On Thursday night, South Alabama crushed Northwestern State to a final score of 87-10, with USA setting a school scoring record in the process. The onslaught was so bad that the coaches of both teams mutually agreed to shorten the fourth quarter by six minutes, resulting in only 54 minutes of play.
This ended up being key for the sports betting results on this contest. Most college football sportsbook house rules require 55 minutes of play for most action to be considered valid, though there is leeway for interpretation.
DraftKings’ house rules state, “There must be 5 minutes or less of scheduled game time left for bets to have action unless the specific market outcome is already unconditionally determined.” The last part is crucial, as over and under bets on the total (in this case, set at 59.5, per ESPN BET odds) are considered to be “unconditional,” or in other words, they would have hit regardless of anything that could have happened in the final minutes of the game.
As such, DraftKings graded overs and unders as winners and losers, respectively. BetMGM also confirmed that it settled total bets in this manner. Caesars, ESPN BET and FanDuel did not immediately provide responses to inquiries for this story.
For the spread (set at South Alabama -36.5), DraftKings graded all bets as void in accordance with its house rules. However, the book said it is awarding cash payouts on Friday for any wagers on USA’s full game and second half spread as if they were winners. First half and third quarter wagers would stand as is.
BetMGM voided all full game wagers on Northwestern State in accordance with house rules, but graded South Alabama bets as winners, calling the final score an “official result” as “declared by the official governing body,” per the book’s house rules.
The NCAA’s official football rules book says, “Any time during the game, the playing time of any remaining period or periods may be shortened by mutual agreement of the opposing head coaches and the referee.” Essentially, coaches and officials have freedom to shorten games in a blowout situation, though there is no standard for how much the game should be shortened by.
These circumstances have actually occurred at least three times this season, with each one handled differently by head coaches and referees.
On Aug. 29, Arkansas defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 70-0, with the teams deciding to play 10-minute quarters in the second half, leading to just 50 minutes of game time. BetMGM and DraftKings applied the same rulings as Thursday night’s game for that contest.
On Sept. 7, Georgia steamrolled Tennessee Tech 48-3. In that case, the head coaches and officials decided to shorten just the fourth quarter by five minutes, making for exactly 55 minutes of play and, thus, validating all action for that contest.