Paul Prattles On

Welcome Back! Now that the National Championship game is over- boy was I wrong on that one, but I'm not alone- here are my final Power Rankings for the 2018 season.  I've had fun doing these, and I mainly fixed my problem with ties that I had my first year, but I still have too many outliers and odd results.  I've already decided how to tweak my formula for next year.  Basically, I need to take margin of victory into account more than I do.  In my current formula, winning by 9 is the same as winning by 60, and that shouldn't be.  If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments below. The biggest winners were: Okla St +26 Duke +25 Minnesota +23 TCU +20 Wake Forest +16 Tulane +15 La Tech +15 Texas +14 Ohio +14 Wisconsin +14 Iowa +11 Troy +11 FIU +11 Auburn +11 Northwestern +10 Virginia +10 Marshall +9 Mich St +9 Stanford +8 Nevada +7 Baylor +7 Florida +6 BYU +6 Georgia Southern +5 Army +5

Welcome Back! After a long season, there is only 1 game left!  As I'm sure someone has told you, #1 Alabama plays #2 Clemson for the National Championship tonight in Santa Clara, California, at 8:15 pm.  These 2 teams have been head and shoulders above everyone else all year long.  Alabama has only been challenged once (Georgia in the SECCG), and Clemson twice (Texas A&M and Syracuse).  This game has seemed inevitable since early in the season. Both teams dominated in their bowl games, but each also looked vulnerable at times.  The games were very different.  Clemson had a slow start, but poured it on in the 2nd quarter, then coasted to the end.  Alabama jumped out to a 28-0 lead in the first 17 minutes, then basically allowed 2 points for every 1 they scored (17-34) to cruise to its win. There are other sites where you can get statistical analysis, computer predictions, etc.  On this site, you only get my opinion.  I think the difference is going to be depth.  Alabama ha

Welcome Back! Today, I want to explore how the conferences did in their bowl games.  You've probably all seen the conference results, but I'm reprinting them here for you, just in case you haven't.  I am listing them in order of total wins. SEC 6-5 Big 10 5-4 ACC 5-5 CUSA 4-2 Big 12 4-3 MWC 3-2 SBC 3-2 PAC 12 3-4 Independents 2-1 AAC 2-5 MAC 1-5 I think it's even more interesting to break them down by division (which I haven't seen anywhere else). SEC West 4-1 Big 10 West 4-1 Big 12 4-3 ACC Atlantic 3-1 PAC 12 North 3-2 SBC East 2-0 Independents 2-1 CUSA East 2-1 CUSA West 2-1 MWC West 2-2 SEC East 2-4 ACC Coastal 2-4 MWC Mountain 1-0 MAC East 1-1 AAC West 1-2 SBC West 1-2 Big 10 East 1-3 AAC East 1-3 PAC 12 South 0-2 MAC West 0-4 As you can see, the SEC West and the Big 10 West (surprisingly) did the best at 4-1.  Other results of note: The ACC Atlantic was 3-1, SBC East 2-0, and MWC Mountain 1-0 (Boise St&#

Welcome Back, and Happy New Year! We had 11 bowls on Monday and Tuesday and most of them were competitive.  The theme on New Year's Day seemed to be one team racing out to a big lead, then the other mounting a failed comeback bid.  For the bowls, I finished 28-11, an outstanding (for bowl games) 71.8%!  This brings my overall record to 646-235, for a .733 win percentage, a solid if unspectacular year. Here are my notes on the just completed bowl games. Military Bowl Cincinnati and Virginia Tech played one of the more exciting games of the bowl season, with the Bearcats prevailing over the Hokies 35-31.  Cincinnati finishes 11-2, their 6th 10+ win season since 2006.  VT finishes at 6-7, their 1st losing season since 1992, their 2nd year in the old Big East.  Sun Bowl Stanford and Pitt played one of the more boring bowl games of the day, with Stanford pulling out the 14-13 win.  Both teams struggled to ge