Help finding old spreads

Submitted by Bleedin9Blue on
Hello MGoBloggers, I'm looking for a little bit of help finding old spreads, specifically spreads for [all] bowl games after 1997 (so, all the bowl games since the BCS has been around in some form). I'm looking to do a comparison of the conferences (obviously focusing on the B10 and other "Big Six" conferences) to see if the general perception of conference rankings is correct. Hopefully by finding how many teams beat the spread I'll be able to do some sort of comparison to see how the conferences have looked these past couple of years. One of the reasons I'm doing this is because I'm wondering just how screwed the B10 actually gets (if you couldn't guess, I'm not going to be completely unbiased going into this study, but I will try to be more objective than that sentence sounds) by having 2 teams in the BCS. My thought is, instead of looking at W/Ls, look at how many teams beat the spread. If the underdog was supposed to be by 10.5 but only lost by 3, obviously they're doing better against a superior team than the team that lost by 14 in similar circumstances. Thus, if we look at W/L adjust with the spread, we can get a better idea of how good each conference is. I'm going to develop the idea further and go into more depth now, but I didn't want to spend too much time thinking about it if it's impossible to find the spreads on each game. I'd also do this with interconference games but that would add a lot more work and I don't have that much time. I've done a few Google searches [to find old odds] but haven't found anywhere with a real extensive listing. And I haven't found really anything for years before 2007. Thus, fellow MGoBloggers, help me to find old spreads for bowl games and I will write a diary to entertain and educate you in the future. Thanks.

jamiemac

September 17th, 2009 at 11:06 AM ^

Try out covers.com Go to their NCAA Football page, click on teams, go to any team page, look for past results, and there you go. They go all the way back to 1985 when it comes to college football. You should find anything you need there.

Bleedin9Blue

September 17th, 2009 at 12:10 PM ^

Thank you jamie, that's quite helpful. I'm looking and it does have all of the lines. I don't see, however, a compendium of just bowl game spreads. I wonder if there is one because if I have to go through team-by-team for every single bowl game for every year between 1998 and 2009, that'll take quite a long time. If that's what I have to do then so be it. But, if someone could direct me to the part of covers.com or some other site with the information described above, I would appreciate it. Of course, if it is on covers and it's obvious then I apologize for my own ineptitude.

jamiemac

September 17th, 2009 at 12:26 PM ^

Go to your local B/N or Borders and see if they have a copy of Marc Lawrence's Playbook. It does not have a compendium of Bowl Games, but every college team has their own page and the last 10 years of results, all with spreads. For your bowl research, it would be pretty easy and you wouldnt have the hassles of going from page to page. You could proabbly get a copy from his webstie playbook.com I buy the magazine every year and its an invaluable research tool so you dont have to constantly be surfing the net.