BCS Rankings: Against-the-Spread Performance of the Top 10 Teams

Sports bettors will look at the latest installment of the BCS rankings and simply shake their heads, as the top 10 teams have combined to register a 72-43-2 against-the-spread (ATS) record.

The Stanford Cardinal led the money-making party in covering their first nine games, but now share that honor with the Houston Cougars through 13 weeks of the season.

Let's take a closer look at this year's best teams from a betting perspective.

Oklahoma Sooners

The Oklahoma Sooners will dress up as an underdog for the first time this week when traveling to Stillwater to face the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Oddsmakers allowed the Sooners to cover four of their first five games, but the No. 10 team in the BCS standings has dropped four of its last six against the number.

Another year of not winning a national championship in Norman.

Oregon Ducks

The No. 9 Oregon Ducks have to be given some credit for not packing it in after a season-opening loss to the LSU Tigers, rewarding bettors with a 6-3-2 ATS record since Week 2.

This week's Pac-12 Conference championship game will likely be over after the first quarter, as the Ducks are currently 31.5-point home favorites against the UCLA Bruins.

Wager with caution when laying that type of number.

Arkansas Razorbacks

The Arkansas Razorbacks are one of three Southeastern Conference teams in the top 10, falling to No. 8 in the latest BCS standings due to a 41-17 loss to the LSU Tigers as 10.5-point road underdogs last week.

Head coach Bobby Petrino has led the team to a 7-5 ATS record this season, with two of those misses coming against the top two teams in this article.

Boise State Broncos

The Boise State Broncos are No. 7 in this week's BCS standings, but bettors have noticed that the ATM machine is out of order.

Quarterback Kellen Moore has led the team to a 4-7 ATS record, which includes five consecutive misses heading into this week's game against New Mexico.

Houston Cougars

The Houston Cougars land in the No. 6 spot in the BCS standings despite being one of only two teams to possess an undefeated record.

Putting up video game-type numbers offensively certainly helps in beating the oddsmakers, entering the Conference USA championship game with a 10-2 ATS record.

Quarterback Case Keenum looms as the dark horse candidate for the Heisman Trophy.

Virginia Tech Hokies

The Virginia Tech Hokies have moved up to the No. 5 spot in this week's BCS standings, but rank last among the top 10 teams in spread performance, posting a 4-8 ATS record.

Oddsmakers simply weren't going to get beat by this proud program that covered 10 of its last 11 regular-season games in 2010.

Bettors should take note that the Hokies haven't covered back-to-back games all year, coming into this week's game against the Clemson Tigers off a 38-0 win over the Virginia Cavaliers as 4.5-point road favorites.

Stanford Cardinal

The Stanford Cardinal are really on the outside looking in at this point, sitting in the No. 4 spot in the BCS standings and will be watching the Oregon Ducks play the UCLA Bruins for the Pac-12 Conference championship.

Heisman Trophy frontrunner Andrew Luck led his team to nine spread victories to start the season, but failed to cover two of the last three games to close the regular season.

Bettors are certainly happy with head coach David Shaw's performance in his first year in Palo Alto.

Oklahoma State Cowboys

The Oklahoma State Cowboys are currently 3.5-point home favorites in matching up with the Oklahoma Sooners Saturday night, sitting in the No. 3 spot in the latest BCS standings.

Heisman Trophy candidate Brandon Weeden will need to orchestrate a convincing win in order to potentially overthrow Alabama and land in the national title game.

The Cowboys will enter their final regular season game with an 8-3 ATS record.

Alabama Crimson Tide

The No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide finished the 2011 college football regular season with a solid 8-4 ATS record, as oddsmakers caught up to them after starting the season with seven covers in the first eight games.

Bettors will jump at the opportunity of backing Nick Saban's team if given the chance to dress up as underdogs in the national title game.

Stay tuned.

LSU Tigers

The No. 1 LSU Tigers enter the SEC Championship game against the Georgia Bulldogs with a 9-3 ATS record.

All three of their spread defeats have come when favored by 29.5 or more points.

Impressive stuff.