Paul Prattles On

Welcome Back! I ended up going 13-12 in the bowls, for a pretty dismal 52%.  For the year, I finished 407-160, which means I was accurate 71.8% of the time, way below where I wanted to be.  My goal every year is to finish at or above 80%, though I've never actually achieved that, but I almost always finish above 75%, so this year was a down year for me.  Last year I finished at 76.5% for the regular season, and 76.2% overall, which isn't too shabby.   I want to point out that my predictions come simply from 45+ years of watching and following college football.  I do not have the time (or staff!) to do massive research into depth charts, injuries, transfers, etc, and so, if I were you, I certainly wouldn't take my picks to Vegas (or wherever) and bet the mortgage with them!  My brothers and I have been predicting the games among ourselves off and on for many years, and I should point out that I haven't "won" in a while, but I also haven't finished last, eit

Welcome Back! Here at Odds and Ends, I plan to look at some stats, trends, storylines, etc. as they play out.  I will also give my opinion on some issues, but you can take that for what it's worth.   Today's blog is a little shorter than normal, as I am focused on bowl results and winning/losing streaks. Conference Standings This is how the Conferences did in their bowl games, in order of winning percentage. 1) Big 12 5-0 1.000 2) MAC 2-0 1.000 3) SBC 4-1 .800 4) SEC 6-2 .750 5) Big Ten 3-1 .750 T6) MWC 2-1 .667 T6) Independents 2-1 .667 8) AAC 1-5 .167 9) PAC 12 0-2 .000 T10) ACC 0-6 .000 T10) CUSA 0-6 .000 Two conferences- Big 12 and MAC- finished with perfect bowl records.  Three conferences- PAC 12, ACC, and CUSA- lost all of their games.   Surprisingly, almost all of the conferences did really well or really poorly.  Only the MWC and the Independents had a winning percentage between .167 and .750, and they were both 2-1. Longest Current Winning Streak Three teams dropped o

Welcome Back! This is my last set of Power Rankings for the 2020 season!  Today, instead of comparing this set to my previous pre-bowl set, I want to compare this last set to my preseason set, one that included all 130 teams (though 3 did not play any games).  Let's see how wrong my preseason picks were! Below is a list of teams that moved 30 or more places from the preseason rankings, presented high-to-low in the order that they appear in the postseason rankings.  I chose 30 as the cutoff rather arbitrarily, but if I had a team within 30 of where they ended up, I think that's actually pretty good!   Coastal Carolina +117 San Jose State +109 Ball State +97 Liberty +93 Tulsa +81 Georgia State +66 Rice +65 BYU +60 Kent State +60 Maryland +59 Nevada +54 Tulane +53 Colorado +52 Arkansas +52 UTSA +52 Indiana +50 Buffalo +47 UAB +45 East Carolina +40 Hawai'i +39 Georgia Southern +38 Rutgers +35 Louisiana +31 Ole Miss +30 Michigan -86 Penn State -81 FSU -64 Arkansas State -60 Air

Welcome Back! The bowl season is over!  The final 15 bowl games were pretty exciting, with 6 being decided by 6 points or less, and several going down to the wire.  There were a few others that were close until the final minutes, but a late score made the margin more than 7.  Let's get to the reviews! Tuesday, December 29 Oklahoma State  defeated Miami 37-34, holding the Hurricanes off after building a 21-0 1st quarter lead.  The win moved the Cowboys to 8-3 on the season, and 20-11 in bowls, a .645 winning percentage.  The Canes end their season also at 8-3, but are 19-23 in bowls. Texas demolished Colorado 55-23, turning a close game at halftime into a rout.  The Longhorns outscored the Buffaloes 38-13 in the 2nd half to break open a 17-10 halftime score and piled up 638 total yards almost evenly distributed between rushing (303 yds) and passing (335 yds).  UT finishes at 7-3 with a bowl record of 31-24-2, while CU ends their season at 4-2, and 12-18 in bowls. Wednesday, December