No. 24 Alabama 34, No. 9 Clemson 10
(Alabama +4)

East Carolina 27, No. 17 Virginia Tech 22
(East Carolina +9)

Bowling Green 27, No. 25 Pittsburgh 17
(Bowling Green +14)

Pretty good week for C-USA and the MAC; not so much for the ACC. The college football futures market will reflect this as bettors mull over the final scores from Week 1. Virginia Tech and Clemson are certainly due for a downgrade after starting the season as BCS championship dark horses.

Florida (-36.5), meanwhile, just put away Hawaii 56-10. The Warriors aren’t even close to the team they were last year, but that won’t stop the Gators and Heisman winner Tim Tebow from getting a whole lot of love from the football public.

Memories…

This is the closest thing you’ll get to a Super Bowl rematch this year – unless they actually meet again in the Super Bowl. The New York Giants host the New England Patriots Thursday night in their final preseason game. Is this a revenge game? Not really – they both have bigger fish to fry in September.

The Giants, for example, just got kicked between the uprights. Defensive end Osi Umenyiora is going to miss the season after injuring his left knee last Saturday against the Jets. He probably wouldn’t have played much anyway in Week 4, but now Giants coach Tom Coughlin has to scramble to figure out Plan B for his defense.

The Pats may or may not have the apparently injured Tom Brady at quarterback; he has yet to play this preseason, and New England is 0-3 SU and ATS with back-up QB Matt Cassel burying himself further and further into Bill Belichick’s doghouse.

Go big or go home. We want a big return on our one-dollar bets – no room on our dinner plates for eating chalk. How about a 1,800-percent return on your investment? That’s what you’ll get if the Arizona Diamondbacks win the World Series. Or you could take the Los Angeles Dodgers at 16-1; one of those two teams is going to make the MLB playoffs, and anything can happen once you get in.

If you prefer a single-game matchup, there are only two sizeable underdogs on Friday’s slate. The Kansas City Royals are +160 against the New York Yankees, and the Seattle Mariners are +175 against the Minnesota Twins. It’s easy to prefer Kansas City of the two. The Royals are starting Gil Meche (4.24 ERA, 1.34 WHIP), who has a profit of 4.83 units after leading K.C. to a 14-11 record. The Mariners, meanwhile, are 8-16 when Carlos Silva (5.93 ERA, 1.51 WHIP) pitches, losing 6.15 units.

I could wager on the “come” or “don’t come” bets on the craps table, if I could find one that allowed a dollar bet. I could take my dollar and change it to nickels - that would give me at least 20 spins on a nickel slot machine. I might be able to win something in 20 spins.

Betting on Obama to beat McCain is a pretty good bet, although I don’t think the return on that bet would be very good anymore. Maybe I’ll just buy a lottery ticket.

Amy Winehouse is a strange animal among strange animals. Usually the celebrities that you find on the entertainment betting market are long on controversy and short on talent. Winehouse is both a critical and commercial success, cleaning up at the 2006 Grammys with five awards – more than any other British singer ever.

Which makes her antics all the more bizarre and fascinating. Punters across the pond are especially fond of laying down their pounds sterling on what color hair Winehouse will sport, whether or not she’ll fall over on stage, and whether or not she’ll strike a member of the audience.

We can only hope the fun continues. Winehouse already has a long list of health and legal problems at the age of 24; her life of excess appears to be genuinely heartfelt, which would again set her apart from many of her paparazzi-seeking celebrity contemporaries. She told you she was trouble.

The Tampa Bay Rays might be in first place in the American League East, but their storybook season isn’t inspiring much confidence among handicappers. The Rays are 5-1 to win the AL pennant, behind the Boston Red Sox (7-5) and the New York Yankees (7-2).

The Rays are deservedly behind the Los Angeles Angels (9-4) on the odds list. Los Angeles has the best record in the majors at 64-40, and with a 10.5-game lead in the AL West are almost certain to make it into the postseason. The same can’t be said for the Rays, Red Sox and Yankees – one of those three is going to be on the outside looking in come October.

Tampa Bay also finds itself behind the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox at 4-1. The White Sox are 2.5 games ahead of the Minnesota Twins (11-1) and 6.5 up on the Detroit Tigers (10-1). Looks like the Twins have their share of unbelievers.

Another chapter was added to the legends of Fedor Emelianenko and Anderson Silva on Saturday. Next up: Georges St. Pierre. The reigning UFC Welterweight champion defends his title on Aug. 9 at the Target Center against up-and-comer Jon Fitch; St. Pierre is the –295 favorite, with Fitch priced at +235.

St. Pierre has a 16-2 record as a mixed martial artist, and he’s avenged both of those two losses. The pounding he gave Matt Serra in April at UFC 83 proved St. Pierre’s versatility. Fitch has a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, so St. Pierre has prepared by training at one of the Gracie family-run centers in Rio de Janeiro.

Fitch has earned his spot as the No. 1 contender. He was the captain of the wrestling team at Purdue, and defeated the likes of Thiago Alves and Diego Sanchez while compiling a 17-2-1 record – those losses coming early in his career. This has “instant classic” written all over it.

If you’ve only got a buck to bet you’ll want to find a good wager to place it on. The best bets in a casino are a poker game, if you have some skill, but a dollar won’t be any good at a poker table. You could bet your dollar at the mini-baccarat table, if you can find one with stakes that low.

Betting it on the come/don’t come or pass/don’t pass will give an almost even chance to win, with the casino only getting a house edge of 1.4% or less. Also the 6 or 8 bet on the craps table carries only a 1.52% edge for the house.

Even a hand of blackjack is a good bet if you know basic strategy. The house will hold a little more than 4% on you, but that can be diminished greatly if you can learn to count cards properly.

Summertime can be pretty slow for betting on sports. Same thing for reality television. The lone offering at press time was for one of the top-rated summer shows in any TV genre, the fourth season of the American version of So You Think You Can Dance.

Although the competition is very much like American Idol (it was co-created by Simon Fuller himself), the format introduces enough luck to trip up even the best dancers. The show started with 20 contestants – 10 male, 10 female. Then they were paired off; in some tandems, one dancer is clearly better than the other, but the home viewers are supposed to vote for their favorite couple. Having to draw a dance style out of a hat can also spoil the day for someone who happens to be weak in that one style but strong otherwise.

So will the winner be male (-110) or female (-130)? You make the call.

Things are a lot more difficult in the women’s draw. Justine Henin, already not at her best on grass, has retired from the sport. New No. 1 Ana Ivanovic lost to Zheng Jie in the third round; Maria Sharapova lost the day before, leaving four-time winner and defending champion Venus Williams as the top favorite at 7-4. Her two-handed backhand is perfect for the grass court, mitigating the power advantage of players like her sister Serena (9-4).