The ninth week of College football betting odds featured plenty of excitement and drama, but none of them topped the much-talked about finish between Miami and Duke, where a series of botched calls by officials greatly changed the games result. Of course, officiating is an extremely difficult job, but with the life of players, coaches, programs and fans heavily relying on game calls, there is no doubt that these dependent populace gets the best of calls in order to achieve the fairest results in the field and betting lines, for that matter.
A Look Back at the Biggest Takeaways from NCAA Football Betting Week 9
Fortunately, the ACC acknowledged on Sunday that Miami’s kickoff return TD to beat Duke 30-27 should not have counted and that officials made four major errors during the last play. And although the ACC will not overturning the outcome of that game, the league suspended both the on-field officiating crew and the two replay booth officials for two games as an example to other bias officials.
Unfortunately, though, Duke fell out of a potential tie for the top spot in the ACC Coastal division as a result of the call, something that could very well cost the Blue Devils their season. Duke was in the Top 25 prior to the mishap and should have remained there, if not climbed higher. Now, they are out of the rankings and it is undeniable that the programs’ reputation has taken a big hit as a result of the poor officiating.
Besides the officials’ scandal, some players were caught on the wrong side of the law in off-the-pitch incidences, while we had a couple of coaching shakeups. Below are some of the other top online betting updates from the Week 9.
The Suspensions
Barrett was involved in a DIU incident (operating the vehicle while intoxicated) on their bye week, which led to his suspension. Head coach Urban Meyer revealed that the school made the decision to suspend Barrett for this week’s game, with his scholarship also being revoked for one term, following the incident. Luckily enough, the Buckeyes are in a very privileged position of being endowed with talent, so they’ll easily turn to Cardale Jones now and not miss a beat.
Jones has thrown for 1266 yards with seven TDs and five interceptions so far this season, sharing most of those coming early in the season when he shared reps with Barrett at QB. The only tricky part of the equation is what the Buckeyes will do when Barrett returns from suspension, depending on how Jones performs in the upcoming game against Minnesota. This is because Ohio State will play Michigan before visiting Michigan State in their final two games of the regular season, which will necessitate the presence of one solid starter rather than jump through options. It will therefore be upon the program to balance between the two QBs, as they look to stay perfect and return to the Playoff with a chance to defend their National Championship title.
In other news, the Missouri Tigers also suspended starting QB Maty Mauk just six days after reinstating him. Details about the suspension are yet to be revealed, but according to the school, Mauk breached some disciplinary issues in the program. The decision means that true freshman Drew Lock, who has struggled as a Tiger backup, will take the starting duties for now.
This is a setback for Mauk, who was once a Parade All-American and was named Ohio’s Mr. Football. It appeared like he would be a generational player at Missouri, but now, his return to the team looks highly unlikely, meaning his footballing career could be over. The onus will now be on Lock, who has totaled 763 yards with three TDs and three INTs on the year, to lead Missouri’s offense for the remainder of this season.
No More Chow
To the delight of many, Hawaii finally made the decision to cut ties with Norm Chow. The head coach struggled to offer leadership, with his team underperforming all season. This decision was announced after their brutal loss to 58-7 home loss to Air Force over the weekend. The loss saw the program fall to 2-7 on the season and a 10-36 overall record under Chow, necessitating urgent measures to try and rescue the school’s from poor run. The Warriors, thereafter, announced that Chris Naeole will be the interim coach for the remainder of the season as the team continues its search for a long-term solution.
