Paul's Picks Week 15

By

Welcome Back!

This past week was not good- my 2nd worst week of the season- as I was 6-5, or .545. This makes me 631-217 overall, a 74.4% winning percentage. At this rate, I'll be lucky to finish at 75%.

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 stats). 

I will give you my pick for every game that will take place for the coming weekend. Like my TWIF Notes, there won't be a lot of in-depth analysis, but I hope you will find my unique takes interesting and entertaining.

There's only one game this week, but it's a big one!

Now... on with the picks!

Saturday, December 11

Army vs Navy (East Rutherford, NJ)- The Black Knights have already secured the Commander-In-Chief Trophy, but want to win this game in the worst way. They come in 8-3 and averaging 35.5 ppg and allowing 22.8 ppg, but have held 8 opponents to 21 or less. The Midshipmen are only 3-8, and are averaging 20.4 ppg and allowing, 29.6 ppg, but they've scored 35+ in each of their last 2 games, after their off week. Navy leads the series 61-53-7, but Army has won 4 of the last 5. Army wins.


That's all for this week- only 1 game!

Come back Monday for my TWIF Notes, where I review all the games from this weekend. Follow me on Twitter: @pbanderson

Until next time, may you and your loved ones be blessed!  

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Patriots' Day 2025

By
Today, I attended just my second protest. I've been on this Earth for more than 61 years, and had seen protests, but had only participated once- after George Floyd was murdered. But this was my first political protest. I had some idea of what to expect, but was unsure about how I would feel. I also had no idea what reactions I would get as cars crawled (and sometimes sped) past us.  First, a little background. I am very new to political activism. For many years, I have kept to the admonition of not discussing religion or politics in public. As a public school teacher, I have rarely discussed either subject, except in the context of educating students. For example, when discussing western music history, you cannot leave out the role of the Catholic Church (though I am not Catholic). And when discussing music from the 60s and 70s, protest songs (anti-Vietnam War, for example) cannot be ignored. But this was always in the context of history. I would venture to guess that the students ...
Read more

Paul's Picks Week 2

By
Welcome Back! Last week was a very good week as I finished with an 84-12 record, a winning percentage of 87.5%. It would have been much better if I hadn't missed 3 of the last 4!  I expected to do well last week because of all the FBS vs FCS games, and there are plenty more this week, though not as many. There are 78 games in total this week, so I'm sure my percentage will be coming down. Overall, I am 87-13, a percentage I can figure out in my head as 87%. There is absolutely no way I can maintain that, so I am still keeping my "pie-in-the-sky" goal at 80%, and my "realistic" goal at 75%. So... on with the picks! Friday, September 6 Western Illinois @ Indiana - The Hoosiers defeated the Leathernecks 27-17 back in 2012. The margin of victory in this one will be higher. IU wins. BYU @ SMU - The Cougars lead the Mustangs 4-0 in this series, including wins in the 1980 Holiday Bowl (46-45 in one of the greatest comebacks in bowl history) and in the 2022 New Mexi...
Read more

Conference Previews Part XXI

By
Welcome Back! Today I continue my conference previews. These previews will attempt to predict how each conference finishes, but realize that doing so is extremely difficult, especially since no conference has a balanced schedule. Also, whatever the conferences come up with in the form of tiebreakers will make a huge difference, as all but the Sun Belt have done away with divisions. In addition, these predictions aren't my personal opinion; they are the result of the formula/model/statistical analysis/whatever. I will sometimes mention my thoughts in the narratives below the predictions. The list of records for 3-years, 6-years, and 10 years are conference records only, and do not include any results for the conference championship games. You will notice that the teams haven't all played the same number of games, especially when considering they should have. This is because that teams played a varied number of games in 2020, and that sometimes games get cancelled (see Virginia i...
Read more