The Army Navy Game Betting

O/U has to right around 40. These are usually low scores.


Ha ha, just looked it up, it’s 41.

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navy played a much harder schedule and is almost identical on paper.

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I'll agree that Navy had a more difficult schedule. Whether or not it was "much harder" is up for debate. A quick glance at a couple SOS rankings shows the discrepancy to be not significant. But it's the second part is what I wanna focus on as I do not believe it to be a statement soaked with veracity.

Navy is 3-9 with one of those wins being over Lehigh. Their best win and performance of the season was in week 2 against Memphis where they won 22-21.

Army is 9-2 with their only losses being road games against Duke and Oklahoma, the latter being a loss in overtime against a team that got into the CFP.

Moreover, they have common opponents.

Hawaii: Army won 28-21. Navy lost 59-41.
Air Force: Army won 17-14. Navy lost 35-7

By my unofficial count Army is +56 over Navy against common opponents.

Additionally, Army just has more impressive performances than Navy. Army beat the best team in the MAC 42-13. Buffalo almost certaily would have beaten Navy. Army also got a very nice overtime win over Hipster Miami with their backup QB. The next week the starter, Kelvin Hopkins, returned and they beat yet another top MAC team by a comfortable margin.

Fwiw, the computers like Army as well:
FPI: 69, 99
Sagarin: 53, 106
Teamrankings: 53, 94

S&P has them the closest of any I've seen: 83, 102

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the triple option is familiar to both.

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I actually like this aspect. When two teams do basically the exact same thing but one does it better, I find it tougher to make an argument for the inferior team. This is actually most true in tennis, but I think it's true in football to a certain extent as well.

Navy had the lead in the final minutes so hung around counts here.

It would be +10.5 Navy if Navy didn't seem to always play up in this game and have Army's #.

Vegas is setting odds for the betting general public (25-40) which seemingly lived most of their adult life with Navy's 14-game winning streak from 2002 through 2014.

Statfox: Army-Navy Matchup[

I'm not advocating a side, but you ask why?
- Six of the last seven match ups between them, winning margin is 7 or less.
- Eight of the last 10 won by Navy, and the two games Army won the last two years, by four pts 21-17, and one 14-13 last year.
- Both squads Off vs Def yardage allowances this year, less than 60 yards total apart per Gm
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This post was edited on 12/3/18 at 10:12 pm

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Don't think it is easy money...

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I prefer rivalry games.

I'm not saying it's a sure thing -- I mean, they call it gambling for a reason -- but I just like the number that I got. Way lower than I expected. I thought it would be 10 or 11.

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I would never, ever bet money on this game.

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Unless you were a Navy fan from 2002-1014...then you'd be crazy not to bet.

Army stunk.

Navy was way ahead of the curve...playing way better than a Service Academy like Air Force in the 90's.

Army played like a service Academy.

Rivalry games are prime pickings. Line is low because of thoughts like yours...even though one team is so superior.

People could have made a lot of money on Navy in the 2000's the lines were bad and the games weren't close.

Military Academies, rivalry game...has so much emotion that the lines just are never accurate...Vegas just doesn't overcompensates for the underdog in this game - always.

Army's resume is 10X better than Navy's...and Army won the last two...but this is the first time Army has been favored over Navy since 2001.

There is so much Navy perception, nobody watches the service academies play a single down but for this game...and all people know is Navy has dominated.

That's precisely why the line is so low despite Army on paper being a 10.5 - 14.5 favorite.