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Christopher Boan is the lead writer at BetArizona.com after covering sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
College Football Mascots Against The Spread
The anticipation for college football betting in Arizona is ramping up.
As the season kicks off this week with five games, BetArizona.com used TeamRanking.com to find out which of the most common Power 4 college football mascots do against the spread, according to data over the past five seasons. We created the ranking based on the percentage of time the team covered, and the average margin by which teams either cover or fail to cover spreads.
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College Football Mascots ATS Cover %
Rank | Mascot | Average Cover % |
1 | Wildcats | 52.0% |
2 | Tigers | 50.0% |
3 | Cougars | 47.6% |
4 | Bulldogs | 46.2% |
We used the four mascots that are used by at least one Power 4 team (meaning a member of the Big 12, Big Ten, SEC or ACC).
The past five years have mostly been unkind for Arizona Wildcats football, with a record of 20-34 (.370) overall. And against the spread has not been much better, with a 26-28-0 mark for a .482 winning percentage. But the other college football teams that share the Tucson institution’s nickname have fared better ATS in recent years.
The three other Power 4 schools that share Arizona’s nickname (Kansas State, Kentucky and Northwestern) have picked up the slack against the spread over the past five years. Big-conference teams that go by “Wildcats: have combined to cover 52.0% of the time, ranking atop the Power 4 school name leaderboard during that span.
Kansas State has gone 34-26-3 ATS (a .567 percentage) in that span, Kentucky went 34-27-1 (.557) and Northwestern’s ATS figure was 28-29-1 (.491) between 2020 and 2024.
As for 2025, FanDuel Sportsbook Arizona gives Arizona a preseason over/under total of 5.5 wins. Kansas State (8.5) is among the favorites to win the Big 12 while Kentucky (4.5) and Northwestern (3.5) are expected to be looking at bleak falls this football season.
The teams called “Wildcats:” topped the board among the most common Power 4 mascots. The four teams called “Tigers” combined to cover 50.0% ATS, followed by two teams called “Cougars” at 47.6% and two “Bulldogs” squads at 46.2% ATS.
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College Football Mascots ATS +/-
Rank | Mascot | Average ATS +/- |
1 | Wildcats | -0.3 |
T2 | Bulldogs | -0.4 |
T2 | Cougars | -0.4 |
4 | Tigers | -0.5 |
This research is exclusive to BetArizona.com as part of our Arizona sports betting coverage.
Between 2020 and 2025, the Wildcat quartet also ranked atop the ATS plus-minus leaderboard. But none of the moist common nicknames finished with a positive number, just barely failing to cover by a small average margin.
The four Wildcat programs failed to cover the spread by an average margin of 0.3 points a game. That was barely better than the minus-0.4 margin for the Bulldogs and Cougars and the minus-0.5 figure for the Tigers.
On the CFP futures board at bet365 Arizona Sportsbook, it seems like the Bulldogs have the best bet to land a winner in 2025 overall. The Georgia Bulldogs rank tied for third in national championship odds at +700, as of Aug. 19. Two teams called the Tigers – Clemson at +1100 odds and LSU at +1400 – also are among the top nine nationally, with Auburn (+6500) trailing farther behind.
The top bunch of Wildcats on the Bet365 board for the season ahead is Kansas State at +10000, while the best bet among the Power 4 Cougars is BYU at +30000 to win the College Football Playoff Championship Game.
Stay tuned to BetArizona for more college football coverage and the best Arizona sportsbook promos too.
USA Today photo by Aryanna Frank
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