Online Sportsbook – NFL Situation Affects College Schedule. We know that the college football season will be unaffected in terms of odds at the online sportsbook by the NFL labor situation but the schedule could be tweaked a little bit. Some of the big bowl games including the 2012 BCS title game could have different dates. Odds are already on the SBG board for college football at the sportsbook company but when the season will conclude is not set in concrete.
NFL Still the Top Dog
College football is prepared to move some of their big games based on what the NFL does. College football does not want games like the Sugar Bowl or the BCS Championship game to be going up against NFL games. For example, the Sugar Bowl is currently set for January 2nd and the BCS title game is set for January 9th but neither of those dates is firm. If the NFL has to push their schedule back then college football is prepared to push both of those games to different dates. As of now the BCS title game is set for January 9th but there are contingency plans for Saturday the 7th and for Tuesday the 10th. College football would prefer to play the game on Monday but nothing is set in stone.
ESPN Also Controls the Situation
ESPN does not want anything interfering with Monday Night Football and since they are broadcasting 33 bowl games they really can do whatever they want. An executive from ESPN said that nothing will be officially decided until the NFL labor situation is resolved. The bowl games on January 2nd and January 9th could be moved if they interfere with Monday Night Football.
No Games on New Year’s Day
You may not have even noticed yet but unless the NFL labor situation changes the current schedule there will be no bowl games on New Year’s Day for gamblers at the sportsbook company to wager on. The NFL is playing a full slate of games on January 1st and all of the bowl games have moved to a different date so they won’t have to compete against the NFL. All of the bowl games that would have been on New Year’s Day like the Rose, Sugar and Outback bowl have moved to January 2nd this time around which won’t affect the odds at the online sportsbook but it will be weird.