Paul Prattles On

Welcome Back! Happy Halloween! Several teams had some scares, and several results were downright frightening, and a coach got axed. Let's get to the recaps! Teams Who Defeated FCS Opponents, Just As They Should Have Appalachian State  defeated Robert Morris 42-3 FBS vs FBS Games NC State  eked past Virginia Tech 22-21, scoring the last 19 points, 12 in the 4th quarter. Both teams are out of their respective division races. Southern Miss jumped out to a big lead, then cruised to a 39-24 win over Louisiana . The Golden Eagles are a half game behind Troy in the SBC West, but the Trojans hold the tiebreaker edge. The Ragin' Cajuns have been all but eliminated from winning the division. Utah withstood a late charge from Washington State to win 21-17 and stay in the Pac 12 race. East Carolina hit a FG as time expired to defeat BYU 27-24 and send the Cougars tumbling to 4-5. The Pirates are 6-3 and bowl eligible for the 2nd year in a row, though last year's appearance was ca...

Welcome Back! I had my first truly awful week, as I was only 29-24, or 54.7%, which makes me 387-153 overall, or 71.7%, a drop of 1.8% from last week. I think at this point, getting back to 75% is just a pipe dream. My goal from here on out is to try to hit 75% each week, which may get me back up to where I was a week ago by the end of the season (73.5%).  There are only 48 games this week, as a bunch of teams are idle (see Tuesday's blog as to how this could affect their standings in the Power Rankings). On to the picks! Thursday, October 27 Virginia Tech @ NC State - The Hokies lead the series 28-18-4, and have won the last 5, but those 5 games span from 2005-2020, so they haven't played much recently. In fact, they've only played 6 times since 1992, with a Wolfpack win in 2004 thrown in. These teams played frequently between 1900-1964, then not again until a 25-24 VT victory in the 1986 Peach Bowl, whereupon they played 4 straight years from 1989-92, with the Hokies hold...

Welcome Back! I hope you have been enjoying this blog. Once October ends, I will be exploring each team's path to the conference championship game as an added feature.  Enjoy! Inter-conference results  With most of the out-of-conference games completed, I will revisit this again at the end of the season. Otherwise, you'll just be looking at incremental changes each week, which can be kind of boring. For example, we only had 2 non-conference games this week. Look for this again at or near the end of the season, when I'll devote one whole blog to just this section. I will do the same on the "Which Conference is Best" and Which Division is Best" sections as well. Intra-conference results Here is how the divisions are stacking up against each other within each conference: The SEC West is 6-5 against the SEC East The Big Ten East is 9-5 against the Big Ten West The ACC Atlantic is 4-1 against the ACC Coastal The MWC Mountain is 6-4 against the MWC West The SBC Eas...

Welcome Back! After 8 weeks, the big jumps, both up or down, now come from the actual wins or losses, who you beat or lost to, and by how much. And for the most part, those jumps aren't quite as big as they've been for the past few weeks. There is a new aspect that shows up this week that has been masked by the elimination of preseason factors over the last few weeks: teams that are idle will move up or down depending on how the teams around them did. If the teams above them lost, they will more than likely move up a spot or two. If the teams below them won, they will move down. As every team has off weeks at different times throughout the season, this will affect each team at different times. Do not be alarmed; it will all even out in the end. You will notice that I have new teams at both the top and the bottom.  We also have the return of ties. Those of you who have been following this blog from its inception may remember that my 1st year of Power Rankings was littered with t...