The upcoming college football season has given some people — including my coworkers — itching trigger fingers for gambling.
Sports gambling is as American as apple pie and obesity. Sports gambling might be illegal in the majority of America, but it’s still one of the easiest things to do because the authorities, for the most part, don’t care.
In fact, there are portions of the year — March Madness and college bowl season — where I generally make more in gambling winnings than my actual salary. If the IRS wants to poke their nose around, we’re only gambling for drinks at the bar.
It’s part of the sports fabric for people to gamble on games. It makes everything much more exciting. However, I generally encourage people to gamble when their teams aren’t playing. Sometimes getting financially and emotionally involved in a game can get excruciating. I wouldn’t recommend it, but you guys can do whatever you think is best.
That brings us to today in the office. I broke one of my rules and I bet on my own team: the Wisconsin Badgers. I bet a coworker $100 (in value of beer) that the Badgers’ football team would have a better record than Penn State.
For those of you who have forgotten, Penn State is where Jerry Sandusky was a defensive coordinator before a massive child molestation scandal and prison sentence.
He famously said, “I have horsed around with kids. I have showered after workouts. I have hugged them and I have touched their leg without intent of sexual contact. So if you look at it that way, there are things that would be accurate.”
Another unreal Sandusky quote, “In retrospect, I shouldn’t have showered with those kids.”
Now I’m going to use this example of what to do correctly when it comes to gambling and what I did that you should avoid. First, I bet on my own team. We already covered this is not wise. Secondly, I didn’t actually check Penn State’s schedule before making this bet. It turns out it’s pretty easy. Their only truly tough games are against Ohio State and Michigan. They have a realistic avenue to 12-0. Worse case scenario I see for them is 10-2. I should have checked this, but in my arrogance I didn’t. Avoid this at all costs.
Now for the positives. I know everything there is to know about Wisconsin football. I have researched this team as much as a nuclear engineer knows a fission reactor. I also know our schedule is a joke. Our only tough game is at home against Michigan. There’s no excuse not to be 11-1 or 12-0 at the end of the regular season.
How confident is my coworker over this bet? Very.
“Penn State is going to kick ass this year,” he said when asked about his outlook on the bet.
I have no idea if I’ll walk away the winner in this bet or any of the other bets I’ll make this year. Hopefully you guys read this and take a little bit away from it to help yourselves. Or maybe you’re all destined to lose everything you have. Either way, football season is going to be great.