Ohio State's first-half flop costs bettor a perfect 3-for-3 on $100K college football bets

The early part of Saturday’s college football action was very eventful for one bettor at BetMGM.

The same bettor put down three $100,000 first-half bets on the three games in the noon window. The bettor backed all three favorites: Oklahoma (-3.5) against Iowa State in the Big 12 title game, Ohio State (-10.5) against Northwestern in the Big Ten title game and Texas A&M (-7) on the road against Tennessee.

All three bets had potential returns of $90,909. One covered easily. Another came down to the wire. And the third wasn’t even close.

Let’s start with the easy one. No. 10 Oklahoma took an early 7-0 lead and used a 45-yard touchdown pass from Spencer Rattler to Marvin Mims on the first play of the second quarter to extend that lead to 14-0.

No. 6 Iowa State has been able to move the ball some, but a dropped interception from the defense and then an interception thrown by Brock Purdy in the end zone were costly. By the time halftime rolled around, OU’s lead was 24-7 — an easy cover.

In the SEC, No. 5 Texas A&M fell behind early in the first quarter to Tennessee, but managed to rebound. A&M’s lead was 17-7 late at the 5:52 mark in the second quarter, but Tennessee embarked on a quick four-play, 75-yard scoring drive to make it 17-13 with 4:08 left in the half.

Tennessee missed the extra point, so all the bettor needed from the Aggies was a field goal to at least get a push. But A&M came through with more than that. The Aggies drove 75 yards in 11 plays and finished off the drive with a four-yard touchdown pass from Kellen Mond to Ainias Smith with 15 seconds remaining in the half.

That score extended A&M’s lead to 24-13 at the break, covering the seven-point first half spread. That’s 2-for-2 for our bettor.

Ohio State’s struggles costly for bettor

The third time wouldn’t be the charm, however. Of these three games, No. 4 Ohio State was the biggest favorite of the bunch going up against No. 14 Northwestern.

It looked like the Buckeyes had jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, but a Justin Fields touchdown run was brought back because of holding and OSU had to settle for a field goal.

On the other side, Northwestern scored a touchdown on its opening drive to take a 7-3 lead. That lead grew to 10-3 midway through the second quarter and was later 10-6. Even when Ohio State was on the move and in the red zone late in the first half, the Buckeyes had no chance of covering the spread.

This highlight-reel interception from Brandon Joseph only added to an excellent first half from the Wildcats.

Though that game resulted in $100,000 out the door for this bettor, cashing on two of the three (for a net gain of $81,818) certainly isn’t a bad outcome for about an hour and a half of watching football.

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