Don Best Advantage Kicks Off College Football With Power Ratings

The college football season officially kicks off this week, and Don Best Advantage is ready to help bettors tackle all of the games on the slate with Power Ratings, Matchups and Picks. Don Best COO and oddsmaker Kenny White has been very busy crunching all of his numbers so that DBA can be used as a valuable tool to handicap every one of the 128 teams and their games throughout the year.

It should be no surprise that White has the defending national champion Florida State Seminoles atop the first Don Best College Football Linemakers Poll followed by the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Oregon Ducks tied at No. 2. The top three teams and rankings nearly mirror those in the AP Top 25, although the No. 4 team is the UCLA Bruins according to White's College Football Power Ratings. White admitted he takes his own personal opinion out of the equation when running his DBA numbers.

"The DBA Power Ratings should more reflect the betting line and not just one opinion," White said. "Everyone seems to really like UCLA, but I feel their defense is just a little above average." 

The Ohio State Buckeyes are one team that White dropped significantly due to a season-ending shoulder injury to quarterback Braxton Miller. The Buckeyes were preseason favorites to win the Big Ten Conference before Miller's injury, and they fell out of the Top 10 to No. 15 overall.

"I had Ohio State at 7, right behind Auburn," White said. "I took five points off their total rating."

Even though the Pac-12 has three teams among the Top 12 in the DBA Power Ratings, White still believes the SEC is better despite seeing its run of seven straight national champions come to an end last year when the Seminoles beat Auburn 34-31 in the last BCS title game. This year, the top four teams at the end of the regular season will compete in a playoff to determine the national champion.

"The SEC has 10 of the Top 29 teams in the country," White said. "Within the Top 18, there are six SEC and five Pac-12 teams. Once again, it is the SEC. However, the Pac-12 continues to gain ground."

White thinks the most overrated teams in the country right now are the Wisconsin Badgers and Arizona State Sun Devils. The Badgers are ranked No. 14 in the AP Top 25 but are tied for No. 22 in the DBA Power Ratings while the Sun Devils are rated No. 30 in the Linemakers Poll and No. 18 by the media.

Regarding underrated teams, White said there are a lot more of them than overrated ones at the moment because the AP Top 25 is a popularity poll that tends to weigh last year's record more than team strengths. He looks more at each team's schedule when putting together his DBA Power Ratings.

"Texas Christian and Miami (Florida) are the two most underrated teams," White said. "The Horned Frogs will have the biggest turnaround in regards to record this season. Look for TCU to win 10 or 11 games. The Hurricanes are knocking on the door of past glory. Miami should also be looking at 10 or 11 wins."