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Of the myriad
publications available for football handicappers, Andy Iskoe of
Logical Approach annually produces some of the most fascinating
statistical analysis. He knows bettors are always searching for
a new way to beat the game and they always feel "they're on to something
new." So he constantly searches for the hidden factors that might
be helpful to them.
Bettors look
at statistics, angling for some play, some pattern, or a factor
someone might have overlooked-much like a gold miner hoping someone's
overlooked a nugget here and there or bypassed a mother lode. In
his Pointspread Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, Colleges (141
pages, 8x11 plastic spiralbound, $29.95), Iskoe looks at 34 different
situations for almost every major board team in the nation, and
in a marvelous time-saver of a section covering 11 pages, examines
the all-time question of college line moves-just how smart is the
public. Was smart money "properly directed?" What is a smart money
move? He defines it as a situation where there "was a difference
of at least 1 � points between opening and closing lines. In this
instance he's referring to the Stardust (in Las Vegas) line. His
study goes back 11 years and looks at 3,200 situations where "smart
money moves" occurred.
Is "smart money"
really smarter than the rest of the general public? What years were
good for the "smart money" bettor and which ones were disasters?
You'll have to read the book and Iskoe's conclusions if you want
the answers.
Meanwhile in
the main body of the book, he gets to the nitty-gritty of it all.
Just how good is Notre Dame as a home dog against the spread-let's
say for the past five years? You look, you find. The Fighting Irish
have been home dogs five times since 1995 and covered the spread
in that situation in four opportunities.
For some strange
reason Navy is a good bet on artificial turf since 1998. They've
covered in eight of 10 opportunities during that period of time.
Look at Mississippi-they're
great as a road favorite since 1995, having covered in seven of
eight chances since then.
Want to know
how a college team fared against quality teams at home or on the
road; in sandwich or reverse sandwich games or in their first conference
game for the past three years; six years or year by year since 1995?
Iskoe shows you. Teams are listed in alphabetical order, and many
small teams are included like the Akron Zips of the Mid-American
Conference and Arkansas State of the Sun Belt Conference.
 One
new arrival at Gambler's Book Shop doesn't give a mention to a pointspread
or betting angle, but it's an annual popular seller for a variety
of reasons. Titled the NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book,
it has some unique features. The 504-page paperbound ($16.95) has
diagrams of every NFL stadium, which theoretically will help the
sharp bettor comprehend the impact of wind on passing efforts. It
also shows you in which quarter each individual team scored how
many points (on a cumulative basis) (example: Cincinnati scored
only 24 points in the first quarter all last season, while opponents
clicked for 92 in the same quarter. Meanwhile the St. Louis Rams
scored 116 points in the initial quarter while allowing opponents
to score 94.).
The book lists
team records; individual records for a season or single game; all-time
NFL records; post-season and Super Bowl records (for
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