2011 College Football Week 2: 5 Teams Getting Hammered at the Betting Window

It's safe to say if the featured game in a Las Vegas sports book was being advertised as the Memphis Tigers at Arkansas State Red Wolves this weekend, you'd likely have the place to yourself.

The betting public loves watching ranked teams, and loves wagering on them even more.

Matchups featuring ranked vs. unranked opponents are often seen as locks to the casual bettor, but professionals in the business know that many tickets are left behind each and every Saturday in the desert due to this situation.

Let's take a look at five ranked teams that are getting backed heavily at the windows heading into the second weekend of the college football season.

Oregon State Beavers at No. 8 Wisconsin Badgers (-21)

The Wisconsin Badgers have immediately moved into serious national title discussions amongst the media after their resounding 51-17 win over the UNLV Rebels as 34-point home favorites.

Nothing draws more bettors than being featured on national television during a mid-week contest and putting together such a performance.

The public also loves to back a team that scores points, and the Badgers have tallied 252 points in their last four regular-season games.

This Big Ten vs. Pac-12 matchup is currently the second-most wagered-on game in Las Vegas and more than 90 percent of the tickets have Wisconsin written in bold.

Oregon State's 10-3 ATS record as an underdog matters little to the $20 bettor.

No. 6 Stanford Cardinal (-21.5) at Duke Blue Devils

The winner of the biggest line move of the week leading up to this point goes to...Stanford.

Casual and sharp bettors alike drove this line from its opening number of 15.5 to its current placement of 21.5.  That's quite a move for a road favorite in Week 2.

Andrew Luck garners plenty of attention from the national media, leading one of the more prolific offenses in all of college football the last two years.  Seems to be a common theme in terms of schools to bet on Saturday.

Las Vegas linesmakers probably didn't imagine that this game would trump all in terms of betting action heading into the second weekend of the 2011 season. 

Hence the line move.

The Cardinal registered a visually impressive 57-3 win on the scoreboard last week over lowly San Jose State, but only gained 373 yards offensively.  Finishing the game with a plus-three turnover margin certainly helped create smallish fields for Luck and Co. 

With 98 percent of the wagers coming in on the road team, everyone is hoping that Duke's 8-20 ATS record as a home underdog holds true.

Something tells me Stanford by 17.

No. 25 TCU Horned Frogs (-1) at Air Force Falcons

Somebody please tell me who disguised themselves as TCU's defense last week in a 50-48 road loss to the Baylor Bears in Waco, TX. 

The public seems to think it wasn't the unit that led the nation in total defense in three consecutive years leading up to the 2011 campaign.

Over 90 percent of the betting action on this game is coming up Black and Purple, which is a scary thought for anyone looking in the Horned Frogs direction this weekend.

It scares the daylights out of me—when the Air Force Falcons are 9-1 ATS as a dog or favorite within a field goal when playing against conference opponents.

A line move in the opposite direction is the final piece to the puzzle in running the other way.  TCU opened as 2.5-point road favorites only to see that drop to one at the time of this writing.

UAB Blazers at No. 18 Florida Gators (-23.5)

No more Urban Meyer.  No problem.

First-year head coach Will Muschamp dropped the hammer on the Florida Atlantic Owls in last week's season opener in The Swamp, coming away with a 41-3 win as 34-point favorites.

Bettors feel that the Gators are back to their normal selves, currently attracting 90 percent of wagers in the desert heat of Las Vegas.

One big problem.

The UAB Blazers are one of two (Nevada) FBS teams not to play last week.  It's also important to note that the school is 5-1 ATS versus Southeastern Conference competition.

Close calls on the road against Mississippi State (29-24) and Tennessee (32-29) will have this team brimming with confidence—with an extra week of practice to boot.

Toledo Rockets at No. 16 Ohio State Buckeyes (-18)

If you told me that two of Saturday's teams have faced each other two times in the past 13 years and one team has won by a combined 87-0 margin, it's likely my money would go on the school that won both prior meetings.

Ohio State is being backed by 80 percent of wagering this week and casual bettors will see the aforementioned stat listed at the bottom of the ESPN ticker leading up to kickoff.

Someone may want to tell bettors that the Buckeyes are prepping for a hurricane (Miami, FL) next week and their opponent is eager to get on the scoreboard.

After all, three times a charm!