Paul Prattles On

Welcome Back! What an entertaining 2nd weekend of college football! There wasn't a lot expected, but that's when the upsets often happen. This week continues my new format for these TWIF Notes. As I've stated before, reviewing every game is just a bit too much for one person who is also working a full-time job, so I am slimming it down a bit to something that I can hopefully do in less than 2 hours, but still give quality content (previous years would take me anywhere from 2-5 hours per TWIF Notes depending on the number of games). I hope you like the new format, and I hope it's as informative as before. Winners Texas - The Longhorns, and QB Arch Manning, got back in the winning column, and chances are that they will be 4-1 when they roll into Dallas for the Red River Shootout with Oklahoma. Alabama - Ditto for the Crimson Tide getting back in the winning column, as ULM did not present much resistance. We should have a better idea of how good the Tide is after their nex...

Welcome Back! Last week, I was I was a decent 78-13 (85.7%), making me 81-15 overall, a winning percentage of 84.4%. The most egregious picks were Boise St over USF, MTSU over Austin Peay, Ga Southern over Fresno St, Oregon St over Cal, and Hawaii over Arizona. No idea what I was thinking on those. The rest I can forgive myself, because they were close or completely unexpected. This week there are "only" 83 games, meaning there are plenty of FBS vs FCS contests. Let's see if I can have another week above 80%. So... on with the picks! Friday, September 5 James Madison @ Louisville - In 2022, the Cardinals defeated the Dukes 34-10 in Louisville. Both teams are 1-0, but neither team defeated an FBS foe. UL wins. Western Illinois @ Northwestern - Back in 2014, the Wildcats bested the Leathernecks 24-7 in Evanston. I expect a similar result. NU wins. Northern Illinois @ Maryland - The Terrapins lead the series 2-1, winning in 1996 and 2004, both in College Park. The Huskies go...

Welcome Back! Today will be a little sparse, as we are still early in the season. But at least CFB is back! Interconference results Here is where we stand so far: Overall: 1) Big Ten-      16-2/.889 2) SEC-           14-2/.875 3) Big 12-      14-3/.823 4) ACC-            12-5/.705 5) American     9-5/.642 6) MWC-           8-7/.533 7) SBC-                7-7/.500 7) CUSA-           6-6/.500 7) Pac 12-           1-1/.500 7) Independents     1-1/.500 11) MAC          4-9/.308 12) FCS          2-46/.042 The Big Ten leads overall, but it's not a huge lead. The American Conference leads the G5. Only the MAC has a losing record. vs FBS: 1) Big Ten     13-2/.867 2) SEC      ...

Welcome Back! There were very few changes, which you might not have expected, but this is a feature (not a bug) of my formula. For the 1st month (approximately 4 games) my formula is heavily weighted toward my preseason rankings. This keeps the rankings from being volatile early in this season. When I drop all preseason factors, then teams will move up and down more freely.  There were no changes in my top 20. Even Alabama, who lost by 14 points, stays at #8. This is because they were far enough ahead of LSU to absorb that win. However, now the margin between these twos is much slimmer. As a reminder, I use a points based system. Teams start out with a certain number of points based on 12 different factors, and those points range from a low of 51.184 (#136 Kent State) to a high of 1,348.285 points (#1 Ohio State), so as you can see, there are almost 1300 points separating 1st and last place- plenty of room to fit in 134 additional teams. In other words, teams are an average of 9.7 ...