PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Sunday, January 30, 2022

Home	Visitors	Spread
Brown	Cornell	4.5
Purdue	Ohio St.	9.2
East Carolina	Cincinnati	-5.9
Wright St.	Purdue Fort Wayne	4.4
Northern Kentucky	Cleveland St.	-1.4
George Washington	Fordham	-1.5
Providence	Marquette	1.1
Wisconsin	Minnesota	9.2
Fairleigh Dickinson	Central Connecticut	1.3
Bryant	Long Island	5.1
Iona	Saint Peter’s	11.1
Morgan St.	Delaware St.	14.1
St. Francis (NY)	Wagner	-11.8
Drake	Loyola (Chi.)	-3.2
Bradley	Indiana St.	7.9
Massachusetts	George Mason	8.7
Siena	Quinnipiac	0.4
Manhattan	Marist	-2.0
Monmouth	Niagara	8.5
Rider	Canisius	1.9
Boston College	Pittsburgh	4.0
Southern Illinois	Valparaiso	5.8
Bucknell	Loyola (MD)	-3.9
McNeese St.	New Orleans	0.7
Washington St.	Colorado	5.8

PiRate Picks–October 16-17, 2021

If you are like us here on the aging PiRate ship, you probably grew up in the 1950’s, 1960’s, or 1970’s watching Wile E. Coyote chase the Roadrunner every Saturday morning. He always had a great plan, and of course, he was Acme Products’ best customer. Every plan came “this close” to working. But, in the end, he fell hundreds of feet to the canyon floor and made a splat.

That’s how last week’s episode of the PiRate Picks turned out to be. We chose the best games we saw at Acme Handicapping. We came “this close” to having an incredibly successful week. Two of the long shot parlays won and returned big payouts. With less than five minutes to go in three other selections, we were on the winning side. Alas, at the last second the Roadrunners of the gridiron made their Beep Beep sounds and ran off to safety, leaving our three selections to make a splat at the bottom of the canyon.

Ah, but here’s the rub. Just like Wile E. Coyote, who has endless funds to continue obtaining more great Acme products, our imaginary bank account is just as endless with funds. Just like Wile E., we can go splat on the canyon floor and get right back up and go at it again, because any financial losses are just as fake as the images drawn on a cartoon.

Thus, we have six more Money Line picks this week after suffering a minute net loss last week. For the year, our return on imaginary investment is -1%. It’s not a big negative, but comically, this feature usually returns a small profit every year. However, we would never play these picks, because we prefer to sleep at night. We encourage you to follow our lead. Read it for a laugh, just like you make when you see Wile E. falling off the cliff yet again.

Date:	October 14-18
Odds:	+309.14
Must Win	Opponent
South Alabama	Georgia Southern
Northern Illinois	Bowling Green
Utah	Arizona St.
Odds:	+218.93
Must Win	Opponent
Utah St.	UNLV
Boston College	North Carolina St.
Odds:	+185
Must Win	Opponent
Virginia Tech	Pittsburgh
Odds:	+248
Must Win	Opponent
Kent St.	Western Michigan
Odds:	+187
Must Win	Opponent
Central Michigan	Toledo
Odds:	+152.44
Must Win	Opponent
Miami	Jacksonville
Denver	Las Vegas

PiRate Picks For September 23-27, 2021

A Weekend of Despair

We hope you have read numerous times on this site that we do not wager real money on the selections you see here in this weekly feature. We always encourage you to do the same. It is for this reason that we were able to sleep peacefully this week after the incredibly unlucky fortunes that destroyed what could have been a second incredibly successful weekend.

The weekend started out with a nice parlay win as Kansas State beat Nevada and Troy beat Southern Miss. to return a nice $282 on our imaginary $100 wager. The combo parlay with one college game and one pro game was next. Mississippi State had to beat Memphis, and they should have done so. The officials in the game admitted to making a major mistake in the game, and there was a blatant oversight on the same play. Memphis scored the decisive touchdown returning a punt that had already been signaled as dead by the back judge. At the same time, the punt returner wore number four. Nothing wrong with that, but he was not the only number four in the game for the Tigers. Had the mistake not been made, Mississippi State wins the game, and when Denver won the next day, that parlay would have been a winner of $226.42 on the imaginary $100 wagered to guarantee a winning weekend.

On Sunday, Seattle led Tennessee by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and Kansas City led Baltimore by 11 in the fourth quarter. The other parts of the final two parlays had already won. Tennessee scored twice to tie the Seahawks where they went on to win in overtime to kill one parlay, and Baltimore pulled off a minor miracle to beat Kansas City by a point to kill the other one.

Even with the three heartbreakers losing, we are out nothing. No stress means we can return to picking games this week with the same imaginary bank account that never runs out of $100 investment opportunities.

When the opening lines came out, we immediately spotted a huge mistake in one college game. It was the spread in the Georgia-Vanderbilt game, as it opened at 30 1/2 or 31 depending on the books in question. The bookmakers made a big mistake, and within five minutes, that spread had moved to 35. The mistake they made was assuming that Vanderbilt would get about three points for home field advantage. SEC fans and bettors know that Georgia fans will make Vanderbilt Stadium a sea of red. Somewhere either side of 90% will be rooting for the Bulldogs, making this a home game on their opponent’s field. Vanderbilt’s quarterbacks will have to use hand signals on their home field. Georgia is really the home team, and poof, the line may still be low at 35. We don’t issue straight wagers against the line these days. But, we came oh so close to issuing a special bulletin Sunday night when we saw that incredibly low number.

We spent a couple hours looking over the money lines this week looking for certain in-house data to come up with the games we wanted to play. This was a difficult week, because we didn’t particularly like the schedule in either college or pro football. In the end, in order to get our parlays up above +120, we had to go with multiple very long shot combinations at very large odds.

We are going with five selections this week, one of which is not a parlay, but just one single upset pick. Three of our parlays include three games each; we prefer to play two-game parlays, especially when using NFL teams, where it is hard to pick the winners of three games all that often. So, when you look at these picks below, realize they are long shots. Please don’t wager real money on these games unless you have other research data that our selections merely verify.

This Week’s Parlays

Date:	Sept 23-27
Odds:	+205
Must Win	Opponent
Kansas St.	Oklahoma St.
Odds:	+259.50
Must Win	Opponent
Eastern Michigan	Texas St.
Michigan St.	Nebraska
Memphis	UTSA
Odds:	+217.69
Must Win	Opponent
Michigan St.	Nebraska
Boston College	Missouri
Odds:	+157.86
Must Win	Opponent
Carolina	Houston
Kansas City	LA Chargers
Las Vegas	Miami
Odds:	+208.86
Must Win	Opponent
Arizona	Jacksonville
Buffalo	Washington
Seattle	Minnesota

Atlantic Coast Conference Preview

The Atlantic Coast Conference benefitted from Covid by gaining an extra playoff team last year.  With Notre Dame choosing to become a full member for the season, and then with the Irish running the table, topping Clemson, while Clemson won all its remaining games, when the Tigers took the rematch in the ACC Championship Game, it opened the door for two ACC teams to make the playoffs.  

Unfortunately for the league, Clemson was bombed by Ohio State and Notre Dame had no chance against Alabama in the semifinal round, as the two teams lost by a combined 38 points.

2021 should be back to normal for the league, but who knows if this will be the last time the 14 teams are together in one league, as of this writing, rumors are running rampant about a possible alliance between the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12, and other rumors have claimed that Clemson and Florida State would like to become members of the SEC.

At the ACC Preseason Meetings, the media voted their predictions for the 2021-2022 season.

Atlantic Division

(First-place votes in parenthesis)

1. Clemson – 1,028 (146)

2. NC State – 804 (1)

3. Boston College – 638

4. Florida State – 510

5. Wake Forest – 472

6. Louisville – 462

7. Syracuse – 202

Coastal Division

(First-place votes in parenthesis)

1. North Carolina – 979 (109)

2. Miami – 881 (28)

3. Virginia Tech – 582 (3)

4. Pitt – 576 (1)

5. Virginia – 540 (2)

6. Georgia Tech – 340 (4)

7. Duke – 218

Overall Champion

Clemson – 125

North Carolina – 16

Miami – 3

Virginia – 1

Georgia Tech – 1

NC State – 1

Clemson doesn’t rebuild; the Tigers reload with the next round of 4-star and 5-star talent.  Losing once in a generation quarterback Trevor Lawrence is not a reloadable possibility.  D.J. Ulagalelei is a brute force that could play tight end or linebacker.  He just happens to have an accurate arm and the intelligence to know where to throw the ball.  While he won’t put up Lawrence numbers, especially on the ground, he can lead Clemson back to the playoffs again.  Finding capable receivers will be a tougher task, but tight end Braden Galloway gives CU a big target in the middle of the field.

Coach Dabo Swinney has 10 defensive starters coming back this year, and one or two might lose starting status to even better players.  This should be the best defense in all of college football, led by one of the best defensive lines in many years.  Bryan Bresee and Myles Murphy could easily make the 1st team All-American team.

Clemson also rates highly in its kicking games, as punter Will Spiers carried a 44 yard average, and placekicker B.T. Potter nailed a couple of 50-yard plus field goals and hit on 18 of 23 overall.

Clemson gets its toughest task in the regular season right off the bat, when they face Georgia in Charlotte on September 4.  If they get past their old rival, there’s no reason to think they cannot go undefeated until the Playoffs.

The race for second place in the Atlantic Division is wide open.  Five of the remaining six teams in the division could finish in second place.

Wake Forest had an outstanding offense and weak defense last year going 4-4 in the regular season before losing to Wisconsin in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.  An offense that scored 36 points per game and racked up 444 yards per game merely returns every starter this year and welcomes some fine new talent.  Coach Dave Clawson has this team flying under the radar.  Due to unfortunate injuries the last two seasons, there is loads of depth on board, and the Demon Deacons need only a slight improvement on the defensive side to contend for nine or ten wins.

North Carolina State didn’t play Clemson last year due to a Covid cancellation, and the Wolfpack didn’t play Notre Dame.  Their 8-4 record was helped by playing Duke, Syracuse, and Florida State.  This year, the Wolfpack have a better roster on both sides of the ball, and another 8-win season is quite possible, even with Clemson returning to the schedule.

Coach Dave Doeren must hope that quarterback Devin Leary can return from a season-ending leg injury and be the pre-injury passer he was in 2020, when he completed 60% of his passes for an average of 13.5 yards per completion.  Leary has three talented receivers coming back that combined for 118 receptions for 1,744 yards and 17 touchdowns.  Leary will have good protection as four offensive linemen starters are back.

The Wolfpack need to be a little stingier against the pass this year if they are to contend for second place in the Atlantic.  After giving up more than 240 passing yards and 415 total yards in 2020, NC State will have new defensive backs in the starting 11.

Jeff Hafley came to Boston College after producing a couple of outstanding defenses at Ohio State.  He took over a BC program that was falling back in the pack and in one year, he made the Eagles a tough out in the ACC.  While BC went 5-5 in the league and 6-5 overall, they lost to North Carolina by four, Clemson by six, Notre Dame by 14, and Virginia by 11.  

Hafley has a lot of talent returning on both sides of the ball, and in year two in Chestnut Hill, we expect the Eagles to earn a bowl bid and be in the hunt for an eight-win season.  By 2022, this team might be ready to compete for a division title.

Mike Norvell’s first season at Florida State would have been unforgettable if he hadn’t made headlines a couple of times.  A 3-6 included just one impressive win.  After losing to a Georgia Tech team still trying to transition to a pro-style offense from the triple option, the Seminoles were embarrassed by in-state rival Miami by six touchdowns.  Additional lopsided losses to Pittsburgh and Louisville showed the fans just how far this program had fallen since Jimbo Fisher left for Texas A&M.

FSU may have benefitted the most from the Transfer Portal, as Norvell picks up several players that should become starters.  The only thing in the way of a winning season this year may be the schedule, as the Seminoles play Notre Dame and Florida out of conference as well as North Carolina and Miami from the Coastal Division.

Louisville took a step back in Scott Satterfield’s second year after going 8-5 in 2019.  He also antagonized fans and maybe the administration by lobbying for the South Carolina job that he did not get.  This program is one to watch to see if Satterfield still owns the locker room.  If not, UL may be headed for trouble.  The Cardinals have lost some key players to transfer in the past couple of years too, so this may be the do or die season for Satterfield.  If he can work the same magic he worked at Appy State, UL might turn things around, but it’s not a guarantee.

Syracuse went 10-3 in 2018, and Coach Dino Babers appeared to be the second coming of Mike Leach.  Since then, the Orange are 6-17.  Last year, the Air Raid offense never took off.  Scoring just 17.8 points per game and totaling just 265 total yards per game, third weakest in the nation.  The squad is much more experienced this year, but SU doesn’t look like a team capable of coming out of the basement.

The Coastal Division has a clear-cut favorite for the first time in many years, but it isn’t a slam dunk like the Atlantic Division.

North Carolina went 11-1 in 1997 and finished sixth in the polls in Coach Mack Brown’s last season during his first tenure in Chapel Hill.  The Tar Heels have not finished in the top ten since.  However, they made it back to the top ten after starting the 2020 season 3-0.  When a team with a great coach coming off a decent year returns one of the top five quarterbacks in the nation plus the entire offensive line, it is a good bet that this team will light up the scoreboard.  UNC averaged 42 points per game last year.  Is it possible, the Tar Heels could approach 50 points per game this year?  It isn’t impossible, and if they do score 50 points per game, QB Sam Howell will be invited to New York in December.  Only a defense that had some issues with the pass last year could prevent North Carolina from competing for the ACC Championship.  Clemson should be able to outscore them in a potential conference championship game.

Miami of Florida will be there waiting to replace North Carolina in the ACC Championship Game if the Tar Heels’ defense isn’t up to the task.  The Hurricanes’ defense will be strong enough to make Manny Diaz’s third team a big winner in Coral Gables.  With quarterback D’Eriq King returning after proving to be a dual threat in the new spread offense, Miami should score a few more points per game than they did last year.  

The Hurricanes get the optimum test to open the season, as they face defending national champion Alabama in Atlanta.  Nick Saban won’t allow his team to overlook Miami, but even so, Miami might scare the Crimson Tide for a quarter or two.

After the top two in the Coastal, there is a major dropoff to the next tier.  Virginia Tech, Virginia, and Pittsburgh are fairly evenly matched, and they are likely to split the games between them while losing to the two heavyweights.  

Justin Fuente has been at Virginia Tech for five years and owns a 38-26 record in Blacksburg.  He is on a very hot seat after going 5-6 last year.  We will note that legendary coach Frank Beamer was 22-32-1 in his first five years.

Virginia Tech must rebuild on offense, which was the strongpoint of the season last year.  The Hokies lost starting quarterback Hendon Hooker via the Transfer Portal and star running back Khalil Herbert to the NFL.  It looks like 2021 will be the decisive year in Blacksburg for Fuente.  If the Hokies go 6-6 or 7-5, it might not be enough for him to keep this job.

Virginia won the Coastal Division title in a small surprise in 2019, but Covid ruined the Cavaliers’ ability to play consistently last year, and they fell to 4-5 in the league.  Coach Bronco Mendenhall’s Cavs did enjoy a four-game winning streak in late October and November, including wins over North Carolina and Boston College.

Quarterback Brennan Armstrong also led the team in rushing last year; he played behind an inexperienced line and didn’t have a go-to running back last year.  Armstrong will have to wait until November for his best target to be available.  Wideout Lavel Davis Jr. is rehabbing from an ACL injury suffered in Spring practice.  Davis averaged 25.8 yards per catch last year after scoring two touchdowns on four receptions in his college debut against Duke.  A healthy Davis could be the difference in the final two games of the season against the other two teams in this tier in the Coastal Division.

Every year, the PiRate Ratings don’t seem to give Pat Narduzzi’s Pittsburgh Panthers a lot of respect.  While the ratings are based on certain data, there must be something Narduzzi and his coaching staff do to produce a product that is greater than the sum of its parts.  Once again, the Panthers’ are looking at a mediocre start to their season, but this year the first four games are all winnable, and three of the four are basically sure things.  Playing Syracuse from the Atlantic, as well as the expected bottom tier teams in the Coastal gives Pitt a chance to win three or four conference games and make a small bowl.

Pitt plays an old style of football.  Their defense leads the way, while their offense is pedestrian but makes fewer mistakes than a wide open offense.  Last year, Pitt led the ACC in rushing yards allowed and finished second in total yards allowed, but offensively the Panthers finished near the bottom.

Things might be a bit different in 2021 as quarterback Kenny Pickett is a fifth year senior and has gotten better every year.  Having star receiver Jordan Addison return with him means the Panthers should see improved numbers in the passing game.  Unfortunately, Pitt lost their starting defensive ends from last year, two players that combined for 16 ½ sacks and 27 ½ tackles for loss.  The Panthers still have a talented trio of starting linebackers, including Cam Bright, who had 8 ½ sacks last year.

Duke suffered through a miserable 2020 season that saw the Blue Devils go 1-9 in league play and 2-9 overall.  2021 doesn’t look to be very promising, as the Blue Devils lost more experience than any team in the league.  The offense led the nation in turnovers, and even though the former quarterback responsible for 21 of those 39 has transferred out of the program, Duke might commit fewer turnovers this year but gain many fewer yards with a junior who threw 25 passes last year, mostly of the three and four yard variety.  Additionally, the offensive line must be rebuilt, and rather than suffer through fumbles and interceptions, sacks might be the new liability this year.

Coach David Cutcliffe must also rebuild his defense, but there’s nowhere to go but up, after Duke finished last in the league in scoring defense.  The only reason why the Blue Devils didn’t give up the most total yards is that opponents found it easy to run the ball against them.  Duke finished dead last in rushing defense, so opponents didn’t throw the ball as often as they did against other teams.

Here are the preseason PiRate Ratings for the ACC:

Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Clemson	120.9	121.5	124.0	122.2
Wake Forest	108.0	106.7	108.3	107.7
NC State	106.5	105.8	105.9	106.1
Boston College	104.7	105.3	105.7	105.2
Florida St.	103.4	103.6	103.5	103.5
Louisville	101.7	101.4	103.2	102.1
Syracuse	93.7	93.1	92.1	92.9
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
North Carolina	116.4	116.7	119.9	117.7
Miami (Fla.)	117.1	116.1	117.7	116.9
Virginia Tech	106.4	104.9	104.7	105.3
Virginia	102.1	104.1	101.8	102.7
Pittsburgh	99.8	100.9	100.1	100.2
Georgia Tech	98.0	98.3	98.3	98.2
Duke	89.7	91.2	88.5	89.8
ACC Averages	104.9	105.0	105.3	105.0

The PiRate Ratings are designed to be effective for the next week’s slate of games and not to be used to look forward.  Nevertheless, we predict the won-loss records just for fun.

Atlantic Coast Atlantic	Conf.	Overall
Clemson	8-0	12-1*
Boston College	5-3	9-3
Wake Forest	5-3	8-4
North Carolina St.	4-4	7-5
Louisville	4-4	6-6
Florida St.	3-5	5-7
Syracuse	0-8	2-10
Atlantic Coast Coastal	Conf.	Overall
North Carolina	7-1	11-2
Miami (Fla.)	7-1	10-2
Virginia Tech	4-4	6-6
Pittsburgh	3-5	6-6
Virginia	3-5	5-7
Georgia Tech	2-6	4-8
Duke	1-7	4-8
* Clemson picked to win ACC Championship Game

Saturday’s College Football TV Schedule

This weekly addition to the PiRate Ratings is supposed to be the easiest edition we put out, but not this year. The TV schedule has already changed twice today after changing on Monday when Baylor postponed their game with Oklahoma St. With the cancellation of Vanderbilt and Missouri, one switch was made. Then, when it became official that Florida and LSU were moving to December 12, another change was made.

So, this is the TV schedule as of Wednesday evening, Eastern Time. We suggest you look at this feature again later in the week if other games are postponed. If the schedule changes, we will do our best to update it all the way until Saturday morning.

Time ET	Network	Home	Visitors	Entertainment Value
12:00 PM	ABC	Georgia Tech	Clemson	Tech turnovers could make this super blowout
12:00 PM	ESPN	South Carolina	Auburn	Should be rather close game–loser’s coach on hot seat
12:00 PM	ESPN2	E. Carolina	Navy	Replaces Tulsa-Cinti.
12:00 PM	FOX	West Virginia	Kansas	Probably a dud game
12:00 PM	SECN	Tennessee	Kentucky	Vols own Cats in this series, but an even matchup
12:00 PM	FSN	Syracuse	Liberty	Flames could win this one and maybe by a lot
12:00 PM	ESPNU	South Alabama	Texas St.	Only if you are a fan of one of the teams
12:00 PM	ACCN	Miami (Fla.)	Pittsburgh	Both teams coming off emotional losses
1:30 PM	CBSSN	UTSA	Army	Game should be over quickly–maybe 120 plays
2:30 PM	NBC	Notre Dame	Louisville	Irish need to win big to let Clemson know they are there
3:30 PM	ABC	Memphis	Central Florida	Could it be a 90 to 100-point total?
3:30 PM	SECN	Arkansas	Ole Miss	Before Hogs were in SEC, this was a rivalry game
3:30 PM	FSN	NC St.	Duke	A backyard brawl that should make Pack 4-1
4:00 PM	ESPN	Mississippi St.	Texas A&M	All’s not well in Starkville all of a sudden
4:00 PM	ACCN	Wake Forest	Virginia	Expect a close game but maybe not entertaining
4:00 PM	ESPN2	Georgia Southern	U Mass	The Minutemen play their first game of the year
6:00 PM	CBSSN	Louisiana Tech	Marshall	Winner of this game most likely wins CUSA regular season
7:30 PM	ABC	Florida St.	North Carolina	UNC needs to top half a hundred again to be a contender
7:30 PM	ESPN2	UTEP	Southern Miss.	CANCELLED
8:00 PM	CBS	Alabama	Georgia	Maybe the Regular Season Game of the Year!
8:00 PM	ESPNU	Charlotte	Florida Int’l.	CANCELLED
8:00 PM	ACCN	Virginia Tech	Boston College	Nice game but not Bama & Dogs

Coming tomorrow: our for entertainment purposes only handicapping selections that have accidentally made a decent imaginary profit this year. We must be due for a big losing week, but maybe we can back into some additional winners. We heard from a few of you that went against our warning and actually wagered on some longshot parlays that happened to win last week. Please do not think for one second that we can be this lucky again. Don’t wager real money on our fun picks!

PiRate Ratings College Basketball For February 16, 2020

Sunday’s Games

 

Home	Visitor	Spread
Boise St.	San Diego St.	-6.8
Boston College	North Carolina St.	-5.0
California	Arizona St.	-5.8
Connecticut	Memphis	1.9
Drake	Evansville	9.9
East Carolina	Cincinnati	-10.6
Fordham	Duquesne	-8.2
Indiana St.	Missouri St.	5.2
Iona	Marist	7.1
Loyola (MD)	Colgate	-6.9
Maine	Albany	-3.7
Michigan	Indiana	6.3
Minnesota	Iowa	2.0
Niagara	Monmouth	-2.4
Northern Kentucky	Illinois Chicago	9.9
Omaha	Denver	9.4
Oregon	Utah	12.3
Rider	Quinnipiac	6.5
Saint Peter’s	Fairfield	6.6
Siena	Manhattan	6.4
South Dakota St.	Purdue Fort Wayne	12.4
Temple	Villanova	-6.0
Wichita St.	Tulane	15.9
Wright St.	IUPUI	17.8

 

Sunday’s Key Games *

 

Time (EST)	Network	Home	Visitor
1:00 PM	FS1	Minnesota	Iowa
1:00 PM	CBS	Michigan	Indiana
2:00 PM	ESPN3	Siena	Manhattan
4:00 PM	CBSSN	Boise St.	San Diego St.

* When we refer to these as key games, this is when both teams are fighting for a conference championship or contending for an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.

 

Coming Monday–Updated Ratings, Monday’s Games, and New Bracketology.

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings College Basketball For January 19, 2020

Division 1 Basketball Games on Sunday

 

Home	Visitor	Spread
Canisius	Rider	-0.8
Chicago State	Cal St. Bakersfield	-15.8
Cincinnati	East Carolina	16.9
Fordham	Davidson	-7.4
Illinois State	Loyola (Chi.)	-4.9
Maine	Binghamton	1.8
Marist	Iona	-4.5
Niagara	Siena	-2.2
North Dakota State	North Dakota	7.4
Rutgers	Minnesota	3.9
South Dakota	South Dakota State	-1.3
Southern Illinois	Drake	0.1
UCLA	California	6.5
UMKC	Grand Canyon	3.3
Wake Forest	Boston College	6.7

PiRate Ratings College Basketball For December 31, 2019

Spreads for Power Conference Games

 

Home	Visitor	Spread
Florida St.	Georgia Tech	11.5
Clemson	Miami (Fla.)	2.0
Duke	Boston College	21.4
Central Florida	Temple	-2.4

 

PiRate Ratings Picks For August 29-September 2, 2019

Last week, the PiRate Ratings did not make any selections on the two FBS games on the schedule, but our experimental Davey19 system made its first ever pick, and it chose a good one.  The computer program chose Hawaii at +11 against Arizona, and UH not only covered the spread, they won the game outright.

So, entering official week 1 of the college season, the PiRate Ratings stay at $0, while the Davey19 program sits at +$100.

With no NFL games for another weekend, we will jump into the water and stay in the shallow end of the betting pool this week with a minimum of plays.

PiRate Ratings Picks

#1: Money Line Parlay @ +189

SMU over Arkansas St.

South Carolina over North Carolina

 

#2: Money Line Parlay @ +146

Utah over BYU

Purdue over Nevada

Colorado over Colorado St.

Rutgers over UMass

 

#3: Money Line Parlay @ +182

Pittsburgh over Virginia

N. Carolina St. over East Carolina

Missouri over Wyoming

 

#4: 13-Point Teaser @ 10-14

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Rutgers	U Mass	28.5	U Mass
Colorado	Colorado St.	0.5	Colorado
Virginia Tech	Boston College	18.5	Boston College
Florida St.	Boise St.	17.5	Boise St.

 

Davey19 Selections

Straight Selections Against the Spread

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Virginia Tech	Boston College	5.5	Boston College
Florida St.	Boise St.	5.5	Boise St.
Southern Cal	Fresno St.	13.5	Fresno St.

 

10-Point Teaser @10-12

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Army	Rice	11.5	Army
Illinois	Akron	28	Akron
N. Carolina St.	East Carolina	6.5	North Carolina St.

 

10-Point Teaser @10-12

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Alabama	Duke	44.5	Duke
Michigan	Middle Tennessee	45	Middle Tennessee
Georgia	Vanderbilt	30.5	Vanderbilt

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings Money Line Parlays for September 28-October 2, 2017

After four weeks of the football season, our readers might just want to take a knee; then again, they might want to place that knee firmly in some PiRate groin!  Ouch!  1,000 apologies if you took our ill-adivsed advice!

Another losing week, and we are now in the hole to the tune of -25% return on our investment for the season.  We won only one of last week’s four selections, returning $245 on $400 invested.  The -25% return for the season comes from $899 returned on $1,200 invested, quite a hole to try to emerge from before the season runs out of dates.

Our one solace, and we hope this is yours as well, is that these are imaginary dollars.  We can continue to select a liberal amount of games and be a bit wild with our selections, because we are only out the time it takes to pick these games.

This week, you will notice that all of our selections are college football games.  There are no NFL picks.  Make of this what you want, and you will be partially correct.  For one, we just didn’t feel like looking at the NFL Money Lines.  None of us will attend any games this week, and as far as we know, none of us will be watching on TV or listening on the radio.  Another reason why we didn’t select any NFL games is that the league is extremely erratic this year.  The supposed sure-thing 0-16 Jets won big over a playoff contender, and the Texans with a rookie QB almost beat New England, so let’s just walk away from the NFL for now.  The politics can only make the outcomes more unpredictable.

That leaves us with college football, and there are a lot of good games this week.  By good, we mean games in which the favorite is in the 5 to 10 point range, which presents us excellent Money Line potentials.  We actually like one underdog winning outright on the road, and we are going to put that one out as a single entry.

Here are our 5 parlay selections for this week.  Remember this: The members of the PiRate Ratings are not foolish enough to wager real currency on these selections.  We are nervous enough with our value stock selections, which are real, so we don’t need the added stress.  You to should avoid the stress of worrying about losing $500 real dollars on these selections, so only wager imaginary money if you must.

#1 @ +155
Must Win	Must Lose
Georgia Tech	North Carolina
Georgia	Tennessee
Nebraska	Illinois

#2 @ +150
Must Win	Must Lose
Iowa	Michigan St.

#3 @ +146
Must Win	Must Lose
Central Florida	Memphis
Cincinnati	Marshall

#4 @ +128
Must Win	Must Lose
Kentucky	Eastern Mich.
Western Mich.	Ball St.
La. Tech	South Alabama
Boston College	Central Mich.

#5 @ +135
Must Win	Must Lose
UNLV	San Jose St.
Florida Intl.	Charlotte
San Diego St.	N. Illinois
Florida	Vanderbilt