NCAA bans Portland State men's basketball from postseason

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

06/09/2010 - Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The men's basketball team at Portland State has been banned from competing in the NCAA Tournament for the 2010-11 campaign after the school fell too low on the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate (APR) score list that was released Wednesday.

The NCAA said while APR rates showed improvement from last year, a total of 10 teams were subject to postseason bans this coming season, but just Portland State had to serve the penalty. UAB football, Colorado State men's basketball and Jacksonville State men's basketball received full conditional waivers and do not appear on any penalty list. The remaining six - Florida International baseball, Weber State football, Texas Southern men's basketball, Chattanooga football, Southeastern Louisiana men's basketball, and UAB men's basketball received conditional waivers of the postseason ban, but received scholarship and/or practice time penalties.

The overall multi-year Division I APR was 967, up three points from last year, according to the NCAA. The organization said football's average four-year APR is 944, up five points over last year; men's basketball is 940, up seven points; and baseball is 954, up eight points.

Syracuse men's basketball scored a 912 and will see a reduction of two scholarships. Colorado was hit with penalties in both men's basketball and football, losing one and four scholarships, respectively. The Buffaloes scored 920 on the APR in football and 897 in basketball.

The APR, now in its sixth year, is calculated on the eligibility and retention of scholarship student-athletes. Teams scoring below 925 out of 1,000 can face penalties, such as scholarship losses and restrictions on practice and competition. Rates are based on the past four years of performance.

"While only one team currently is subject to the postseason ban, the others remain subject to the penalty in future years if they do not meet their specific academic performance conditions or implement their academic improvement plans," said Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president for academic and membership affairs.

Portland State said its officials made an appeal to waive any potential additional penalties based on academic enhancements and improvements by the program over the past year. In the three completed academic terms since Tyler Geving took over as men's basketball head coach, the Viking program has earned its two highest overall GPAs as a team in the past five years (Spring 2009, 3.00; and Winter 2010, 2.91). During the two years inclusive of 2007-09, Portland State has graduated seven of its eight seniors. The 2009-10 senior class of three is scheduled to graduate this year. The school also said, in the past two completed terms (fall and winter), Portland State basketball has recorded perfect APR scores.

"This is a very disappointing circumstance," said school athletic director Torre Chisholm. "The athletic program and university have been working very aggressively to improve the academic performance of student-athletes. This penalty is the result of past academic deficiencies. Unfortunately, men's basketball had fallen into a very deep APR hole. We just couldn't climb out of it fast enough."

The NCAA said this year 137 teams at 80 schools have been penalized for poor academic performance. Last year, 177 teams at 107 schools received penalties, and two years ago 213 teams at 123 schools were sanctioned. There are currently more than 6,400 teams in Division I.

Wwwsilverdollarcasino NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Kentucky-Notre Dame clash highlights SEC/Big East Invitational
Providence, RI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kentucky and Notre Dame were among the eight teams chosen to play in this year's SEC/Big East Invitational, a two-night event held December 8 and 11 in Louisville and Pittsburgh. Joining Kentucky from

<< WPS announces All Stars
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Women's Professional Soccer announced the starting 22 players for its 2010 WPS All-Star game, which will take place on June 30 at KSU Soccer Stadium in Kennesaw, Georgia. The starting 22 players were

<< Hewitt lands in Halle QFs
Halle, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt was an easy second-round winner Wednesday at the Gerry Weber Open, a grass-court Wimbledon tune-up. The two-time major champion Hewitt humbled Dutchman Thiemo De B

<< 'Turfbreaking' set for EWU's red field
Cheyney, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tennessee Titans All-Pro tackle Michael Roos will be in attendance for a "turfbreaking" ceremony at Eastern Washington on Saturday, as the Big Sky Conference university moves toward installing a red turf field.

<< ESPN hoops analyst Phelps recovering from cancer surgery
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former college basketball coach and ESPN analyst Digger Phelps is recovering from successful prostate cancer surgery he underwent on Tuesday. The legendary coach was diagnosed on April 28 and had the

NFLPA issues challenge to structure of NFL television deals >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The National Football League Player's Association has initiated a legal challenge to the NFL's agreement with television networks, which allows the league to reap payments even if no games are pla

Nadal, Djokovic win second-rounders in London >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French Open champion Rafael Nadal and second-seeded Novak Djokovic highlighted Wednesday's second-round winners at the Aegon Championships, a grass-court Wimbledon tune-up. Making a smooth transit

Report: Nets eyeing Johnson for coaching job >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Post is reporting that the New Jersey Nets have entered into discussions with Avery Johnson about the team's head coaching vacancy. Johnson was fired after the Dallas Mavericks' ouster from

2 BCS schools could lose basketball scholarships >>
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The NCAA's big boys have figured out how to beat up the little guys in the classroom, too.Spend more money.The newest Academic Progress Rate, released Wednesday, showed seven of the 137 teams facing penalties come from BCS confer

Pierce looks for better game, less foul trouble >>
BOSTON (AP) -Paul Pierce knows he has to improve his play in Game 4 of the NBA finals. First, he must stay out of foul trouble.The Boston Celtics' leading scorer in the regular season picked up his fifth foul in the first minute of the fourth quarte

Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.