will win by more points than the estimate, or that the underdog will lose by fewer points than the spread.
Sportsbooks will typically publish spread bets like this:
- Auburn +6.5
- Alabama -6.5
The sign of each number is crucial to understanding the bet. The team with the negative spread is the favorite, while the team with the positive number is the underdog.
So, in the example above, bettors are wagering that either Alabama will win by more than 6.5 points or that Auburn will lose by fewer than 6.5 points. If Alabama is successful, it will have “beaten” the spread. If Auburn is successful, it will have “covered” the spread.
Moneyline
A moneyline bet is a wager on which team will win the game, regardless of the margin of victory. In a sense, they are the simplest bet you can make on college football.
However, new sports bettors can be confused by the three-digit numbers next to each name that indicate the moneyline itself. These numbers are the payout ratios associated with bets on each team, and each listing tells a story.
A negative moneyline means that the team is favored to win, and bettors must pay the listed amount to win $100 on their wager. Conversely, a positive moneyline denotes the underdog, and the listed amount is the payout for a successful $100 bet.
Here is an example to illustrate:
- Auburn +250
- Alabama -275
Alabama is listed as the favorite at -275 odds. To win $100 betting on the Crimson Tide to win outright, you would need to risk $275. On the other hand, if you bet on Auburn, a winning wager would pay $250 for every $100 wagered.
Please note that you don’t have to bet $100 or in $100 increments on the moneyline. The listed price is a ratio, and the sportsbook will adjust the payout accordingly to the amount of your wager.
Totals
In a totals bet, the sportsbook will establish the amount of points it believes the teams will score together. Bettors then wager whether the actual amount will be higher or lower than the estimate. Because of the way players bet, this type of wager is often referred to as an over/under.
Consider the following example:
- Auburn Tigers at Alabama Crimson Tide – O/U 56.5
In this example, the sportsbook is estimating that the two teams will combine to score 56.5 points.
If Auburn and Alabama combine to score 56 points or less, then the “under” would win the bet. If the teams combine to score 57 points or more, then the “over” would win.
Sportsbooks’ estimates will commonly express the over/under as a decimal, like 56.5. They do so because they want to avoid ties – ties create a headache of refunds and lost profits.
College football live betting
Changes in technology have led to new innovations that have opened the doors for college football fans to bet on live games. With live betting, you have the ability to place wagers at a number of different times throughout a given contest.
The technology that handles live betting is quite impressive, actually. Most sportsbooks can offer wagering options on tiny events throughout the game – even the outcome of individual plays. So, a single game can potentially have more than one hundred different betting options attached to it.
One of the nice things about live betting is that you can augment your bets that are going well. If your predicted winner jumps out to a commanding lead early, you can add to your potential profits as time ticks away.
On the other hand, you can also hedge against your bets that look unlikely to pay. If a game turns out to be not what you anticipated, you don’t have to sit on your hands about it and take a loss.
Needless to say, live betting is quite popular. It can be an excellent tool for you, the college football sports bettor. However, be careful that you do not overextend yourself with all the different options in front of you.
Other types of college football bets
Futures
Futures bets refer to the type of bet that is placed on any result that won't be known until further down the road. Popular futures bets include season win total estimates, end-of-season player awards, and championship predictions.
Player Props
Any type of bet that focuses on a player’s performance is a player prop. You can identify them if you look for wagers that seem like fantasy football statistics.
So, bets about which player will score a touchdown, how many yards a quarterback will throw, or how many yards a running back will run are classic examples of college football player props.
Team Props
Team props focus on overall performances in a game. However, rather than betting on the actual player numbers, you can bet on the team's performance.
Team props usually involve questions about whether the team will score in the first quarter, whether they will achieve a certain number of first downs, or how many turnovers they will incur.
Indiana college betting FAQs
The college football regular season usually begins in the last week of August and ends in early January after the National Championship Game.
Bowl season begins sometime in mid to late December each year. The most important bowls occur on or about New Year’s Day.
The National Championship Game is usually played in the second week in January.
There are nearly 800 college football teams in the NCAA. Of those, 130 play in Division I, the highest level of competition.
The underdog is the team that's not expected to win the game.
The favorite is the team that is expected to win the game.
The Heisman Trophy is awarded to the top player in college football each year. Heisman Trophy winners are usually quarterbacks, running backs, or wide receivers.
Roughly 40. The exact number of bowls changes from year to year based upon how many organizations want to sponsor a game.
Each online sportsbook has several options to deposit money into your account for sports betting. Additionally, they have a process for withdrawing your winnings. Of course, they vary by sportsbook. There is a comprehensive look at how to deposit and cashout at Indiana sportsbooks at Play-indiana.org.