The betting world rejoices as the NFL regular season is ready to open. After a week of only having NCAA football betting available, NFL fans are ready to start with the NFL betting immediately.

The preseason was interesting, and we got a chance to see what the top teams in the NFC have to offer. Considering the season they had last year, the Minnesota Vikings do not appear to be impressing anyone that makes the NFL football betting lines. There is a big reason why the New Orleans Saints are four and a half point favorites in this game. Just like Brett Favre, the Minnesota Vikings are not what they used to be.

The Vikings only have one functioning starting wide receiver in Bernard Berrian. Receivers Percy Harvin and Sidney Rice are both sidelined with health issues. Harvin announced that he no longer gets the migraine headaches that kept him out of the preseason, but he missed the preseason conditioning and timing drills. Quarterback Brett Favre is still complaining about his ankle and the distractions being caused by Favre’s apparent lack of respect for his head coach are becoming evident.

The Saints, on the other hand, are pretty much the same team that won the Super Bowl last season. They still possess the single most potent offense in the NFL, and when their defense is healthy they can stand toe-to-toe with any NFL team. A hobbled Brett Favre will make a tempting target for Saints pass rushers like Will Smith and Jimmy Wilkerson. If the Saints can get into the Minnesota backfield on a consistent basis then this will be a short game for the Vikings.

Running back Adrian Peterson had an uneventful preseason, but as long as Favre is limping around and the receivers are out, Peterson is the Minnesota offense. The problem is that head coach Brad Childress has almost no say in the offense when Favre is on the field, and Favre is not a fan of a prominent running game.

Saints running back Reggie Bush started to show some unexpected power in the preseason, and that adds yet another angle to the Saints offense that defensive coordinators will have to watch for. If the Vikings have any weakness on defense it is up the middle at linebacker. That is probably where the Saints running game will go.

The Saints have been working on refining all aspects of their game this preseason and that includes special teams. Kicker Garrett Hartley won the job in camp and, after not playing much in 2009 it looks like he will be the only kicker on the Saints roster this season. Anyone that watched Super Bowl XLIV knows how much special teams means to the Saints. It won them the Super Bowl.

After all the drama created by Brett Favre and the Vikings this summer the simple fact is that the Vikings offense is a shell of what it was last year. Favre has worked with less and won, but that was many years ago when he was younger and healthier.

Pick: New Orleans Saints 27-20

The day after Manny Ramirez departed from Los Angeles, the Dodgers went on to beat Roy Halladay and the Phillies in an important NL wild card game. The betting experts are not expecting the Dodgers to compete for the NL West pennant as Los Angeles trails San Diego by nine games and San Diego shows no signs of slowing down. But the Dodgers trail the Phillies by only five games for the NL wild card berth, and the Phillies are looking very slow lately.

In Los Angeles the talk is starting to turn towards NCAA football betting and in Philadelphia the sports fans are interested to see what happens with the NFL betting on the Eagles this season. But it is the failings of the Phillies that seem to be the talk of the town at this point. The Phillies are trailing the Atlanta Braves by three games in the NL East, but they lead the NL wild card by a game and a half over San Francisco, three games over St. Louis and five games over the Dodgers. The Phillies have lost six of their last 10, including a critical loss in the first game of this series to the Dodgers.

An example of the struggles of the Phillies can be found in the newest Phillie pitcher Roy Oswalt. Oswalt is 1-3 in his last four decisions and his record this season is 9-13. However, Oswalt’s ERA is 3.12 and he pitched seven scoreless innings in his most recent start against the Padres which also included seven strikeouts.

The MLB betting world is very familiar with Los Angeles starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw. He has an 11-8 record with a 3.01 ERA this season. The last time he pitched against the Phillies was six and two-thirds innings of two run baseball in the Phillies ball park. Kershaw has been pitching very well lately, and he has been getting significant run support as well.

If the Phillies thought that the departure of Manny Ramirez would cause chaos in the Dodgers batting order then they were sadly mistaken. Ramirez was a distraction that is no longer there, so now the rest of the Dodgers are supremely focused on trying to catch the Phillies for that NL wild card spot.

With a sweep in this series the Dodgers can leapfrog over the St. Louis Cardinals and start knocking on the Giants door in the NL wild card standings. After all the Dodgers have done this season to fall out of playoff contention, they find themselves right in the middle of it with less than 40 games to go in the regular season.

The Phillies just cannot score runs. They were shutout in the first game of this series and the Phillies have more pitchers with losing records but with ERAs lower than 3.50 than almost any team in the majors. If Ryan Howard and the rest of the Phillies cannot start putting the stick on the ball then it could be lights out for the Phillies by the middle of September.

Pick: Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1

With Sam Bradford’s injuries keeping Oklahoma to eight wins in 2009, Nebraska emerged as the second-best team in the Big-12 out of the North division. Boosted by a defensive line that featured dominant 2010 betting on NFL first round draft pick Ndamakung Suh, the Cornhuskers won ten games in 2009, including a 6-2 record within the conference that was surpassed by only BCS Championship game finalist Texas. Even without Suh in the mix, big things are expected of Nebraska in 2010, and with a lack of contenders in a relatively weak division, the Cornhuskers may very well be the only team in the Big-12’s North division that will appear in the national rankings.

Head coach Bo Pelini has guided his Cornhuskers to 20 wins in 28 total contests over the past three years, with 2009 being the school’s breakout year. A dominating defense kept the Cornhuskers in every game, and it’s easy to forget that Nebraska came within one college football betting second of defeating Texas for the Big-12 championship crown. A 33-0 beat down of Arizona in the Holiday Bowl was a message that the Cornhuskers are for real. However, after announcing that they will be leaving the conference to join the Big Ten, Nebraska is now the most hated team in the Big-12, and every school and their supporters will be lining up hoping to make sure that the Cornhuskers don’t go out on top.

Perhaps the school with the best shot at ending Nebraska’s reign on top of the Big-12 North division is Missouri, who surprised many with a solid eight online sports betting wins a year ago. The Tigers looked brilliant on offense at times under sophomore Blaine Gabbert, who had the tough task of filling the shoes left by longtime starter Chase Daniels under center. Gabbert handled the pressure well however, throwing for over 3, 500 yards and 24 touchdowns in his first full campaign. Whether or not Missouri is able to improve from the level of play that they were on a year ago, only time will tell. But in a weak North division, the Tigers get anointed the role of biggest threat to the Cornhuskers’ run by default.

Of the remaining football betting teams in the division, expected Colorado and Kansas to battle along the lines of mediocrity for most of the season. The Jayhawks suffered a monumental collapse in 2009, losing their final seven games after opening 5-0 and making a brief appearance in the national rankings. How Kansas is able to rebound from such a devastating fall from grace in unknown. The Buffaloes are headed elsewhere after the 2010 season, and like the Cornhuskers will face the pressure of leaving. Little is expected of Iowa State and Kansas State at the bottom of the standings in the North division, with the Cyclones getting the nod as the better team based on that they will field a more talented roster.

The San Francisco Giants are so close to capturing the NL wild card berth that their fans are betting the team can see it ahead of them. As the NFL betting and college football betting starts to rev up in the Bay area, the Giants find themselves tied with the St. Louis Cardinals in being only one game out of the NL wild card berth currently being held by the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Giants have not been helping themselves at all lately as they have only won four of their last 10 games. The Giants did, however, take the first game of this series against the Red in a convincing 11-2 win. The Giants will need more offense like that if they want to leap over the Cardinals and catch the Phillies for the NL wild card spot.

The Reds are still fending off the Cardinals for the NL Central pennant. The Red had won eight of their last 10 games and put themselves three and a half games up on the Cardinals. But the crushing loss to the Giants in this series coupled with a Cardinal win closed that gap to two and a half games. Now the Reds need to start thinking about the Cardinals as St. Louis is riding its own three-game winning streak.

The MLB betting experts did not expect the Reds to challenge for the NL Central pennant, much less hold the lead for much of the season. But the Reds have gotten some timely hitting and excellent pitching all season long, and just like the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves, the Reds have been able to surprise the experts all season long.

Madison Bumgarner will take the mound for the Giants in this game. Bumgarner has a 5-4 record and a 3.20 ERA this season. It looks like Bumgarner may finally be ready to take his place as a dominant starter on this rotation as he has finally been able to put together back-to-back seven innings or greater performances in his last two starts. The Giants want to see more out of Bumgarner and help take some of the pressure off the struggling Tim Lincecum. It looks like Bumgarner is finally starting to respond.

The Reds will put Homer Bailey on the mound with his 3-2 record and 4.52 ERA. Bailey is just coming back from rehabbing an injury, and in his last two starts he has pitched 13 innings and only allowed one earned run. The Reds figure Bailey to be a factor in their playoff run and, so far, Bailey is responding well to getting back into the starting rotation.

This is one of those games that is fun to watch because both teams have so much to play for. You will not see either team trying out minor leaguers for a couple of innings to see if they might make the team next year. This game is all about the starters and the need for both teams to bring in another win. If this game comes down to starting pitching, then the Reds will have the upper hand.

Pick: Cincinnati Reds 4-2

When the MLB season started, the betting experts had the Los Angeles Dodgers at +1200 to win the World Series. It was confusing because the Dodgers did not have the kind of intimidating starting pitching rotation that would warrant such odds. NCAA football betting is popular in Southern California, and NFL betting is catching on in Los Angeles. Now that the Dodgers have dropped to +2000 odds to win the World Series, it looks as though California sports fans will be focusing on the upcoming football season.

To show how much of a surprise the Cincinnati Reds have been this season one only needs to look at the World Series odds the MLB betting world gave the Reds when the season started. When the season started the Reds were given +5000 odds to win the World Series. That meant that the Reds were not considered a threat to make the playoffs or win the NL Central. Now, after holding a two-game lead in the NL Central for most of the season, the Reds have watched their World Series odds get upped to +1800.

It wasn’t that people considered the Reds to be such an awful team, it is more that the Cardinals were expected to run away with the NL Central and the Dodgers were going to challenge for the NL Wild Card. The Cardinals have been chasing the Reds all season long, and the Dodgers fell out of realistic contention for the NL Wild Card a couple of weeks ago. Now the Reds are fighting with the Cardinals to maintain their hold on the NL Central.

Dodgers’ manager Joe Torre came to the team with a respected history. He was expected to take what had been a team with decent talent, and turn it into a World Series contender. But, along the way, Torre found out that his pitching was not as good as he thought it was and the Dodgers offense was spotty at best. The Dodgers have fallen to 12 games back in the NL West and eight games back in the NL Wild Card race. Now the rumors about this being Torre’s last season in the majors have started to circulate.

What makes this game interesting for betting enthusiasts is the mystery at starting pitching for both teams. The Dodgers have no idea who will take the mound in this game just yet. Injuries and Torre’s impatience with a starting rotation that has under-performed all season have caused a lot of changes on the Los Angeles roster. It is difficult to even speculate who Torre will put out there, but it very well may be a rookie that Torre and the Dodgers want to take a look at for next season.

Homer Bailey will start for the Reds, and he has probably the worst first name for a pitcher in the majors. Bailey has a record of 2-2 this season along with an ERA of 4.92. In his last start which was against the Marlins, Bailey threw six scoreless innings. The Reds are hoping to make Bailey a part of their playoff rotation, and a couple of impressive consecutive starts in the playoff run will help Bailey’s case.

Pick: Cincinnati Reds 5-1

Many baseball fans are betting that MLB umpires were glad to hear that this is Lou Piniella’s last season managing in the majors. It can sometimes look like you are involved with NFL betting the way that Lou would physically accost umpires all over the field.

True to his nature, Sweet Lou is not going out as a lame duck. He is still trying to find the pieces that will help the Cubs become a winning team. The Cubs are way out of the NL Central pennant race and the NL wild card as well. Chicago is 17 and a half games out of first in the division and 17 games out of the wild card. Judging by the actions Lou has taken in recent games, he is looking to the future for the Cubs and has pretty much written off this season.

If you do any college football betting online then you know how seriously Californians take their sports betting. Every game in every sport is competitive, and the betting lines are followed religiously. That may be why the San Diego Padres are the talk of Southern California even as the San Diego Chargers prepare for football betting action.

The Padres are four games in front of the San Francisco Giants for the NL West pennant, and the wheels are starting to come off a bit in San Francisco. The Padres just keep rolling along as they have won seven of their last 10 including their last two in a row. San Diego also won the first game of this series with the Cubs, and the Padres are definitely looking to try and sweep this series to put more room between them and the Giants.

The Cubs are using the rest of this season to take a look at the players that could make a difference next season. Piniella has seen enough of pitcher Thomas Diamond in the starting rotation, and has pulled Diamond as a starter completely. In Diamond’s place, Lou will start Casey Coleman. This will be Coleman’s first-ever start in the majors, but he does have four game appearances from the bullpen. In his four appearances Coleman has not logged a win or a loss, but he does have an 8.64 ERA.

The Padres keep rolling along with Clayton Richard on the mound for this game. Richard has a 10-5 record and a 3.80 ERA. In his last eight decisions Richard is 6-2, but he has allowed his ERA to balloon from 2.70 to 3.80. The Padres are hoping that Richard can regain his control and be ready to contribute to the Padres run towards the NL West pennant.

The Cubs are on automatic pilot for the rest of the season, and Cubs fans can expect to see a lot of players they have never heard of on the field for the Cubs. Lou does not want to leave the team in complete disarray when he leaves, and he would like to be able to present the next Cubs manager with some components to a winning team. Those components, however, won’t be contributing to any winning this season.

Pick: San Diego Padres 7-1

Running back Carter to return for senior season at Syracuse

When talking heads give pointers on NCAA football betting, they invariably make comparisons of some sort. Weighing one player against another is part and parcel of sports analysis, the province of online betting experts. On Monday, college football analysts received a piece of news that will affect the way one team is perceived in 2010.

On Monday, August 9, Syracuse coach Doug Marrone said that star running back Delone Carter would indeed play for the Orange this season. Carter had been charged with misdemeanor assault stemming from a fight last February. He was suspended in the spring semester and did not participate in any of Syracuse’s spring practice sessions. The situation hovering over Carter was one big black cloud, but now, that ominous presence has lifted. (Whether it should have been removed or not is another matter.) For a program that has tumbled to the bottom of the Big East Conference, this announcement couldn’t have come a moment too soon… at least in terms of the Cuse’s on-field fortunes.

Last year, Syracuse won only one Big East game and endured a 4-8 trail of tears. One-time basketball star Greg Paulus – the quarterback of Duke’s halfcourt offense on the hardwood – struggled through an acutely painful Autumn in the Carrier Dome and other Big East football stadia. Marrone couldn’t do what former coach Greg Robinson failed to do in his ill-fated tenure in upstate New York: produce a winning season and, with it, a bowl bid. The Orange have a proud football history, from Jim Brown to Floyd Little to Ernie Davis to Don McPherson to Donovan McNabb. Yet, over the past several years, they’ve known nothing but misery between the white painted lines. Marrone was hired to change things, but he’s only in the second year of what is really a long-term rebuilding project.

The urgency of the Delone Carter story can’t be overstated. Without Carter – who rushed for over 1,000 yards in 2009 – the Orange would have had essentially nobody to turn to in the backfield. Why? Consider this: Marrone also said on Monday that tailback Averin Collier, who would have been starting his junior year, would not be back on the SU football team because of academic issues. Had Carter not returned, the only realistic candidate for the starting running back spot would have been Antwon Bailey. The junior would have stood out as the only returning player with significant playing time for Syracuse. Bailey was second on the team in rushing in 2009 with 312 yards on 67 carries and one touchdown. This team – in order to become more of a threat on Saturdays – needed the experience and proven ability of Carter, a more durable and productive back who scored 11 touchdowns for the Orange in 2009.

Any collection of sports betting diehards could tell you that Syracuse – while it might not win that much in 2010 – will certainly play a lot closer to the number as a result of Delong Carter’s continued presence in the backfield. The Orange should test the point spread as an underdog and prove to be pesky on home turf.

The betting world gets excited this time of the year as division rivals battle it out to see who gets the pennant, and who has to shoot for the wild card berth. As NFL betting starts to gain momentum in St. Louis and Cincinnati, the baseball teams in each city still have a score to settle for the NL Central pennant.

The Reds hold a slim one-game lead over the Cardinals, and both teams have been playing well as of late. In their last 10 games, the Cardinals have won six including the win in the opening game of this series. The Reds have won seven of their last 10 games but, as was mentioned, the Reds dropped the opening game of this series to the Cardinals.

If you are betting on college football then you may have not noticed that the St. Louis Cardinals have a horrible road record. At 24-31, the Cardinals performance on the road is the reason why they are trailing in the standings instead of leading the NL Central by several games. That streak of bad road luck was put to the side at the opening of this series, and the Cardinals hope they have exorcised their road demons for good.

The MLB betting experts simply did not expect the Cincinnati Reds to be challenging for the NL Central pennant so late in the season. The Milwaukee Brewers or possibly the Chicago Cubs were expected to challenge St. Louis for the pennant. The Brewers bats went silent this season and Sweet Lou’s meltdown in Chicago contributed to the demise of the Cubs.

In the final game of this three-game series with the Red, the Cardinals send Adam Wainwright to the mound. Wainwright could be considered the ace of a staff that also includes Cy Young winner Roy Halladay. Wainwright has a 16-6 record and an all-star ERA of only 2.07. Wainwright’s season is being considered one of the best ever by a St. Louis pitcher, and he is only matched by Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson in wins and ERA for a season.

Bronson Arroyo takes the mound for the Reds, and he is having an excellent season for Cincinnati. With a record of 12-6 and an ERA of 3.83, Arroyo has not allowed an earned run in his last two consecutive starts. He has showed great command of his breaking balls, and he has big-time speed on his fast ball.

This is the kind of game baseball fans dream about. It features two division leaders going at it, late in the season to try and gain an edge in the pennant race. Both teams are putting their absolute best pitchers on the mound, and both teams have shown the ability to hit the baseball.

The Cardinals loaded themselves up with pitchers like Halladay and hitters like Ryan Howard, and they made it known that their intention is to compete for the World Series. To get there, they will first have to get by the Cincinnati Reds who are putting up a respectable struggle for the NL Central crown.

Pick: St. Louis Cardinals 2-1

After two consecutive seasons where the New York Mets crashed and burned at the end of the year, the betting experts did not give the Mets much of a chance to do well in the 2010 season. The Mets were given +1500 odds to win the World Series when the season started. In NFL football betting it only matters what a team did in the current season that affects the odds, but in baseball a team can be haunted by previous seasons.

The Mets showed signs of life in late June and early July making a run at the Atlanta Braves and the NL East pennant. But in the last few weeks the Mets have started to show the familiar signs of collapse, and the MLB betting world has seen enough of these Mets to know what is coming next. The Mets are now +5000 to win the World Series, and that number gets higher every day.

The Philadelphia Phillies had high expectations for the 2010 season. With the addition of Cy Young winning pitcher Roy Halladay and power hitting Ryan Howard at the plate, the Phillies were a pre-season contender given +1000 odds on winning the World Series. But the Phillies have spent all season chasing a young Atlanta Braves team in the NL East standings and making very little ground. In the last few weeks the Phillies bats have finally come alive, and the Phillies are now knocking on the Braves’ door at the top of the NL East.

For a while it looked like betting on college football was going to be the main sporting activity in Philadelphia until the Eagles started their NFL season. The Phillies have one of the best starting rotations in all of baseball, and now they are finally getting run support from Ryan Howard and the rest of the Phillies bats. Howard is still nursing an ankle injury and is questionable for this game, but the rest of the Phillies line-up seems more than able to score runs in Howard’s absence.

The Mets have a tall order ahead of them. If they want to make the playoffs their best chance is to win the NL East. They are eight games out of the NL Wild Card spot, and it is not likely that the Mets will be able to get past the San Francisco Giants or Colorado Rockies. The Mets trail the NL East leading Braves by six and a half games, and the Mets have some key series coming up that will decide their playoff future.

In this important game the Mets are putting Jon Niese on the mound. Niese has a 7-5 record and a 3.78 ERA for the season. Niese is not having the kind of season he would like to be having, but Mets manager Jerry Manuel thought enough of Niese’s recent performances to skip Hisanori Takahashi in the starting rotation so that Niese could start this game.

The Phillies will be putting Joe Blanton on the mound. Blanton’s 4-6 record and his 5.86 ERA are indicative of the kind of season he has had. Unfortunately for the Phillies, Blanton gives the Mets a chance in this game.

Pick: New York Mets 5-2