.....or possibly just a statistical anamoly. Either way, I wanted to throw it out here as food for thought.
Thus far, through the early bowl season slate, 9 of the 12 teams that have led at the half have gone on to extend their leads in the second half. The only teams that have made second half comebacks to date were Wyoming, Fresno State, and Colorado.
Don't really know for sure how this relates to 2nd half lines as I don't remember all of them, but I imagine most of the halftime leaders also went on to cover the second half spread.
Now, this could be totally useless information, but it might be something to keep an eye on. The only reason I wanted to mention it is that the more I thought about it, it kind of made some sense to me.
It has been my observation that teams have more of a tendency to get down on themselves and frustrated in these bowl games, even moreso than in the regular season. Every year, the bowl season brings about more than its fair share of blowouts for one reason or another. I'm not saying that this is always the reason why some of these games get out of hand, but loss of focus and attention to the task at hand, especially for the team that is down, would make some sense to me on a "human level."
Sometimes, we sports bettors, have a tendency to make these players out to be merely pawns in our little chess game of trying to beat the pointspread. We watch them perform and sometimes not perform how we had envisioned. We gawk at the TV just expecting certain things to happen almost as if they are inanimate objects. Perceptions of reality, neutrality, and ability to remain unbiased go out the window once we plunk down our money on a side. We get wrapped up into stats, numbers, and trends while sometimes forgetting that these are young kids with real human emotions, just the same as you or I. Now, I can't speak for everyone, but I know I have certainly been guilty of thinking like this from time to time.
Perhaps, teams that have their spirit broken early in these bowl games have a tough time finding the motivation to display any kind of suge in the second half. After all, this is the last game of the season, the end of a long bowl trip, etc. I think it might even be simply human nature when the game begins to get a little out of reach, for minds to drift and wander away from the present and into the future. I would think that visions of getting home to their own beds/homes, or even to the offseason/next season might have a tendency to creep in a little early. I'm sure that both teams experience these same emotions, but the difference is that one team is riding the high of an apparent bowl victory and that alone might help to maintain their competitive edge.
BTW, I haven't gone back to look at past season's box scores or anything for similar trends, just really talking out loud here. I'm sure I have read way too much into this, but I thought it might at least be an intriguing angle to ponder with my fellow MadJackers.
-JC
Thus far, through the early bowl season slate, 9 of the 12 teams that have led at the half have gone on to extend their leads in the second half. The only teams that have made second half comebacks to date were Wyoming, Fresno State, and Colorado.
Don't really know for sure how this relates to 2nd half lines as I don't remember all of them, but I imagine most of the halftime leaders also went on to cover the second half spread.
Now, this could be totally useless information, but it might be something to keep an eye on. The only reason I wanted to mention it is that the more I thought about it, it kind of made some sense to me.
It has been my observation that teams have more of a tendency to get down on themselves and frustrated in these bowl games, even moreso than in the regular season. Every year, the bowl season brings about more than its fair share of blowouts for one reason or another. I'm not saying that this is always the reason why some of these games get out of hand, but loss of focus and attention to the task at hand, especially for the team that is down, would make some sense to me on a "human level."
Sometimes, we sports bettors, have a tendency to make these players out to be merely pawns in our little chess game of trying to beat the pointspread. We watch them perform and sometimes not perform how we had envisioned. We gawk at the TV just expecting certain things to happen almost as if they are inanimate objects. Perceptions of reality, neutrality, and ability to remain unbiased go out the window once we plunk down our money on a side. We get wrapped up into stats, numbers, and trends while sometimes forgetting that these are young kids with real human emotions, just the same as you or I. Now, I can't speak for everyone, but I know I have certainly been guilty of thinking like this from time to time.
Perhaps, teams that have their spirit broken early in these bowl games have a tough time finding the motivation to display any kind of suge in the second half. After all, this is the last game of the season, the end of a long bowl trip, etc. I think it might even be simply human nature when the game begins to get a little out of reach, for minds to drift and wander away from the present and into the future. I would think that visions of getting home to their own beds/homes, or even to the offseason/next season might have a tendency to creep in a little early. I'm sure that both teams experience these same emotions, but the difference is that one team is riding the high of an apparent bowl victory and that alone might help to maintain their competitive edge.
BTW, I haven't gone back to look at past season's box scores or anything for similar trends, just really talking out loud here. I'm sure I have read way too much into this, but I thought it might at least be an intriguing angle to ponder with my fellow MadJackers.
-JC
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