Paul Prattles On

Welcome Back! What a fantastic opening weekend! Three of the 5 games were within a TD of each other, and the other 2 had drama as well.  Here is my take on the 5 games from yesterday. Iowa State looks like a team to be reckoned with in the Big 12, but they lost 2 fumbles, as many as they lost all of last season. QB Rocco Becht was strong throughout the game and could lead the Cyclones to their 1st conference championship in almost forever (since 1912!). Kansas State is my favorite to win the Big 12, but that just became much more difficult. The Wildcats were only 1-4 on 4th down attempts, which is what ultimately doomed KSU, as ISU was 3 for 3 in that situation.  UNLV struggled to get past FCS Idaho State, needing to rally to catch the Bengals as they scored the last 14 points. The Rebels churned out over 500 yards of offense, but their defense allowed over 550 yards, as they were only able to stop ISU due to 5 Bengal turnovers. It didn't help that UNLV missed 2 FGs, so that...

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 one more game this year than last year, but there are still only 5 in total.  Last year, I finished at 72.5%, which was   my worst in several years (71.8% after the bowls).  Over the last 8 years, I am a combined 4,982-1,840, which comes out to 73.0%. 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.  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 i...

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 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 Pla...

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 136 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 Texas 7 2 Penn State 3 3 Ohio State 1 4 Clemson 4 5 Georgia 2 6 Notre Dame 5 7 Oegon 6 8 Alabama 8 9 LSU 9 10 Miami, Fl 14 11 Arizona State 31 12 Illinois 30 13 South Carolina 26 14 Michigan 10 15 Florida 23 16 SMU 13 17 Kansas State 18 18 Oklahoma 20 19 Texas A&M 22 20 Indiana 21 21 Ole Miss 12 22 Iowa State 29 23 Texas Tech 36 24 Tennessee 11 25 Boise State 15 42 Iowa 16 26 BYU 17 29 Louisville 19 30 USC 24 32 Missouri 25 Fo the first time since I've been doing this, my Power Rankings differ significantly from the AP Preseason Poll.  We  only agre...

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 . While I will be changing the format, I'll be keeping the name. This year, instead of reviewing every outcome, I plan on streamlining a bit and perhaps 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 ...

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...