I have seen football game schedules with spreads listed as:
A vs B (minus 7 1/2)
C vs D (plus 14 1/2)
My question is why are some listed as “plus” and others listed as “minus”? Why not list them as all plus for the underdog or all minus for the favorite? Or is there some subtle difference between plus and minus?
It depends on just how they are listed.
If it appears as you put it, then I am assuming that the numbers always apply to the second (usually the home) team. In this case, B is favored by 7 1/2 in the first game, and C by 14 1/2 in the second.
It is probably easier than listing them as, for example:
A vs B (-7 1/2)
C (-14 1/2) vs D
Yup, if you check last week’s NFL thread you’ll see the home teams listed second, followed by the spread (in that thread, minus means home team is favored by that much, plus means they are underdogs by that much) and the over/under.
That’s kind of what’s going on. If it’s a plus, then the home team is the underdog, and if it’s a minus they’re the favorite. It saves space and avoids formatting issues (like Don points out).
And just to toss this out there, spreadmakers credit home teams in the NFL with 3 points. So if two teams are perceived to be perfectly evenly matched, the home team will be favored by 3.
This is why it’s important the format convey who is home and who is away.
OK, now explain what the over/under is. (See, this is why I don’t gamble.)
Total points scored in the game.
So if the final score was 24-17, a combined total of 41 points were scored.
If the over/under were set at 42, you should have bet the under (they scored under the line).
If the over/under were set at 35, you should have bet the over (they scored over the line).
If you see unusually high or low values for this, it means they expect a high scoring game or a defensively oriented game (or a snoozefest/pillow fight).
Back to the OP, the actual listings (Ralph Russo, Associated Press) that inspired this thread included the following:
SMU (plus 3 1/2) at Tulane
Georgia (minus 22 1/2) at Kentucky
Mississippi at Arkansas (plus 2 1/2)
Colorado at Washington (minus 30 1/2)
So we have all combinations of home/visitor and favorite/underdog with the plus/minus. So it’s not just the home team that gets the plus/minus.
Any other ideas besides just random assignment?
There is no standard; the +/- can be applied to either team without issue. Or both teams, even, though that’s generally considered a waste of ink:
Lions (+3) @ Giants (-3)
All you need to remember is that the actual +/- number shown applies to the team it’s right next to, not the other one.
Yeah, it’s not like there’s a standard, though there will often be some sort of rationale. Home team is fairly common. If not that, then common division or conference affiliation will sometimes be used.
It’s rarely purely random but the reason may not be obvious at a casual glance.
If I had to hazard a guess for that particular example, I would say the team the author picked to beat/cover the spread is the one the line is listed next to and the home teams are listed second in every case. You can see that Georgia and Washington are considered prohibitive favorites.
Believe it or not, many sports writers will keep track of their picks over the course of the season and make the running tally part of the following week’s article.
I was confused, and thought this was the weekly NFL thread. Let me see if I can give you a better answer to your actual question…
As far as I can tell it’s just a matter of style guides. There is no meaningful difference how you do it, but you’re right, it never seems to be all negative numbers or all positive numbers; it seems to consistently always be a mix of positive and negative numbers but in the same column.
Probably as simple a reason as that it just looks more tidy that way.