Paul Prattles On

  Welcome Back! What a fun opening weekend! Three of the 8 games went down to the wire, and most of the others were at least somewhat competitive. Here are my thoughts from Saturday. 1. North Carolina may be better than we thought, but it could be that TCU is not nearly as good as many believed (several writers have picked them as a dark horse in the Big 12). While the UNC defense is much better, holding the Horned Frogs to 10 points- all in the 1st quarter- after allowing 42 last year, the reality is that TCU made way too many mistakes. The Frogs committed 11 penalties for 89 yards, and were just 1-5 on 4th down attempts. And the Tar Heels still scored only 15 points, which is just 1 more than they scored last year.  2. Stanford won by 10 points, 37-27, but Hawaii had made a comeback and was driving for the lead when the Cardinal got a scoop and score for the final margin. Regardless, it's a much better start for Stanford, which perhaps forebodes a better season. The Rainbow ...

Welcome Back! College Football is back! The first games are in 2 days, and it's a rather sparse weekend, hence the "Week Zero" moniker.  We have three more games this year than last year, but there are still only 8 in total.  Last year, I finished at 74.2%, a nice bounce-back from the year before.  Over the last 9 years, I am a combined 5,650-2,080, which comes out to 73.1%. 2022 was my worst year over this period (70.3%), while 2019 was my best year, at 76.2%. In both 2017 and 2018, I was at 73%, and 2021 was 73.6%, while the pandemic year of 2020 saw me at what had been my previous low of 71.8%. In 2023, I was 75.2%, which was my 2nd best year, and in 2024 I was 72.5%, my 3rd lowest overall. 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 r...

Welcome Back! On Wednesdays I have my Odds and Ends .  This is where I present interesting statistics that you can't easily find elsewhere. These include: Interconference results - which conference has the best OOC record. Intraconference results - how do the divisions fare against each other within each conference (I'm a little sad that only the Sun Belt still has divisions). Undefeated/Winless teams - Starting week 2, I keep a running list of undefeated and winless teams throughout the season, updated each week. Bowl eligible/eliminated - Starting midseason, I keep a running list of teams as they reach bowl eligibility (6+ wins) or are eliminated from bowl eligibility (7+ losses). Updates on my playoff picks - After I reveal my picks today (see below!), I will update them each week. Since the season hasn't started yet, I will use today's Odds and Ends to present my list of Coaches On The Hot Seat , a Comparison of OOC Schedules , and my picks to make the CFB Playoff ....

Welcome Back! While I'm positive every single one of you read and memorized all 15 of my college football previews of the individual teams (Parts I-XV), I thought it would be a good idea to present my top 138 all at once, just in case you missed some, or in case you didn't memorize the order.  But before that, I'm going to compare my top 25 to the AP top 25, just for fun!  So let's start there. AP Rank Team My Rank 1 Ohio State 6 2 Oegon 1 3 Georgia 4 4 Notre Dame 3 5 Texas 5 6 Indiana 2 7 Miami, Fl 7 8 Texas A&M 15 9 Ole Miss 10 10 Oklahoma 12 11 LSU 11 12 Texas Tech 8 13 Alabama 13 T14 BYU 16 T14 USC 14 16 Michigan 9 17 Washington 24 18 Penn State 21 19 SMU 22 20 Tennessee 19 21 Utah 25 22 Iowa 17 23 Houston 30 24 Louisville 20 25 Missouri 23 26 Clemson 18 My Power Poll bears a striking resemblance to the AP Preseason Poll.  We  agree on 24 of the top 25! I have Clemson at #18 and Houston at #30; the AP Poll has Houston at #23, and Clemson at #26, first among t...

Welcome Back! Today starts my normal in-season schedule, as I have finished all of my previews (check out my Previews Parts I through XXV in my previous 25 blogs), and it is finally GAME WEEK! In case you are new, and not one of my two faithful readers (many thanks to my eldest son and to my brother!), let me go through what you can expect from me during the season.  Obviously, this week will be slightly different. On Mondays, I have my TWIF Notes . This year, instead of reviewing every outcome, I plan on just presenting winners and losers from the weekend. These might be a team, an individual, or a whole conference. The object is to do more than just give a brief recap; I hope to highlight important results and accomplishments. But to be honest, I may change the format a few times before I settle on something that feels comfortable. I should mention that TWIF stands for "This Week In Football." On Tuesdays, I will reveal my updated Power Rankings , and list the biggest mover...

Welcome Back! Today I conclude 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. Also, the formula for my predictions here is different than for my Power Rankings. In other words, for a particular conference, one team may appear higher than another team here, but be ranked behind that same team in the PR. 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 t...