Paul Prattles On

Welcome Back! As you might expect, there weren't very many changes, as there were only 8 games involving 16 FBS teams. After their big wins, North Carolina moves up 20 spots to #72, and Stanford moves up 6 spots to #114 after their win over Hawaii. The other 6 teams all moved from one to 19 places up or down.  This is much more movement than I've had in the past, which was my intention when I set up this year's Power Rankings.  As a reminder, I use a points based system. Teams start out with a certain number of points based on 12 different factors, and those points range from a low of -20.887 (#138 UMass) to a high of 315.128 points (#1 Oregon), so as you can see, there are about 335 points separating 1st and last place- plenty of room to fit in 136 additional teams. In other words, teams are an average of 2.4 points apart, but of course they aren't spaced evenly; some are 10-20 points away from another while others are less than a point away. To illustrate the differen...

  Welcome Back! What a fun opening weekend! Three of the 8 games went down to the wire, and most of the others were at least somewhat competitive. Here are my thoughts from Saturday. 1. North Carolina may be better than we thought, but it could be that TCU is not nearly as good as many believed (several writers have picked them as a dark horse in the Big 12). While the UNC defense is much better, holding the Horned Frogs to 10 points- all in the 1st quarter- after allowing 42 last year, the reality is that TCU made way too many mistakes. The Frogs committed 11 penalties for 89 yards, and were just 1-5 on 4th down attempts. And the Tar Heels still scored only 15 points, which is just 1 more than they scored last year.  2. Stanford won by 10 points, 37-27, but Hawaii had made a comeback and was driving for the lead when the Cardinal got a scoop and score for the final margin. Regardless, it's a much better start for Stanford, which perhaps forebodes a better season. The Rainbow ...

Welcome Back! College Football is back! The first games are in 2 days, and it's a rather sparse weekend, hence the "Week Zero" moniker.  We have three more games this year than last year, but there are still only 8 in total.  Last year, I finished at 74.2%, a nice bounce-back from the year before.  Over the last 9 years, I am a combined 5,650-2,080, which comes out to 73.1%. 2022 was my worst year over this period (70.3%), while 2019 was my best year, at 76.2%. In both 2017 and 2018, I was at 73%, and 2021 was 73.6%, while the pandemic year of 2020 saw me at what had been my previous low of 71.8%. In 2023, I was 75.2%, which was my 2nd best year, and in 2024 I was 72.5%, my 3rd lowest overall. You should know that I only only pick who wins, not against the spread.  I'm not into gambling, and I certainly wouldn't use my picks to gamble with (if you do, that's on YOU! ). I don't have inside information, I don't scour injury reports, I don't have a r...

Welcome Back! On Wednesdays I have my Odds and Ends .  This is where I present interesting statistics that you can't easily find elsewhere. These include: Interconference results - which conference has the best OOC record. Intraconference results - how do the divisions fare against each other within each conference (I'm a little sad that only the Sun Belt still has divisions). Undefeated/Winless teams - Starting week 2, I keep a running list of undefeated and winless teams throughout the season, updated each week. Bowl eligible/eliminated - Starting midseason, I keep a running list of teams as they reach bowl eligibility (6+ wins) or are eliminated from bowl eligibility (7+ losses). Updates on my playoff picks - After I reveal my picks today (see below!), I will update them each week. Since the season hasn't started yet, I will use today's Odds and Ends to present my list of Coaches On The Hot Seat , a Comparison of OOC Schedules , and my picks to make the CFB Playoff ....