If you’re anything like me, your Saturdays in the fall consist of watching the pre-game show of your choosing (I’m a College Gameday guy myself), followed by 12-plus hours of nonstop college football coverage. It’s a dedicated lifestyle, I will say, and one that my girlfriend gets tired of by mid-October at the latest (thanks for not strangling me, Lex).
Every college football fan has “their team”. I’m going to go ahead and assume that you, beloved reader, are a Florida Gators fan like myself. If you’re not, thanks for stopping by Gators Wire. You’re going to love this series, regardless of your team affiliation.
The great unifier among sports fans of all teams is gambling. I, too, enjoy placing bets on college football games every Saturday. It enhances the experience and gives the game a little something extra. Why does anyone watch Pac-12 After Dark?
The Napkin will be my weekly gambling series where we go through the best bets on the slate every Saturday.
Allow me to tell a quick story.
One Friday night when I was a student at UF, I was out and about the beautiful city of Gainesville. I remember being at the bar and watching some Friday night Pac-12 game and saying, “Oh shoot, I forgot to bet on tomorrow’s games.” I looked around the bar, grabbed a napkin, asked the bartender to borrow a pen, and wrote down the games that I wanted to bet on.
Saturday morning Sergio was thrilled with Friday night Sergio’s decision.
In honor of that one time I drunkenly remembered to write something down, I started The Napkin. When my professor assigned us to start a blog in grad school, I thought The Napkin was the perfect way of blending my assignment, with my love of college football.
This post serves as an introduction to what is to come. You’re going to get gambling advice, yes, but what you’re really going to get is another way of previewing (and reviewing) college football as a whole. It’s a way of opening your eyes to everything the college football world has to offer.
I’m a firm believer in consuming college football at all levels. Yes, the best quality of play and the most money lives in the SEC, the Big Ten, and the rest of the Power Five. But the Group of Five has some incredible storylines and entertainment value to it. As does the FCS, and so on.
The Napkin will focus on the Power Five and the Group of Five, but that doesn’t mean that other levels of the game, if our bookmaking partners post the lines, won’t be considered.
I know I’ve rambled for a while and you’re thinking, “Will this millennial just get to the gambling part already,” but I do want to say one more thing. All of this is supposed to be fun. If you feel like your gambling is becoming a problem, please contact The National Council on Problem Gambling at 1- (800) 522-4700. Please gamble responsibly.
The Napkin will come out every Friday morning, as a way to jump-start your weekend slate. A recap post will come out every Monday to review how we did over the course of the weekend.
With all that being said, let’s get to my personal gambling rules.