In the United States, legal betting on college football action is one of the most popular sports betting pastimes. Second only to the NFL in football wagering popularity, NCAA college football betting is legally provided through legitimately licensed sportsbooks located outside of the United States. Perhaps you are a Southeastern Conference fan that has made good money betting on the SEC back when they compiled a 9 - 2 record playing in BCS National Championship Games. Or maybe you are a Florida State backer that cashed in on the unbeaten 2013 - 2014 Seminole season that ended a run of 7 straight SEC National Championship teams. If you are from the Big Ten, Big 12 , or PAC 12, you probably can't wait for the new College Football Playoff to begin in 2015, the first year you can gamble on an actual playoff system which crowns the national collegiate champion of men's football. Whether you live in the US or abroad, legal football betting on your favorite college teams is now a reality. For more information about the legal status of betting on football, please visit the section of our website dedicated to covering football betting laws.

The CFP kicked in during the 2014 Division I Football Bowl Subdivision regular-season. A four team playoff, the 2015 edition has the Rose and Sugar Bowls hosting the 4 top college football teams selected by a committee of 13 seasoned college football experts. The winners from each of those games will advance to the College Football Championship game, played on the first Monday that is at least 6 or more days after those 2 bowl games. A three-year repeating cycle shows the CFP employing the Orange and Cotton Bowls in 2016 and the Fiesta and Peach Bowls in 2017 to host the semifinal matchups. In the 2018 playoffs, the three-year cycle repeats itself. At the legitimately licensed websites we have listed, you can legally bet on college football playoff contests during the semifinal bowl games, and on the championship game as well.

As you probably know, the most common college football wager is the spread bet. If the Alabama Crimson Tide is favored by 13 points over Louisiana State University, Alabama needs to win by 14 points or more if you bet on them to win. Louisiana State can lose by less than 13, and still deliver a winning bet if you put your money on them. You can also place a money line wager on college football. If you see Ohio State -110 Virginia Tech +110 as the betting line, you know that the Buckeyes are the favorite, just slightly. In this scenario, you would have to bet $110 on Ohio State to win $100 outright. Betting VT means $100 wagered would win $110 if that team is victorious.

Total wagering (also called over/under betting) is also very popular. It allows you to bet on the total points scored by both teams without having to name a victor. Say the over/under, or total, in the Stanford - USC contest is 53 points. You can either bet that more than or less than 53 points will be scored by both teams combined. There are also parlays which allow you to combine multiple wagers into one bet, teasers and pleasers which allow you to move the point line in either direction, round robins, "if bets" and reversals. All of these are legal college football bets you can place online at the top rated websites we recommend. Learn more about enhancing your betting session with our football betting tips.

If I pitch a particular betting proposition to you, that is known as a "prop bet". This is used to refer to wagers which are not based on the final outcome of a game. Betting college football online usually means bowl games and playoff games when prop bets are mentioned, but not always. You can find attractive prop bets offered each week during the NCAAF regular season at the better online football betting sites. A typical prop bet offers action before the start of the game.

For instance, you might bet on the proposition that the Texas Longhorns will gain more or less than 200 yards rushing in their contest against TCU. That is just one example of a common college football prop bet. Before the season begins, one of the most popular prop bets is on some future outcome. This is usually wagered on in reference to which team will emerge as that year's national champion. If Oregon is shown as +600 on a futures prop bet before the start of the season, a $100 wager would win $700 if the Ducks won the National Championship that year. There are many types of prop and futures bets offered at the top college football betting sites.

This is a relatively new but very exciting college football betting platform. In the past, you were only allowed to place a wager before the start of a football game. But now, you can receive action on propositions, individual and team outcomes and achievements, while the game is actually being played. This allows the smart college football bettor to take advantage of situations and events as they unfold on the field. Typical examples of live betting propositions allow you to wager on whether an individual defensive player will record more or less than a specified number of QB sacks or tackles in a game, with that number changing throughout the contest. Live betting can sometimes also allow you to place first half, third quarter and second half bets on constantly changing money lines, totals and spread bets. This feature is also available for NFL football betting lines.

There has been a ton of excitement leading into the 2016 NCAA men's D1 football season, perhaps more than ever before. This, of course, is solely because of the smashing success of the four-team playoff system that has replaced the old computer algorithms of the BCS. With the old BCS system, you ended up one year where Alabama, not even a conference champion, played against their own SEC West teammates in the conference champion LSU Tigers. Although many agree that they were the two best teams in college football, the fact of the matter is that it shouldn't have happened. By instituting a playoff, and only accepting a team per conference, it will never happen again. And this is good news for many fans, and even gamblers. Speaking of gamblers, if you're here at Legal College Football Betting because you want a preview of the college season to help you bet, then we'll walk you through a preview based on what the oddsmakers are saying.

As gamblers ourselves, and huge football fans, we do have plenty of opinions on the topic, and we could rail on for days about what we think. However, we want to attempt to keep things objective and succinct here, so we're only going to be relaying the information straight from the oddsmakers. This is what the experts think about the season upcoming.

Although it may seem very biased and unfair to a lot of other conferences in college football, likely is the case that only the power-five conferences will be represented in the NCAA College Football Playoff. This means that the SEC, Pac-12, Big 12, Big Ten and ACC are the only conferences that will end up getting their ticket punched for the National Championship playoffs. This is because of the power of the conferences. It will basically work like this. The SEC, ACC and Big Ten champions will be taken, barring something extreme like a three-loss record. And for the fourth spot, you'll either have a 0 or one-loss Pac-12 champion, or if that's not feasible, then you will get the team with the best record in the Big 12, although they don't crown a champion. They're still one of the biggest conferences, and upsetting them could upset the balance of college football in general. Another way it could play out is the SEC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 in, though if the ACC champ isn't showing a lot of promise, like a two-loss Clemson of Florida State team, then they'll look at the Big 12. Conversely, if the Big 12 teams all have two losses or one bad loss against an unranked team, they're likely to take a two-loss champion from a conference that hosts a championship. Yeah, it gets confusing and muddy, but suffice to say that the power-five are the only ones invited to the party.

Ohio State

One of the four spots will automatically go to the Big Ten champion, barring an entire conference that's just horrific and ranked out of the top-25. That's very unlikely to happen, however, and what we'll likely see at the end of the season is Ohio State beating out Michigan to represent the Big Ten East, facing off against a team like Iowa or Minnesota in the Big Ten West. And the champion, likely the Buckeyes, will have an automatic bid in the playoff, barring something like a three-loss record, which is next to impossible as the East representative will need the best record in the conference. So if you're a betting person, Ohio State is looking really good for a playoff spot already.

Alabama

The same applies to the SEC as with the Big Ten, but even more so. The SEC is considered a professional football division vs. kiddie conferences, and nearly every year half of the entire SEC is ranked in the top-25 and 90% of the teams get a great bowl game. If Alabama muscles through in the West, as it predicted, they will face off against a team like Georgia or Florida or Mizzou in the Conference Championship. And whichever team wins this will not only make the playoff but will be given one of the top 2 seeds. That's how much respect the SEC commands in college football.

Oregon

Behind the success of Stanford, USC and Oregon, the Pac-12 is considered the second-best conference in college football, and their winner will likely earn a spot in the playoff. They missed out last year because their champion had a two-loss record, while in the Big 12 Oklahoma had only a one-loss record, and their loss was to a great team, whereas the Cardinal, the Pac-12 champs, were 12-2 with an in-division loss and a bad loss to Northwestern. Oregon defeated Stanford last year, and most predict that Oregon will end up the cream of the crop. If they can crawl out of the championship with only a one-loss blemish on their record, then likely is the case that they'll be invited to the playoff.

Baylor

Baylor gets the benefit of the doubt out of the Big 12 this season because most expect that the ACC champion will have at least a two-loss record, as Florida State and Clemson should be about dead even in the conference. Though it could easily work the other way if the ACC champ ends up undefeated or with one good loss, the consensus is that Baylor will work their way up to the top-4, despite their annual loss, and be there when it's said and done. Like always, Baylor will have a back-loaded schedule, and they won't start playing the good teams until after the midway point and the committee begins ranking teams. This can work out well for Baylor, but they have to actually win their games. If they can do that, they'll be invited to the playoff. Most experts seem to agree that they will make it, to try to cover for Oklahoma's disappointing performance last season representing the Big 12.