Paul Prattles On

Welcome Back! I slid backwards again last week, as I was 38-16, or .704. Not very good... This makes me 405-124 overall, a 76.6% winning percentage.  Last year, I finished at 71.8%, which was  WAY  below my usual average (I'm usually around 75%).  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 research staff, and this isn't my full time job; it's just a hobby, but I have been following college football for right around 50 years, and I've seen a lot of it.  My goal each year is to be correct 80% of the time over a full season, but I've never actually achieved that.  Most years, I'm right around 75%, but I think my high has been close to 78%, with last year perhaps being my worst in many years (very few FBS vs FCS games to pad my sta

Welcome Back! This is the week we've all been waiting for: we have big games, and the 1st CFP rankings come out next Tuesday! Check out how the conferences are doing, how each division is doing, and who is already bowl eligible or eliminated from bowl consideration. Pretty soon, I'll begin breaking down the conference races, perhaps next week. There are lots of fantastic games this week, so check out the "Games I'm Looking Forward To" at the bottom. I hope you enjoy reading through all the info below! Which Conference is Best? A great majority of the non-conference games have been played, though there are still some left, especially against the Independents and some FCS teams. 1. SEC 36-7 .837 2. Big Ten 32-9 .781 3. Big 12 23-7 .767 4. ACC 30-13 .698 5. MWC 29-18 .617 6. Sun Belt 20-16 .556 7. AAC 22-18 .550 8. Pac 12 16-17 .485 9. Independents 23-26 .469 10. MAC 21-26 .449 11. CUSA 24-32 .429 12. FCS 10-97 .093 There were no changes in the order from last week.

Welcome Back! We have a lot of movement this week. This is not only because of the results of this past week's games, but due to me dropping another one of my 8 preseason rating factors. This is the 4th of 8. I will continue this for the next 4 weeks until all of my preseason factors have been dropped, so that when we get to the rankings following the games the weekend before Thanksgiving, they will be entirely based on what the teams have done this year. You will notice that teams that won this past weekend may have dropped, and teams that lost may have moved up. This is because, as I explained above, there are now 2 factors affecting the ranking from week to week- the results from the previous week's game, and the points lost from one of the preseason factors that I have dropped. These points vary from team to team, so every team is affected differently. In some cases, this is simply "market correction". We also had 2 teams fire their coach since my last rankings. T