Paul Prattles On

It's taken me a little while to find the time to review my preseason Sun Belt predictions and how they panned out, but you'll find them below.  In addition, I have my results of my bowl picks so far, and the rest of my predictions. Here is my prediction for the Sun Belt Conference.  Their actual finish is in parenthesis. 1. App St (1) 2. Ark St (3) 3. Troy (1) 4. Louisiana (5) 5. S Alabama (8) 6. Idaho (8) 7. Ga Southern (10) 8. La-Monroe (5) 9. New Mexico St (5) 10. Ga St (4) 11. Coastal Carolina (10) 12. Texas St (12) As you can see, I was marginally successful, doing pretty well with the top and the bottom, not so well in the middle. For my bowl picks so far, I am 6-8, which is not very good, I must say.  Hopefully, I'll be much better on the remaining 25 games.  Wish me luck! West Virginia over Utah - Both teams have been kind of up-and-down this season, but I feel like the Mountaineers have a little more firepower.  After starting 4-0, the Utes los

I apologize for being absent for about 2 weeks, but it's been a difficult time for me.  I have a lot of running around to do today, so I'm just going to give you my picks through Dec 24.  I do want to point out that I picked Army over Navy, but it was in doubt until the very end.  I will also review my Sun Belt conference pre-season picks, as promised, but not today.  Just a reminder that bowl picks are notoriously difficult to get right.  You never know how 18-22 year-olds will react to the time off, the loss of head coaches and/or assistants, the distractions of the trip, the press clippings, etc., etc.  Who will have kids that get into trouble with the law or with team rules? Who will be motivated by their coach leaving, and who will react the opposite?  My picks are as much of a guess as anyone else's. Here are my picks: Troy over N Texas - These are both good teams, but I believe that Troy has the better defense, and just enough offense to win a close one. WKU ove

This is the last week of the regular season, and includes the conference championship games.  Last week, I was 41-21, for a pretty awful 66.1%, which brings me to 608-210, dropping me below 75% to 74.3%.  I need to do well this week and in the bowls, which typically are difficult to predict, due to layoffs, coaching changes, injuries, etc.  There are only a few games this week, so let's get to it! USC over Stanford (PAC12CG)- USC has been riding high since midseason, and defeated Stanford when Bryce Love was healthy.  The Trojans will keep their slim playoff hopes alive with a close victory, and hope for massive chaos elsewhere. FIU over UMass - The Minutemen have played pretty well this year, though their record doesn't show it.  However, they've won 4 of their last 5 and will certainly give the Panthers all they can handle. UCF over Memphis (AACCG)- The Golden Knights defeated the Tigers 40-13 on September 30, which was Memphis' only loss on the year.  This sh