Paul Prattles On

Welcome Back! I had a decent week, as I went 50-16, or 75.7%.  It would have been better if Mizzou and Arkansas had hit their last minute FGs... Overall I am 247-67, or 78.7%, which is a 0.7% drop from last week. Hopefully, I can improve this week. There are some very difficult to predict games this week, especially now that we are mostly into conference matchups, but it's also complicated by the approach of Hurricane Ian, but we have only 64 games, the fewest since Week Zero. On to the picks! Thursday, September 29 South Carolina State @ South Carolina - This game was moved from noon Saturday to avoid the effects of Hurricane Ian. The Gamecocks are 2-0 all-time against the Bulldogs, and though they couldn't beat those other Dawgs a couple of weeks ago, they shouldn't have any problems with this breed. SC wins easily. Utah State @ BYU - The Cougars lead this series 50-37-3, and have won the last 2, and 33 of the last 40, dating back to 1975, as they've played almost eve...

Welcome Back! On Wednesdays I have my  Odds and Ends .  This is where I present interesting statistics that you can't easily find elsewhere. Enjoy! Inter-conference results  Now that everyone has played multiple games, we have more to go on.  For these purposes, all Independents (even Notre Dame) are considered G5.  Here are the results of all out-of-conference games. Overall 1) SEC 37-5 .881 T2) Big Ten 32-8 .800 T2) Big 12 24-6 .800 4) Pac 12 25-8 .756 5) ACC 30-11 .732 6) AAC 22-17 .564 7) SBC 23-19 .548 T8) CUSA 18-23 .439 T8) MWC 18-23 .439 10) Ind 12-17 .413 11) MAC 14-29 .326 12) FCS 7-90 .072 The SEC remains in the top spot while the ACC drops from 2nd to 5th. The MAC falls back to the bottom.  vs FBS 1) SEC 28-5 .848 2) Big Ten 24-7 .774 3) Big 12 16-6 .727 4) Pac 12 15-8 .652 5) ACC 18-11 .621 6) AAC 14-16 .467 7) SBC 13-19 .406 8) Ind 9-17 .346 9) MWC 9-20 .310 10) CUSA 9-22 .290 11) MAC 5-27 .156 12) FCS 8-97 .076 Once again, the ACC drops to 5t...

Welcome Back! After 4 weeks, we are starting to get an idea of which teams are pretty good, and which ones aren't. However, my rankings are still heavily weighted toward my preseason factors, so although there is more movement, some teams are still way too high, and others way too low. This will all come out in the end, but it is a little frustrating in the early part of the season. However, I'm beginning to feel this is a feature, and not a bug, of my Power Rankings. Let me explain what I mean. If my rankings at this point of the season were based strictly on results, then all of the undefeated teams would be ranked high, and teams with 2 or more losses would be ranked in the bottom 3rd. However, we all know that not all wins or losses are equal. A team like James Madison is undefeated, but has only played 3 games, and only one is a quality win. Meanwhile, Kent State is 1-3, but has lost to 3 P5 teams, and Notre Dame is 2-2. Who out there really thinks the Dukes are better tha...