Football bettors don't have many places to look Friday night. To be more exact, they have only one place to look: Laramie, Wyo.
If you're unfamiliar with Laramie, it's been a topic of conversation on several occasions throughout this football season thanks to its commonly uncommon weather conditions — generally surrounding the wind.
Wind plays a major role in football betting, and specifically college football betting. In our Bet Labs database (going back to 2005), games with average wind speeds of 13 mph or more have hit the under at a 57% rate on a sample size of more than 900 games.
Tonight's forecast isn't quite calling for wind speeds in that range (projected average of 9 mph), but it does feature another factor that leads to value on college football unders: cold weather.
Colorado vs. Wyoming Weather Forecast
Temps will hover around 20 degrees throughout the game, which in conjunction with the still somewhat significant wind speeds, sets up a chance at another very profitable angle.
In our database, games featuring both freezing temperatures (32 or below) and double-digit average wind speeds have hit the under at a nice 69% rate (43-19-1). While not quite reaching that wind mark, this game is right on the edge, so it's deserving to be on bettors' radars, especially if the forecast sees any changes.
And for what it's worth, lowering the wind threshold to anything greater than 5 mph still generates a profit, though not to the same tune. Such games have hit the under at a 57% rate, going 71-54-3 since '05.
Oddsmakers have yet to react to the forecast, with most books staying put at a total of around 51 (and to be fair, the earliest books to market have actually come up from 49). But again, an update to the weather has potential to change that.
As it stands now, 35% of bettors accounting for 54% of money are taking the under.
