Paul Prattles On

 Welcome back! Those of you who are long time followers of this blog (yes, I'm talking to both of you!), know that I have been in favor of expanding the College Football Playoff to increase access.  The arguments against such a move are well known- it would "water down" the best regular season in all of sports, it would lead to more blowouts, and the #5 team is rarely deserving of inclusion (looking at you @philsteele42).  In a nutshell, my arguments for a playoff dispute all of these. First, adding 4, 8, or 12 teams would still make this the most exclusive playoff in all of sports.  No other sport/division allows so few.  Having a 16-team playoff (which I have advocated for) would still allow only 12.3% of all FBS teams in, which is not only lower than any other sport, but MUCH lower (as I have pointed out in past blogs).  Second, before the season starts, 65 teams (the G5 plus Independents not named Notre Dame) are already excluded, which means the regula...

Welcome Back! I ended up going 13-12 in the bowls, for a pretty dismal 52%.  For the year, I finished 407-160, which means I was accurate 71.8% of the time, way below where I wanted to be.  My goal every year is to finish at or above 80%, though I've never actually achieved that, but I almost always finish above 75%, so this year was a down year for me.  Last year I finished at 76.5% for the regular season, and 76.2% overall, which isn't too shabby.   I want to point out that my predictions come simply from 45+ years of watching and following college football.  I do not have the time (or staff!) to do massive research into depth charts, injuries, transfers, etc, and so, if I were you, I certainly wouldn't take my picks to Vegas (or wherever) and bet the mortgage with them!  My brothers and I have been predicting the games among ourselves off and on for many years, and I should point out that I haven't "won" in a while, but I also haven't finished last,...

Welcome Back! Here at Odds and Ends, I plan to look at some stats, trends, storylines, etc. as they play out.  I will also give my opinion on some issues, but you can take that for what it's worth.   Today's blog is a little shorter than normal, as I am focused on bowl results and winning/losing streaks. Conference Standings This is how the Conferences did in their bowl games, in order of winning percentage. 1) Big 12 5-0 1.000 2) MAC 2-0 1.000 3) SBC 4-1 .800 4) SEC 6-2 .750 5) Big Ten 3-1 .750 T6) MWC 2-1 .667 T6) Independents 2-1 .667 8) AAC 1-5 .167 9) PAC 12 0-2 .000 T10) ACC 0-6 .000 T10) CUSA 0-6 .000 Two conferences- Big 12 and MAC- finished with perfect bowl records.  Three conferences- PAC 12, ACC, and CUSA- lost all of their games.   Surprisingly, almost all of the conferences did really well or really poorly.  Only the MWC and the Independents had a winning percentage between .167 and .750, and they were both 2-1. Longest Current Winning St...

Welcome Back! This is my last set of Power Rankings for the 2020 season!  Today, instead of comparing this set to my previous pre-bowl set, I want to compare this last set to my preseason set, one that included all 130 teams (though 3 did not play any games).  Let's see how wrong my preseason picks were! Below is a list of teams that moved 30 or more places from the preseason rankings, presented high-to-low in the order that they appear in the postseason rankings.  I chose 30 as the cutoff rather arbitrarily, but if I had a team within 30 of where they ended up, I think that's actually pretty good!   Coastal Carolina +117 San Jose State +109 Ball State +97 Liberty +93 Tulsa +81 Georgia State +66 Rice +65 BYU +60 Kent State +60 Maryland +59 Nevada +54 Tulane +53 Colorado +52 Arkansas +52 UTSA +52 Indiana +50 Buffalo +47 UAB +45 East Carolina +40 Hawai'i +39 Georgia Southern +38 Rutgers +35 Louisiana +31 Ole Miss +30 Michigan -86 Penn State -81 FSU -64 Arkansas St...

Welcome Back! The bowl season is over!  The final 15 bowl games were pretty exciting, with 6 being decided by 6 points or less, and several going down to the wire.  There were a few others that were close until the final minutes, but a late score made the margin more than 7.  Let's get to the reviews! Tuesday, December 29 Oklahoma State  defeated Miami 37-34, holding the Hurricanes off after building a 21-0 1st quarter lead.  The win moved the Cowboys to 8-3 on the season, and 20-11 in bowls, a .645 winning percentage.  The Canes end their season also at 8-3, but are 19-23 in bowls. Texas demolished Colorado 55-23, turning a close game at halftime into a rout.  The Longhorns outscored the Buffaloes 38-13 in the 2nd half to break open a 17-10 halftime score and piled up 638 total yards almost evenly distributed between rushing (303 yds) and passing (335 yds).  UT finishes at 7-3 with a bowl record of 31-24-2, while CU ends their season at 4-2, and ...

Welcome Back! Here at Odds and Ends, I plan to look at some stats, trends, storylines, etc. as they play out.  I will also give my opinion on some issues, but you can take that for what it's worth.   Today's blog is a little shorter than normal, as I am focused on bowl results and winning/losing streaks. Conference Standings This is how the Conferences are doing in bowl games so far.  I will update this with the rest of the bowls next week. Big 12 2-0 (4  remaining   to play) MWC 2-0 (1 to play) Independents 2-0 (1 to play) MAC 1-0 (1 to play) SBC 4-1 (finished) AAC 1-3 (2 to play) SEC 0-0 (9 to play) Big Ten 0-0 (4 to play) ACC 0-1 (5 to play) PAC 12 0-1 (1 to play) CUSA 0-6 (finished) The SEC will play their 1st bowl game today.  The Big Ten begins play on New Year's Day. The Sun Belt and CUSA are finished with their bowl matchups, with vastly differing results. The MAC and PAC 12 have the fewest bowl games, with 2 each. 6 conferences have a chance a...