NFL Against the Spread Rankings

How to Read the NFL ATS Rankings

The NFL Against the Spread or ATS Rankings are a vital betting resource for all bettors following the action on the NFL gridiron.

This feature provides updated records for all 32 NFL teams in the league and present the data in a sortable fashion.

The categories featured within the NFL ATS Rankings are listed below:

  • Straight Up
  • Against the Spread
  • Over-Under

Along with showing the three categories above, our NFL ATS Rankings offer up a breakdown of Home and Away results as well.

The results show Wins-Losses-Ties and ties are commonly referred to as pushes within the sports betting ATS markets.

Let’s take a closer look at those data sets below and find out how the records are tabulated in our NFL Against the Spread Rankings.

Straight Up

The term Straight Up or what’s also identified as SU in the sports betting industry is as simple as it gets. A straight up wager is a bet on the outright winner of a matchup with the point-spread not involved. Bettors just need to select the winner of the matchup and cheer for a final result. For SU wagers, there are only two choices and it’s either the favorite or underdog. In some instances, you might have a game go off as a pick ‘em where there is neither a favorite or underdog.

Straight Up wagers are most common in sports where the money-line is the most popular market, in particular MLB, NHL, Soccer and MMA events.

Against the Spread

In sports where the most popular betting market includes a point-spread, these ATS Rankings results are essential when placing wagers.

Similar to Straight Up wagers, bettors are once again selecting either the favorite or the underdog but there’s a catch.

When you bet “Against the Spread” in popular betting markets like football and basketball, you need your team to cover the spread.

If you select a favorite, you’ll not only need the team to win the game straight up but they will have to cover the point-spread and win by a margin greater than the spread to win that wager.

For underdog wagers, it’s very common to see a team lose the game on the field or hardwood but earn a point-spread cover because they lost within the margin of the point-spread and the final score.

For our ATS Rankings, the straight up and against the spread rankings don’t always add up since the margins or spreads are sometimes fall in between the actual outcome of the final score. Since a lot of point spreads close on whole numbers (Ex. -5, -6, -7), it’s very common to see pushes (ties) on point-spread wagers and those are calculated in the records.

The betting examples below show how teams would be graded with wins in losses both SU and ATS by specific outcomes.

  • Scenario: Favorite Win, No Cover
  • Matchup: New England Patriots vs. Kansas City Chiefs
  • Odds: Patriots (-7)
  • Outcome: Patriots 20 Chiefs 17

Straight Up (SU) Results

New England 1-0, Kansas City 0-1

Against the Spread (ATS) Results

New England 0-1, Kansas City 1-0

  • Scenario: Favorite Win, Favorite Cover
  • Matchup: Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Las Vegas Raiders
  • Odds: Buccaneers (-3)
  • Outcome: Buccaneers 30 Raiders 14

Straight Up (SU) Results

Tampa Bay 1-0, Las Vegas 0-1

Against the Spread (ATS) Results

Tampa Bay 1-0, Las Vegas 0-1

  • Scenario: Underdog Win, Underdog Cover
  • Matchup: New York Jets vs. Buffalo Bills
  • Odds: New York (-7)
  • Outcome: Bills 17 Jets 13

Straight Up (SU) Results

Buffalo 1-0, New York 0-1

Against the Spread (ATS) Results

Buffalo 1-0, New York 0-1

Over-Under

The Over-Under or Totals column is another popular feature in the NFL ATS Rankings feature.

An Over-Under wager focuses on the total combined points by both teams for a matchup and that number is created by the oddsmakers prior to the matchup.

Put simply, bettors have two choices on the total and they can select Over or Under.

If the game goes Over, then it will appear 1-0 in the O/U column and go up or down accordingly and 0-1 if the Under connects. It is also common to see ties (pushes) with the Over-Under betting results.

ATS Rankings Resources