SportsInsights

It was supposed to be a special weekend in college football.  It was being billed as “Separation Saturday,”  the weekend that furthered the gap between contenders and pretenders.  At first glance, it appeared that today was going to be something more than an over-hyped marketing slogan.  But “Separation Saturday” turned out to be “Stay at Home Saturday,” as we saw less action than a midget at the WNBA Sadie Hawkins Day Dance. 

Although the weekend featured plenty of good viewing matchups, there were not many games that wet the betting public’s appetite as Saturday’s handle was down.  Long on evenly matched conference games and short on laughers, most folks were content to stay away from the early action and wait for the steam to develop on the late games.  Those that were willing to wager on the early games were rewarded with very modest payouts as Va. Tech and Michigan State manhandled conference opponents.

While volume and exotics helped put us up on the day going into the late afternoon games, the lack of action was disconcerting.  With dogs covering across the board, today had the makings of big payday, but with the public refusing to take the bait, we felt like Johnny Chan sitting down at a local PBA poker game.  We had all the plays, but there was never a worthwhile pot.    

The public’s tune changed as the late games rolled around, and they jumped on the Sooner bandwagon.  The annual Cotton Bowl showcase drew even more attention this year as everyone saw through the Longhorns hype and fired big at Oklahoma giving less than a touchdown.  While the Sooner victory was costly, the result was not detrimental as Notre Dame and UCLA handled their business and minimized our losses.

We were looking good going into the evening games, up a moderate amount with a few big decisions pending.  Although most of the late action and exotics were on Georgia, the Bulldog victory was not disastrous to our cause as Wisconsin won outright and the Cubs took a 3-1 lead in the NLCS.  Both results helped soften the blow and keep the public in check.    

While we took a few hits during the day, we fared better than Don Zimmer, as the public delivered a few body shots but never knocked us out.  Although there have certainly more profitable days in the history of Oasis Casino, we will take what we can get on a day like this when the public refused to come out and play.