PiRate Ratings College Football–October 28-30, 2021

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Coastal Carolina	Troy	22.9	20.8	22.8
East Carolina	South Florida	12.1	12.0	13.3
Tulsa	Navy	9.9	10.3	9.4
Nevada	UNLV	17.0	19.2	18.1
Wisconsin	Iowa	-2.0	-1.6	-1.8
Buffalo	Bowling Green	24.9	23.9	25.7
Wake Forest	Duke	24.5	23.1	25.8
Michigan St.	Michigan	-2.3	-3.3	-3.6
North Carolina St.	Louisville	10.2	9.8	8.7
Syracuse	Boston College	1.1	1.1	1.0
Georgia Southern	Georgia St.	-6.4	-5.5	-6.4
West Virginia	Iowa St.	-5.6	-5.9	-7.7
Maryland	Indiana	3.5	2.5	1.2
Florida Atlantic	UTEP	13.8	14.2	15.5
Pittsburgh	Miami (Fla.)	2.8	4.6	3.5
Illinois	Rutgers	3.8	2.3	4.2
Northwestern	Minnesota	-6.9	-7.4	-9.0
Temple	Central Florida	-16.2	-14.2	-17.2
Georgia Tech	Virginia Tech	0.0	1.3	1.4
Clemson	Florida St.	12.3	12.1	13.3
Liberty	Massachusetts	33.8	34.9	37.3
Rice	North Texas	3.4	3.4	3.5
Utah St.	Hawaii	1.4	2.5	2.0
BYU	Virginia	4.2	2.5	4.1
Utah	UCLA	7.1	6.6	6.2
Arizona St.	Washington St.	15.5	15.1	15.7
California	Oregon St.	-8.5	-4.9	-6.2
USC	Arizona	24.7	25.0	25.9
San Jose St.	Wyoming	7.5	7.0	5.1
Oregon	Colorado	15.4	16.8	18.3
Marshall	Florida Int’l.	20.1	19.4	19.5
Oklahoma St.	Kansas	32.9	35.0	37.4
Old Dominion	Louisiana Tech	-8.7	-8.3	-6.8
Louisiana	Texas St.	26.4	26.7	27.7
Middle Tennessee	Southern Miss.	12.8	12.1	13.8
Nebraska	Purdue	6.9	7.6	5.8
Vanderbilt	Missouri	-18.6	-19.6	-19.2
Kansas St.	TCU	-0.8	0.3	-0.7
Mississippi St.	Kentucky	-0.6	-2.2	-1.9
Oklahoma	Texas Tech	21.9	20.0	21.8
Ohio St.	Penn St.	19.9	19.3	19.3
Houston	SMU	2.8	1.3	2.2
Baylor	Texas	-2.4	-1.2	-2.4
Auburn	Ole Miss	3.3	2.7	3.3
Florida (N)	Georgia	-17.7	-16.7	-18.5
Tulane	Cincinnati	-23.8	-24.7	-25.3
Appalachian St.	Louisiana-Monroe	26.2	25.5	29.0
South Alabama	Arkansas St.	8.9	8.4	8.5
Western Kentucky	Charlotte	10.9	11.4	10.9
Colorado St.	Boise St.	-6.4	-5.9	-6.6
Notre Dame	North Carolina	7.4	8.0	7.3
Stanford	Washington	1.7	1.3	0.5
San Diego St.	Fresno St.	5.1	3.2	2.7

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

Rank	Team	Rating
1	Georgia	134.8
2	Alabama	131.6
3	Ohio St.	130.9
4	Oklahoma	121.2
5	Iowa St.	120.7
6	Cincinnati	120.2
7	Texas A&M	118.6
8	Auburn	117.4
9	Ole Miss	117.2
10	Florida	117.1
11	Iowa	116.2
12	Texas	116.1
13	Michigan	114.9
14	Notre Dame	114.8
15	Penn St.	114.4
16	Clemson	114.2
17	Arizona St.	114.0
18	Utah	113.6
19	Oklahoma St.	113.5
20	Arkansas	113.0
21	Kentucky	112.9
22	Oregon	112.4
23	Baylor	112.1
24	U S C	111.6
25	Wisconsin	111.4
26	Oregon St.	111.3
27	West Virginia	111.3
28	NC State	111.1
29	Coastal Carolina	110.8
30	T C U	110.6
31	Pittsburgh	110.4
32	Michigan St.	110.3
33	North Carolina	110.3
34	L S U	110.2
35	Nebraska	110.0
36	Wake Forest	110.0
37	U C L A	109.9
38	Miami (Fla.)	109.8
39	Tennessee	108.8
40	Mississippi St.	108.4
41	Minnesota	108.1
42	BYU	107.6
43	Louisiana	107.3
44	Kansas St.	107.2
45	Virginia	107.0
46	Washington	106.7
47	Purdue	106.2
48	Stanford	104.9
49	Florida St.	104.6
50	Louisville	104.5
51	SMU	104.4
52	Appalachian St.	104.2
53	Houston	104.0
54	Boise St.	103.6
55	Texas Tech	103.0
56	San Diego St.	102.9
57	Virginia Tech	102.4
58	Indiana	102.4
59	Fresno St.	102.2
60	Liberty	101.8
61	California	101.8
62	Maryland	101.8
63	Nevada	101.7
64	Boston College	101.7
65	Washington St.	101.6
66	U T S A	101.6
67	Air Force	101.1
68	Missouri	100.4
69	Georgia Tech	100.4
70	Army	100.1
71	Syracuse	99.8
72	UCF	99.5
73	East Carolina	98.6
74	Colorado	98.6
75	Northwestern	97.8
76	Miami (Ohio)	97.8
77	Toledo	97.5
78	South Carolina	97.1
79	Illinois	96.6
80	U A B	96.3
81	Ball St.	96.3
82	Rutgers	96.2
83	Tulsa	95.5
84	Buffalo	95.4
85	Florida Atlantic	95.0
86	Colorado St.	94.8
87	Eastern Michigan	94.6
88	Western Michigan	94.5
89	Central Michigan	94.3
90	Marshall	94.2
91	San Jose St.	94.0
92	Georgia St.	93.8
93	Memphis	93.3
94	Tulane	93.1
95	Hawaii	92.8
96	Troy	91.7
97	Kent St.	91.3
98	South Alabama	90.9
99	Utah St.	90.7
100	Wyoming	90.5
101	Northern Illinois	89.8
102	Western Kentucky	89.7
103	Arizona	89.3
104	USF	89.1
105	Navy	88.7
106	Middle Tennessee	88.6
107	Duke	87.5
108	Ohio	86.3
109	Georgia Southern	86.2
110	Louisiana Tech	85.2
111	U N L V	85.1
112	Arkansas St.	84.8
113	U T E P	83.5
114	Texas St.	83.4
115	New Mexico	82.4
116	Rice	81.8
117	Kansas	81.4
118	Charlotte	81.1
119	Temple	81.1
120	North Texas	80.3
121	UL-Monroe	80.3
122	Vanderbilt	79.2
123	Southern Miss.	78.2
124	Florida Int’l.	77.5
125	Old Dominion	75.2
126	Akron	74.6
127	Bowling Green	73.6
128	New Mexico St.	72.0
129	UMass	69.0
130	Connecticut	68.3

PiRate Ratings By Conference

American Athletic Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Cincinnati	119.7	119.3	121.7	120.2
SMU	104.0	104.4	104.9	104.4
Houston	104.3	103.2	104.6	104.0
UCF	99.3	98.3	100.9	99.5
East Carolina	98.3	97.8	99.6	98.6
Tulsa	95.6	95.6	95.4	95.5
Memphis	92.9	93.2	93.8	93.3
Tulane	93.4	92.0	93.8	93.1
USF	89.2	88.8	89.4	89.1
Navy	88.7	88.3	89.1	88.7
Temple	80.6	81.6	81.1	81.1
AAC Averages	96.9	96.6	97.7	97.0

Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Clemson	113.7	113.7	115.0	114.2
NC State	111.2	110.8	111.2	111.1
Wake Forest	110.0	109.5	110.4	110.0
Florida St.	104.4	104.6	104.7	104.6
Louisville	104.0	103.9	105.5	104.5
Boston College	101.6	101.7	101.8	101.7
Syracuse	99.7	99.9	99.8	99.8
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Pittsburgh	110.0	110.8	110.6	110.4
North Carolina	109.7	109.8	111.3	110.3
Miami (Fla.)	110.2	109.2	110.1	109.8
Virginia	106.6	107.7	106.7	107.0
Virginia Tech	103.2	102.1	102.0	102.4
Georgia Tech	100.2	100.5	100.4	100.4
Duke	87.5	88.4	86.6	87.5
ACC Averages	105.1	105.2	105.4	105.3

Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oklahoma	122.2	120.3	121.1	121.2
Iowa St.	121.2	119.8	120.9	120.7
Texas	117.0	115.3	116.0	116.1
Oklahoma St.	113.7	113.5	113.3	113.5
Baylor	112.6	112.1	111.6	112.1
West Virginia	112.7	111.0	110.2	111.3
T C U	111.4	110.0	110.4	110.6
Kansas St.	107.6	107.3	106.7	107.2
Texas Tech	103.2	103.4	102.3	103.0
Kansas	83.8	81.5	78.9	81.4
Big 12 Averages	110.5	109.4	109.1	109.7

Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ohio St.	130.3	130.3	132.0	130.9
Michigan	114.1	115.1	115.4	114.9
Penn St.	113.4	114.0	115.7	114.4
Michigan St.	110.3	110.3	110.4	110.3
Indiana	102.3	102.0	102.7	102.4
Maryland	102.8	101.5	100.9	101.8
Rutgers	95.4	97.2	95.8	96.2
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Iowa	115.9	115.5	117.2	116.2
Wisconsin	110.9	110.8	112.3	111.4
Nebraska	109.6	110.0	110.3	110.0
Minnesota	107.2	108.0	109.1	108.1
Purdue	105.7	105.4	107.5	106.2
Northwestern	97.8	98.1	97.6	97.8
Illinois	96.2	96.5	97.1	96.6
Big Ten Averages	108.0	108.2	108.9	108.4

Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Florida Atlantic	94.2	95.6	95.2	95.0
Marshall	94.1	94.0	94.6	94.2
Western Kentucky	88.6	90.2	90.3	89.7
Middle Tennessee	88.2	88.3	89.2	88.6
Charlotte	80.2	81.2	81.9	81.1
Florida Int’l.	77.0	77.6	78.0	77.5
Old Dominion	74.8	75.5	75.4	75.2
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
U T S A	101.2	101.9	101.7	101.6
U A B	96.2	96.4	96.4	96.3
Louisiana Tech	85.5	85.8	84.2	85.2
U T E P	83.4	84.4	82.6	83.5
Rice	81.8	81.8	81.8	81.8
North Texas	80.4	80.4	80.2	80.3
Southern Miss.	77.9	78.6	77.9	78.2
CUSA Averages	86.0	86.5	86.4	86.3

FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Notre Dame	114.1	114.7	115.6	114.8
BYU	107.8	107.2	107.8	107.6
Liberty	101.4	101.9	102.0	101.8
Army	100.2	100.1	99.9	100.1
New Mexico St.	72.3	73.0	70.8	72.0
UMass	70.1	69.5	67.3	69.0
Connecticut	68.9	69.4	66.7	68.3
Indep. Averages	90.7	90.8	90.0	90.5

Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Miami (Ohio)	99.3	97.6	96.6	97.8
Buffalo	96.1	95.2	95.0	95.4
Kent St.	91.0	92.3	90.7	91.3
Ohio	85.9	86.8	86.3	86.3
Akron	76.0	74.5	73.5	74.6
Bowling Green	74.1	74.3	72.3	73.6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Toledo	98.0	97.6	96.9	97.5
Ball St.	97.1	96.8	94.9	96.3
Eastern Michigan	96.0	94.6	93.3	94.6
Western Michigan	94.6	95.0	93.7	94.5
Central Michigan	95.4	94.0	93.5	94.3
Northern Illinois	90.9	89.5	89.0	89.8
MAC Averages	91.2	90.7	89.6	90.5

Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Boise St.	103.4	103.2	104.0	103.6
Air Force	100.8	101.0	101.6	101.1
Colorado St.	94.6	94.8	95.0	94.8
Utah St.	90.4	91.2	90.6	90.7
Wyoming	90.1	90.5	90.9	90.5
New Mexico	82.8	82.9	81.4	82.4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
San Diego St.	103.1	102.7	102.8	102.9
Fresno St.	101.1	102.5	103.1	102.2
Nevada	101.0	102.4	101.7	101.7
San Jose St.	94.5	94.5	93.0	94.0
Hawaii	93.0	92.7	92.5	92.8
U N L V	85.5	84.7	85.2	85.1
MWC Averages	95.0	95.3	95.1	95.1

Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oregon	111.4	112.5	113.4	112.4
Oregon St.	111.1	111.2	111.6	111.3
Washington	106.0	107.1	107.1	106.7
Stanford	104.6	105.4	104.6	104.9
California	99.7	103.3	102.4	101.8
Washington St.	101.1	102.1	101.6	101.6
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Arizona St.	113.6	114.2	114.3	114.0
Utah	113.6	113.6	113.5	113.6
U S C	111.3	111.2	112.1	111.6
U C L A	109.5	110.0	110.2	109.9
Colorado	98.9	98.7	98.1	98.6
Arizona	89.6	89.2	89.2	89.3
Pac-12 Averages	105.9	106.5	106.5	106.3

Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Georgia	134.3	134.5	135.6	134.8
Florida	116.5	117.8	117.1	117.1
Kentucky	112.0	113.7	113.1	112.9
Tennessee	108.8	108.5	109.0	108.8
Missouri	100.5	100.8	99.8	100.4
South Carolina	97.6	97.2	96.6	97.1
Vanderbilt	79.9	79.2	78.6	79.2
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Alabama	131.6	130.9	132.4	131.6
Texas A&M	118.2	118.9	118.6	118.6
Auburn	117.5	116.8	117.8	117.4
Ole Miss	117.1	117.1	117.4	117.2
Arkansas	113.2	113.1	112.7	113.0
L S U	109.7	110.5	110.5	110.2
Mississippi St.	108.4	108.5	108.2	108.4
SEC Averages	111.8	112.0	112.0	111.9

Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Coastal Carolina	111.4	109.6	111.4	110.8
Appalachian St.	103.8	103.3	105.4	104.2
Georgia St.	94.2	93.5	93.8	93.8
Troy	91.6	91.8	91.7	91.7
Georgia Southern	86.3	86.6	85.9	86.2
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Louisiana	107.9	106.4	107.7	107.3
South Alabama	91.2	91.1	90.3	90.9
Arkansas St.	84.9	85.2	84.3	84.8
Texas St.	84.5	82.7	83.0	83.4
UL-Monroe	80.6	80.8	79.4	80.3
Sun Averages	93.6	93.1	93.3	93.3

Conference Ratings

Rank	Conference	Rating
1	Southeastern	111.9
2	Big 12	109.7
3	Big Ten	108.4
4	Pac-12	106.3
5	Atlantic Coast	105.3
6	American Athletic	97.0
7	Mountain West	95.1
8	Sun Belt	93.3
9	Independents	90.5
10	Mid-American	90.5
11	Conference USA	86.3

Playoff and Bowl Projections

Bowl	Team	Team
Bahamas	Marshall	Toledo
Cure	SMU	Coastal Carolina
Boca	Louisiana Tech	Air Force
New Mexico	UTEP	Northern Illinois
Independence	BYU	Florida Atlantic
Lending Tree	Western Michigan	Appalachian St.
L. A.	San Diego St.	UCLA
New Orleans	UTSA	Louisiana
Myrtle Beach	Central Michigan	Charlotte
Famous Idaho Potato	Eastern Michigan	Boise St.
Frisco	Nevada	UL-Monroe
Armed Forces	Army	UAB
Gasparilla	Middle Tennessee	Buffalo
Hawaii	Central Florida	Fresno St.
Camellia	Kent St.	Troy
Quick Lane	Ball St.	Wyoming
Military	North Carolina	Tulsa
Birmingham	Memphis	Liberty
First Responder	Western Kentucky	Texas Tech
Liberty	Texas	LSU
Holiday	Miami (Fla.)	USC
Guaranteed Rate	Purdue	West Virginia
Fenway	Houston	Boston College
Pinstripe	North Carolina St.	Penn St.
Cheez-It	Wake Forest	Iowa St.
Alamo	Baylor	Arizona St.
Duke’s Mayo	Clemson	Tennessee
Music City	Maryland	Arkansas
Las Vegas	Wisconsin	Oregon St.
Tax Slayer Gator	Virginia	Florida
Tony The Tiger Sun	Louisville	Utah
Arizona	Miami (O)	Utah St.
Citrus	Iowa	Ole Miss
Outback	Minnesota	Texas A&M
Texas	Kansas St.	Auburn
Peach	Pittsburgh	Kentucky
Fiesta	Notre Dame	Michigan
Rose	Oregon	Michigan St.
Sugar	Oklahoma St.	Alabama
Cotton	Oklahoma	Ohio St.
Orange	Georgia	Cincinnati
Championship	Georgia	Ohio St.

NCAA Strikes Out On New Overtime Rule

Did you watch the Penn State-Illinois game Saturday?  It was tied 10-10 after 60 minutes of excellent defensive football.  The Illini shut down the Penn State passing game while controlling the clock by running and running and more running.

Both teams scored field goals in the first two overtimes to make the score 16-16.  The new overtime rule states that starting with the third overtime, both teams get a two-point conversion attempt.  If the score remains tied, then successive two-point conversion attempts are taken until one team scores and the other team does not.

Additionally, after the first overtime, there are no more coin flips.  The teams rotate the choice.  And, what happens is the home team always wants to play on the side of the field where the student body cheers in the end zone, while the opponent wants to play at the other end of the field.  After each overtime, the players, officials, chain gang, and hundreds of fans must make the 100-yard walk to the other end of the field.

It’s no longer much of a secret that making two-point conversions is about as difficult as making 55-yard field goals.  That became a huge problem yesterday in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania.  Penn State and Illinois could not convert their two-point conversion attempts.  Overtimes three, four, five, six, and seven produced 10 consecutive botched conversions.  As each overtime ended, everybody had to move to the other end of the field, and the longer into this mess it continued, the big tubby linemen began to walk at a snail’s pace to get back.

Illinois finally scored in the eighth overtime, but then Penn State did the same forcing a ninth overtime.  The game was finally decided when the Nittany Lions missed their ninth overtime attempt, while Illinois scored to win the game 20-18.

In the amount of time it took to play the nine overtimes, another game that kicked off at the same time as the first overtime began the second quarter of their game just before the nine-overtime game concluded.  In other words, it took a little longer than one full quarter to play the nine overtimes.

Imagine a game in late November with sloppy playing conditions where regulation ends in a tie game, and nobody can score in the overtimes for 10 or more of these ridiculous two-point conversion attempts.  If it took nine yesterday, there is a possibility that somebody else will need 10 or more.

The NCAA must re-evaluate this fiasco of a rule.  In fact, the NCAA needs to have a constitutional convention and modify a lot of the rules to get into the 21st century.  Here is our suggestion for rules changes–use the same rules the NFL uses.  To wit:

1. Overtime should be one, 10-minute period with a touchdown on the first possession winning the game, but a field goal allowing the other team to have a possession.  If the game is still tied after 10 minutes, it stands as a tie game.

2. Intentional pass interference is now a definite defensive option to stop a big gain.  Players will even deliver cheap shots knowing that giving up 15 yards beats giving up 50 or a touchdown.  Because passing the ball is tantamount to winning, the pass interference penalty needs to go back to giving the offense the ball at the spot of interference, be it 12 yards past the line or 50.

3. The clock should not stop on first downs.  That rule was in effect when chain gangs were the only way to spot the ball.  In today’s world, the ball can be spotted quickly via computerization and an extra referee.  Let the clock move on first downs.

4. Add the two-minute warning.  In lieu of the clock stopping on first downs, add a two-minute warning to both halves.  That is when teams need the clock to stop, and the networks can get an extra commercial break before halftime or the end of the game.

5. Allow a player that falls to the ground with the ball but having been untouched by the defense to get up and advance.  Why should poor playing conditions be responsible for making a defensive stop?  

Here’s one additional rule change that should be considered.  Targeting happens too much these days when the ball carrier lowers his head to invite the targeting penalty.  This is almost like the flop in basketball.  The rule needs to be changed so that when the ball carrier initiates the targeting by putting himself into position for any tackle to become a potential targeting penalty, the offense should be penalized 15 yards for a personal foul.

Additionally, ejection is much too harsh of a penalty.  How about making targeting a 20-yard penalty and automatic first down, and also allowing it to supersede the half the distance to the goal and be allowed to go all the way to the 1-yard line if the offense is in the Red Zone?  A penalty in one game shouldn’t be allowed to stay in effect for a half of another game.  This may be the most ridiculous rule in college football history.  Think of a basketball game where a Syracuse player commits an intentional foul on a Connecticut player late in the second half of a game, and then three days later when Syracuse plays Duke, Duke gets to start the game with 2 foul shots from the intentional foul three days back.

PiRate Ratings College Football–October 20-23, 2021

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Appalachian St.	Coastal Carolina	-8.0	-6.7	-6.7
SMU	Tulane	9.8	11.8	9.9
Arkansas St.	Louisiana	-23.5	-21.5	-24.5
Charlotte	Florida Atlantic	-7.3	-7.5	-6.3
UNLV	San Jose St.	-6.3	-7.2	-5.1
Connecticut	Middle Tennessee	-12.7	-11.9	-15.9
Central Florida	Memphis	8.6	6.9	8.9
Utah St.	Colorado St.	-1.6	-1.0	-2.2
Arizona	Washington	-15.5	-17.4	-17.5
Toledo	Western Michigan	3.1	2.0	2.4
Florida St.	Massachusetts	32.2	33.0	35.6
Georgia St.	Texas St.	12.2	13.3	13.4
Indiana	Ohio St.	-15.9	-16.0	-17.0
Akron	Buffalo	-12.8	-13.4	-14.3
Penn St.	Illinois	25.4	26.1	27.6
Virginia	Georgia Tech	9.6	10.9	10.1
Louisville	Boston College	2.6	2.0	3.7
Virginia Tech	Syracuse	9.8	8.6	8.7
Pittsburgh	Clemson	-4.2	-3.5	-5.5
Minnesota	Maryland	4.5	6.8	8.6
Michigan	Northwestern	18.5	19.2	19.8
Central Michigan	Northern Illinois	9.6	9.9	10.3
Ohio U	Kent St.	-2.2	-2.6	-0.8
Navy	Cincinnati	-33.3	-33.5	-35.5
Miami (Fla.)	North Carolina St.	1.9	1.4	2.1
Army	Wake Forest	-5.8	-5.0	-6.1
South Florida	Temple	10.8	8.8	9.9
Bowling Green	Eastern Michigan	-16.5	-14.5	-15.1
Houston	East Carolina	9.8	9.4	9.1
Kansas	Oklahoma	-41.4	-41.8	-45.2
Ball St.	Miami (O)	1.3	3.3	2.4
Wyoming	New Mexico	18.7	19.2	20.9
California	Colorado	-2.0	2.3	1.5
Oregon St.	Utah	-1.5	-1.6	-1.3
Washington St.	BYU	-3.3	-1.5	-2.8
UCLA	Oregon	1.7	1.3	0.9
Texas Tech	Kansas St.	-1.2	-0.7	-1.2
TCU	West Virginia	5.3	5.8	7.4
Iowa St.	Oklahoma St.	11.1	9.9	11.6
UAB	Rice	22.0	22.4	22.7
Alabama	Tennessee	25.4	25.0	26.0
Texas A&M	South Carolina	21.5	22.6	23.0
Vanderbilt	Mississippi St.	-22.2	-22.8	-22.9
Purdue	Wisconsin	1.8	1.6	2.4
Ole Miss	LSU	10.0	8.8	9.1
Louisiana-Monroe	South Alabama	-13.2	-12.9	-13.9
North Texas	Liberty	-20.8	-21.7	-22.4
Louisiana Tech	UTSA	-8.4	-8.5	-9.8
Florida Int’l.	Western Kentucky	-8.5	-9.5	-8.8
Air Force	San Diego St.	2.2	3.2	4.1
Notre Dame	USC	3.6	4.3	4.1
Fresno St.	Nevada	3.3	3.3	4.9
Hawaii	New Mexico St.	26.1	25.1	27.7

FBS vs. FCS Game

FBS	FCS	PiRate
Arkansas	Arkansas-Pine Bluff	39.5

Teams Not Playing This Week

Arizona St.

Auburn

Baylor

Boise St.

Duke

Florida

Georgia

Georgia Southern

Iowa

Kentucky

Marshall

Michigan St.

Missouri

Nebraska

North Carolina

Old Dominion

Rutgers

Southern Miss.

Stanford

Texas

Troy

Tulsa

UTEP

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

Rank	Team	Rating
1	Georgia	134.5
2	Alabama	131.4
3	Ohio St.	126.6
4	Oklahoma	124.7
5	Cincinnati	123.2
6	Iowa St.	121.0
7	Texas A&M	117.4
8	Penn St.	117.2
9	Auburn	117.1
10	Ole Miss	116.9
11	Florida	116.8
12	Clemson	116.2
13	Iowa	115.9
14	Texas	115.8
15	Utah	114.7
16	Michigan	114.4
17	Arizona St.	113.7
18	Notre Dame	113.7
19	Oklahoma St.	113.1
20	Arkansas	112.8
21	U S C	112.7
22	Kentucky	112.6
23	T C U	112.5
24	Coastal Carolina	112.5
25	Oregon	112.0
26	Baylor	111.8
27	NC State	111.0
28	L S U	110.6
29	U C L A	110.3
30	Oregon St.	110.2
31	Michigan St.	110.0
32	North Carolina	110.0
33	Miami (Fla.)	109.8
34	Nebraska	109.7
35	West Virginia	109.3
36	Wake Forest	109.3
37	Wisconsin	109.3
38	Tennessee	109.0
39	Louisiana	108.9
40	Pittsburgh	108.7
41	Washington	108.3
42	Purdue	108.2
43	BYU	107.5
44	Indiana	107.3
45	Virginia	107.3
46	Kansas St.	107.1
47	Minnesota	106.9
48	Mississippi St.	106.4
49	Stanford	104.6
50	Houston	104.5
51	Virginia Tech	104.3
52	Liberty	103.4
53	Boise St.	103.4
54	Boston College	103.3
55	Maryland	103.3
56	Louisville	103.1
57	Texas Tech	103.1
58	Appalachian St.	102.8
59	SMU	102.5
60	Fresno St.	102.4
61	Washington St.	101.9
62	Air Force	101.8
63	Florida St.	101.8
64	San Diego St.	101.7
65	Colorado	101.6
66	Nevada	101.5
67	Army	100.7
68	Georgia Tech	100.1
69	Missouri	100.1
70	U T S A	99.3
71	California	99.2
72	U A B	99.1
73	UCF	98.9
74	Northwestern	98.3
75	Syracuse	98.2
76	East Carolina	98.1
77	South Carolina	98.0
78	Miami (Ohio)	97.1
79	Ball St.	97.0
80	Western Michigan	96.2
81	Rutgers	95.9
82	Toledo	95.7
83	Central Michigan	95.6
84	Wyoming	95.5
85	Tulsa	95.3
86	Colorado St.	95.1
87	Tulane	95.0
88	San Jose St.	93.9
89	Marshall	93.9
90	Georgia St.	93.8
91	Memphis	93.8
92	Illinois	93.8
93	Hawaii	93.6
94	South Alabama	93.3
95	Eastern Michigan	93.0
96	Buffalo	93.0
97	Florida Atlantic	92.8
98	Troy	91.5
99	Kent St.	90.8
100	Utah St.	90.5
101	Western Kentucky	89.3
102	USF	88.5
103	Arizona	88.5
104	Northern Illinois	88.2
105	Louisiana Tech	87.4
106	Duke	87.2
107	Ohio	86.9
108	Middle Tennessee	86.7
109	Navy	86.1
110	Georgia Southern	86.0
111	U N L V	85.2
112	Arkansas St.	83.7
113	Texas St.	83.4
114	U T E P	83.3
115	Charlotte	83.3
116	Vanderbilt	81.7
117	Temple	81.7
118	Rice	79.3
119	North Texas	79.2
120	Kansas	78.9
121	New Mexico	78.9
122	Southern Miss.	78.0
123	Florida Int’l.	77.9
124	UL-Monroe	77.5
125	Akron	77.0
126	Bowling Green	75.2
127	Old Dominion	75.0
128	New Mexico St.	71.2
129	UMass	71.2
130	Connecticut	70.2

PiRate Ratings By Conference

American Athletic Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Cincinnati	122.6	122.3	124.9	123.2
Houston	104.7	103.7	105.2	104.5
SMU	102.1	102.6	102.8	102.5
UCF	98.9	97.7	100.3	98.9
East Carolina	97.9	97.3	99.0	98.1
Tulsa	95.4	95.4	95.2	95.3
Tulane	95.3	93.8	95.9	95.0
Memphis	93.3	93.8	94.4	93.8
USF	88.8	88.1	88.7	88.5
Navy	86.3	85.8	86.4	86.1
Temple	81.0	82.3	81.8	81.7
AAC Averages	96.9	96.6	97.7	97.1
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Clemson	115.6	115.6	117.2	116.2
NC State	111.2	110.8	111.1	111.0
Wake Forest	109.5	108.8	109.7	109.3
Boston College	103.1	103.4	103.4	103.3
Louisville	102.7	102.4	104.1	103.1
Florida St.	101.6	101.8	102.0	101.8
Syracuse	98.2	98.4	98.2	98.2
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
North Carolina	109.4	109.5	111.0	110.0
Miami (Fla.)	110.2	109.2	110.2	109.8
Pittsburgh	108.4	109.2	108.7	108.7
Virginia	106.7	108.0	107.1	107.3
Virginia Tech	105.0	103.9	103.9	104.3
Georgia Tech	100.1	100.2	100.0	100.1
Duke	87.2	88.1	86.3	87.2
ACC Averages	104.9	104.9	105.2	105.0
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oklahoma	125.7	123.8	124.6	124.7
Iowa St.	121.5	120.1	121.4	121.0
Texas	116.7	115.0	115.7	115.8
Oklahoma St.	113.4	113.2	112.8	113.1
T C U	113.2	111.9	112.5	112.5
Baylor	112.3	111.8	111.3	111.8
West Virginia	110.9	109.1	108.1	109.3
Kansas St.	107.5	107.2	106.6	107.1
Texas Tech	103.3	103.5	102.4	103.1
Kansas	81.3	79.0	76.4	78.9
Big 12 Averages	110.6	109.5	109.2	109.7
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ohio St.	126.1	126.0	127.7	126.6
Penn St.	116.0	116.8	118.7	117.2
Michigan	113.7	114.7	114.9	114.4
Michigan St.	110.0	110.0	110.1	110.0
Indiana	107.2	107.0	107.7	107.3
Maryland	104.4	103.0	102.3	103.3
Rutgers	95.1	96.9	95.5	95.9
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Iowa	115.6	115.2	116.9	115.9
Nebraska	109.3	109.7	110.0	109.7
Wisconsin	108.9	108.8	110.2	109.3
Purdue	107.7	107.4	109.6	108.2
Minnesota	105.9	106.8	108.0	106.9
Northwestern	98.2	98.5	98.1	98.3
Illinois	93.6	93.7	94.1	93.8
Big Ten Averages	108.0	108.2	108.8	108.3
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Marshall	93.8	93.7	94.3	93.9
Florida Atlantic	92.1	93.4	93.0	92.8
Western Kentucky	88.3	89.9	89.8	89.3
Middle Tennessee	86.4	86.3	87.4	86.7
Charlotte	82.3	83.4	84.1	83.3
Florida Int’l.	77.3	77.9	78.5	77.9
Old Dominion	74.6	75.3	75.2	75.0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
U T S A	99.0	99.6	99.4	99.3
U A B	98.9	99.2	99.3	99.1
Louisiana Tech	87.7	88.1	86.5	87.4
U T E P	83.2	84.2	82.4	83.3
Rice	79.4	79.3	79.2	79.3
North Texas	79.5	79.3	78.9	79.2
Southern Miss.	77.7	78.4	77.7	78.0
CUSA Averages	85.7	86.3	86.1	86.0
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Notre Dame	113.0	113.6	114.4	113.7
BYU	107.7	107.0	107.7	107.5
Liberty	102.8	103.5	103.8	103.4
Army	100.7	100.8	100.6	100.7
New Mexico St.	71.6	72.3	69.8	71.2
UMass	72.4	71.8	69.5	71.2
Connecticut	70.7	71.4	68.5	70.2
Indep. Averages	91.3	91.5	90.6	91.1
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Miami (Ohio)	98.8	96.8	95.8	97.1
Buffalo	93.7	92.8	92.6	93.0
Kent St.	90.6	91.8	89.9	90.8
Ohio	86.3	87.3	87.1	86.9
Akron	78.4	76.9	75.9	77.0
Bowling Green	75.5	76.0	74.0	75.2
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ball St.	97.6	97.6	95.7	97.0
Western Michigan	96.2	96.8	95.6	96.2
Toledo	96.4	95.8	95.0	95.7
Central Michigan	96.6	95.3	95.0	95.6
Eastern Michigan	94.6	92.9	91.6	93.0
Northern Illinois	89.4	87.9	87.2	88.2
MAC Averages	91.2	90.7	89.6	90.5
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Boise St.	103.2	103.0	103.8	103.4
Air Force	101.3	101.7	102.5	101.8
Wyoming	95.1	95.5	95.9	95.5
Colorado St.	94.8	95.0	95.4	95.1
Utah St.	90.2	91.0	90.2	90.5
New Mexico	79.3	79.4	77.9	78.9
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Fresno St.	101.2	102.6	103.4	102.4
San Diego St.	102.1	101.5	101.4	101.7
Nevada	100.9	102.3	101.4	101.5
San Jose St.	94.4	94.4	92.9	93.9
Hawaii	93.7	93.4	93.5	93.6
U N L V	85.6	84.8	85.3	85.2
MWC Averages	95.1	95.4	95.3	95.3
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oregon	111.1	112.1	112.9	112.0
Oregon St.	110.1	110.1	110.4	110.2
Washington	107.4	108.7	108.8	108.3
Stanford	104.3	105.1	104.3	104.6
Washington St.	101.4	102.5	101.9	101.9
California	97.1	100.9	99.8	99.2
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Utah	114.6	114.7	114.7	114.7
Arizona St.	113.3	113.9	114.0	113.7
U S C	112.4	112.3	113.3	112.7
U C L A	109.8	110.4	110.7	110.3
Colorado	102.0	101.6	101.2	101.6
Arizona	88.9	88.3	88.2	88.5
Pac-12 Averages	106.0	106.7	106.7	106.5
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Georgia	134.0	134.2	135.3	134.5
Florida	116.2	117.5	116.8	116.8
Kentucky	111.7	113.4	112.8	112.6
Tennessee	109.0	108.7	109.2	109.0
Missouri	100.2	100.5	99.5	100.1
South Carolina	98.5	98.1	97.5	98.0
Vanderbilt	82.3	81.7	81.2	81.7
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Alabama	131.4	130.7	132.2	131.4
Texas A&M	117.0	117.7	117.4	117.4
Auburn	117.2	116.5	117.5	117.1
Ole Miss	116.9	116.7	117.0	116.9
Arkansas	113.0	112.9	112.5	112.8
L S U	109.9	110.9	110.9	110.6
Mississippi St.	106.5	106.5	106.1	106.4
SEC Averages	111.7	111.9	111.9	111.8
Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Coastal Carolina	113.0	111.2	113.1	112.5
Appalachian St.	102.5	102.0	104.0	102.8
Georgia St.	94.2	93.5	93.8	93.8
Troy	91.4	91.6	91.5	91.5
Georgia Southern	86.1	86.4	85.7	86.0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Louisiana	109.4	107.8	109.5	108.9
South Alabama	93.6	93.5	92.9	93.3
Arkansas St.	83.9	84.3	83.0	83.7
Texas St.	84.5	82.7	83.0	83.4
UL-Monroe	77.9	78.1	76.5	77.5
Sun Averages	93.6	93.1	93.3	93.4

Conference Ratings

Rank	Conference	Rating
1	Southeastern	111.8
2	Big 12	109.7
3	Big Ten	108.3
4	Pac-12	106.5
5	Atlantic Coast	105.0
6	American Athletic	97.1
7	Mountain West	95.3
8	Sun Belt	93.4
9	Independents	91.1
10	Mid-American	90.5
11	Conference USA	86.0

This Week’s Bowl Projections

Bowl	Team	Team
Bahamas	UTSA	Northern Illinois
Cure	Memphis	Appalachian St.
Boca	Florida Atlantic	Liberty
New Mexico	UTEP	Air Force
Independence	BYU	UAB
Lending Tree	Central Michigan	Coastal Carolina
L. A.	San Diego St.	Washington St.
New Orleans	Charlotte	Louisiana
Myrtle Beach	Tulsa	Troy
Famous Idaho Potato	Toledo	Utah St.
Frisco	Western Kentucky	Miami (O)
Armed Forces	Army	Marshall
Gasparilla	Boston College	Middle Tennessee
Hawaii	Central Florida	Nevada
Camellia	Eastern Michigan	UL-Monroe
Quick Lane	Ball St.	Northwestern
Military	Maryland	East Carolina
Birmingham	Kent St.	Washington
First Responder	SMU	Wyoming
Liberty	TCU	Arkansas
Holiday	Virginia Tech	Oregon St.
Guaranteed Rate	Purdue	Texas Tech
Fenway	Houston	Clemson
Pinstripe	Virginia	Minnesota
Cheez-It	Notre Dame	Baylor
Alamo	Iowa St.	UCLA
Duke’s Mayo	North Carolina St.	Tennessee
Music City	Wisconsin	Kansas St.
Las Vegas	Penn St.	Oregon
Tax Slayer Gator	Wake Forest	LSU
Tony The Tiger Sun	North Carolina	USC
Arizona	Western Michigan	Fresno St.
Citrus	Michigan	Florida
Outback	Iowa	Auburn
Texas	Texas	Texas A&M
Peach	Ole Miss	Pittsburgh
Fiesta	Arizona St.	Kentucky
Rose	Michigan St.	Utah
Sugar	Alabama	Oklahoma St.
Cotton	Oklahoma	Cincinnati
Orange	Georgia	Ohio St.
Championship	Georgia	Oklahoma

PiRate Ratings College Football–October 12-16, 2021

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Louisiana	Appalachian St.	5.2	3.8	3.3
South Alabama	Georgia Southern	5.9	5.3	5.2
Memphis	Navy	8.1	9.2	8.7
Syracuse	Clemson	-16.5	-16.5	-18.6
North Texas	Marshall	-7.9	-7.7	-8.7
San Jose St.	San Diego St.	-5.6	-5.1	-7.0
Oregon	California	18.6	15.6	17.9
Northern Illinois	Bowling Green	17.3	15.3	17.0
North Carolina	Miami (Fla.)	2.0	3.3	4.0
Virginia Tech	Pittsburgh	4.9	3.1	3.7
Kansas	Texas Tech	-16.2	-18.9	-20.6
Indiana	Michigan St.	1.1	0.8	2.0
Wisconsin	Army	11.6	11.6	13.6
Buffalo	Ohio U	11.4	9.4	9.6
South Carolina	Vanderbilt	21.0	21.5	21.6
South Florida	Tulsa	-3.3	-4.0	-3.3
Boston College	North Carolina St.	-0.2	0.9	0.8
Minnesota	Nebraska	-1.8	-1.3	-0.4
Miami (O)	Akron	24.2	23.7	24.1
Cincinnati	Central Florida	24.3	25.2	25.0
Virginia	Duke	16.7	17.2	18.0
Northwestern	Rutgers	3.0	1.1	2.1
Eastern Michigan	Ball St.	0.5	-1.2	-0.5
New Mexico	Colorado St.	-8.9	-9.0	-11.0
Colorado	Arizona	11.8	11.8	11.3
Boise St.	Air Force	8.0	7.4	7.6
Utah	Arizona St.	1.4	0.5	0.2
Wyoming	Fresno St.	0.8	-0.1	-0.4
Washington	UCLA	1.4	2.5	2.4
Louisiana-Monroe	Liberty	-29.5	-30.4	-32.9
Baylor	BYU	7.0	6.9	5.4
Missouri	Texas A&M	-12.1	-12.3	-13.0
Texas	Oklahoma St.	11.3	9.8	11.3
Oklahoma	TCU	14.9	14.0	13.9
Central Michigan	Toledo	2.9	2.2	2.9
Southern Miss.	UAB	-14.7	-13.8	-14.7
Iowa	Purdue	17.2	17.2	17.0
Mississippi St.	Alabama	-17.5	-16.4	-18.5
Western Michigan	Kent St.	1.7	0.6	1.3
Old Dominion	Western Kentucky	-9.1	-9.8	-9.6
Georgia	Kentucky	26.6	24.9	27.4
LSU	Florida	-5.9	-6.6	-5.9
Tennessee	Ole Miss	-4.9	-5.0	-4.8
Texas St.	Troy	-4.6	-7.0	-6.8
Kansas St.	Iowa St.	-10.8	-9.4	-11.4
Arkansas	Auburn	1.5	2.4	1.0
UTSA	Rice	16.8	17.5	17.0
UNLV	Utah St.	-1.9	-3.8	-2.2
UTEP	Louisiana Tech	-7.1	-6.7	-7.1
Washington St.	Stanford	-0.4	-0.2	-0.2
Nevada	Hawaii	10.8	12.5	11.1

FBS vs. FCS Game

FBS	FCS	PiRate
Connecticut	Yale	2.5

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

Rank	Team	Rating
1	Georgia	135.0
2	Alabama	129.1
3	Ohio St.	126.3
4	Oklahoma	124.2
5	Cincinnati	122.0
6	Iowa St.	120.8
7	Iowa	119.5
8	Texas	118.8
9	Florida	118.5
10	Clemson	117.5
11	Ole Miss	116.9
12	Penn St.	116.9
13	Texas A&M	116.3
14	Auburn	115.6
15	Arizona St.	115.2
16	Arkansas	114.3
17	Michigan	114.1
18	Notre Dame	113.4
19	T C U	113.0
20	Utah	112.9
21	Oregon	112.8
22	U S C	112.4
23	Coastal Carolina	112.2
24	Kentucky	111.8
25	Baylor	111.4
26	Oklahoma St.	111.0
27	Nebraska	110.4
28	North Carolina	110.0
29	Oregon St.	109.9
30	Miami (Fla.)	109.8
31	U C L A	109.7
32	Wisconsin	109.7
33	Michigan St.	109.5
34	L S U	109.3
35	West Virginia	109.0
36	Wake Forest	109.0
37	Tennessee	109.0
38	Washington	108.9
39	Mississippi St.	108.7
40	NC State	108.3
41	BYU	107.9
42	Indiana	107.8
43	Liberty	107.4
44	Kansas St.	107.3
45	Virginia Tech	106.7
46	Louisiana	106.4
47	Minnesota	106.2
48	Pittsburgh	105.8
49	Boston College	105.8
50	Purdue	105.3
51	Appalachian St.	105.3
52	Boise St.	105.2
53	Stanford	104.9
54	Virginia	104.7
55	Houston	104.2
56	Maryland	103.0
57	Louisville	102.8
58	SMU	102.2
59	San Diego St.	102.0
60	Texas Tech	101.8
61	Washington St.	101.6
62	Florida St.	101.5
63	Nevada	101.3
64	Missouri	100.8
65	Fresno St.	100.6
66	Air Force	100.5
67	Army	100.4
68	UCF	100.2
69	Georgia Tech	99.8
70	Colorado	99.7
71	South Carolina	99.3
72	California	98.4
73	Miami (Ohio)	98.1
74	East Carolina	97.9
75	Wyoming	97.7
76	Rutgers	97.6
77	Syracuse	97.3
78	Northwestern	97.1
79	U A B	97.0
80	U T S A	96.8
81	Ball St.	96.3
82	Central Michigan	95.8
83	Toledo	95.6
84	Tulsa	95.3
85	Tulane	94.8
86	Kent St.	94.5
87	Hawaii	93.8
88	Buffalo	93.8
89	Georgia St.	93.6
90	San Jose St.	93.6
91	Illinois	93.5
92	Eastern Michigan	93.4
93	Western Michigan	93.2
94	Memphis	93.1
95	Colorado St.	93.0
96	Florida Atlantic	92.6
97	Marshall	92.0
98	Troy	91.7
99	South Alabama	91.4
100	Arizona	91.1
101	Duke	90.4
102	Utah St.	90.4
103	Louisiana Tech	89.7
104	Northern Illinois	88.8
105	USF	88.8
106	Georgia Southern	88.4
107	Western Kentucky	87.9
108	Navy	86.9
109	Middle Tennessee	86.5
110	Ohio	86.1
111	U N L V	85.3
112	Arkansas St.	83.5
113	Texas St.	83.1
114	Charlotte	83.1
115	Rice	82.3
116	Temple	81.5
117	North Texas	81.4
118	Vanderbilt	80.9
119	New Mexico	80.9
120	Southern Miss.	80.6
121	U T E P	80.3
122	Kansas	80.2
123	Florida Int’l.	77.7
124	Old Dominion	76.4
125	Akron	76.1
126	Bowling Green	74.8
127	UL-Monroe	74.5
128	New Mexico St.	71.0
129	UMass	71.0
130	Connecticut	70.1

PiRate Ratings By Conference

American Athletic Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Cincinnati	121.4	121.1	123.6	122.0
Houston	104.4	103.4	104.9	104.2
SMU	101.8	102.3	102.5	102.2
UCF	100.1	98.9	101.6	100.2
East Carolina	97.7	97.1	98.8	97.9
Tulsa	95.4	95.4	95.2	95.3
Tulane	95.1	93.6	95.7	94.8
Memphis	92.6	93.1	93.5	93.1
USF	89.1	88.4	89.0	88.8
Navy	87.0	86.5	87.3	86.9
Temple	80.8	82.1	81.6	81.5
AAC Averages	96.8	96.5	97.6	97.0
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Clemson	116.8	116.9	118.7	117.5
Wake Forest	109.2	108.5	109.4	109.0
NC State	108.6	108.0	108.2	108.3
Boston College	105.4	105.9	106.0	105.8
Louisville	102.4	102.1	103.8	102.8
Florida St.	101.3	101.5	101.7	101.5
Syracuse	97.4	97.5	97.1	97.3
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
North Carolina	109.3	109.5	111.1	110.0
Miami (Fla.)	110.3	109.2	110.1	109.8
Virginia Tech	107.4	106.3	106.4	106.7
Pittsburgh	105.5	106.3	105.7	105.8
Virginia	104.1	105.4	104.5	104.7
Georgia Tech	99.8	99.9	99.7	99.8
Duke	90.4	91.3	89.5	90.4
ACC Averages	104.8	104.9	105.1	105.0
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oklahoma	125.4	123.3	124.0	124.2
Iowa St.	121.4	119.8	121.2	120.8
Texas	119.6	117.9	118.8	118.8
T C U	113.5	112.4	113.1	113.0
Baylor	112.0	111.4	110.7	111.4
Oklahoma St.	111.3	111.1	110.5	111.0
West Virginia	110.6	108.8	107.8	109.0
Kansas St.	107.6	107.5	106.8	107.3
Texas Tech	101.9	102.2	101.2	101.8
Kansas	82.7	80.3	77.6	80.2
Big 12 Averages	110.6	109.5	109.2	109.7
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ohio St.	125.8	125.7	127.4	126.3
Penn St.	115.7	116.5	118.4	116.9
Michigan	113.4	114.4	114.6	114.1
Michigan St.	109.6	109.6	109.4	109.5
Indiana	107.6	107.4	108.4	107.8
Maryland	104.1	102.7	102.0	103.0
Rutgers	96.7	98.7	97.3	97.6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Iowa	119.1	118.8	120.6	119.5
Nebraska	110.0	110.4	110.7	110.4
Wisconsin	109.1	109.1	110.7	109.7
Minnesota	105.2	106.1	107.3	106.2
Purdue	104.9	104.5	106.6	105.3
Northwestern	97.2	97.3	96.9	97.1
Illinois	93.3	93.4	93.8	93.5
Big Ten Averages	108.0	108.2	108.9	108.4
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Florida Atlantic	91.9	93.2	92.8	92.6
Marshall	92.0	91.8	92.4	92.0
Western Kentucky	87.0	88.5	88.3	87.9
Middle Tennessee	86.2	86.1	87.2	86.5
Charlotte	82.1	83.2	83.9	83.1
Florida Int’l.	77.1	77.7	78.3	77.7
Old Dominion	75.9	76.7	76.7	76.4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
U A B	96.9	97.0	97.1	97.0
U T S A	96.6	97.2	96.8	96.8
Louisiana Tech	89.9	90.4	88.9	89.7
Rice	82.3	82.2	82.3	82.3
North Texas	81.6	81.5	81.1	81.4
Southern Miss.	80.2	81.1	80.4	80.6
U T E P	80.3	81.2	79.3	80.3
CUSA Averages	85.7	86.3	86.1	86.0
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Notre Dame	112.7	113.3	114.1	113.4
BYU	108.0	107.4	108.3	107.9
Liberty	106.6	107.5	108.1	107.4
Army	100.5	100.5	100.1	100.4
New Mexico St.	71.4	72.1	69.6	71.0
UMass	72.2	71.6	69.3	71.0
Connecticut	70.6	71.3	68.4	70.1
Indep. Averages	91.7	92.0	91.1	91.6
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Miami (Ohio)	99.7	97.7	96.9	98.1
Kent St.	94.2	95.6	93.7	94.5
Buffalo	94.5	93.5	93.4	93.8
Ohio	85.5	86.6	86.3	86.1
Akron	77.5	76.0	74.8	76.1
Bowling Green	75.2	75.7	73.5	74.8
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ball St.	96.9	97.0	95.0	96.3
Central Michigan	96.7	95.4	95.2	95.8
Toledo	96.3	95.7	94.8	95.6
Eastern Michigan	95.0	93.2	92.0	93.4
Western Michigan	93.3	93.7	92.5	93.2
Northern Illinois	90.0	88.5	88.0	88.8
MAC Averages	91.2	90.7	89.7	90.5
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Boise St.	105.0	104.8	105.7	105.2
Air Force	100.0	100.4	101.1	100.5
Wyoming	97.3	97.7	98.2	97.7
Colorado St.	92.8	92.9	93.4	93.0
Utah St.	90.1	91.0	90.1	90.4
New Mexico	81.3	81.5	79.9	80.9
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
San Diego St.	102.3	101.8	101.9	102.0
Nevada	100.7	102.1	101.0	101.3
Fresno St.	99.5	100.9	101.6	100.6
Hawaii	93.9	93.6	93.9	93.8
San Jose St.	94.2	94.1	92.4	93.6
U N L V	85.7	84.8	85.4	85.3
MWC Averages	95.2	95.5	95.4	95.4
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oregon	111.9	112.8	113.8	112.8
Oregon St.	109.8	109.8	110.1	109.9
Washington	107.8	109.3	109.5	108.9
Stanford	104.5	105.4	104.7	104.9
Washington St.	101.2	102.2	101.5	101.6
California	96.3	100.2	98.9	98.4
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Arizona St.	114.6	115.4	115.6	115.2
Utah	113.0	112.9	112.8	112.9
U S C	112.1	112.0	113.0	112.4
U C L A	109.4	109.8	110.0	109.7
Colorado	100.2	99.7	99.2	99.7
Arizona	91.4	90.9	90.9	91.1
Pac-12 Averages	106.0	106.7	106.7	106.5
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Georgia	134.5	134.6	136.1	135.0
Florida	117.7	119.2	118.5	118.5
Kentucky	110.9	112.7	111.7	111.8
Tennessee	109.0	108.7	109.2	109.0
Missouri	100.9	101.3	100.3	100.8
South Carolina	99.7	99.4	98.9	99.3
Vanderbilt	81.6	80.9	80.3	80.9
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Alabama	129.2	128.3	129.9	129.1
Ole Miss	116.9	116.7	117.0	116.9
Texas A&M	116.0	116.6	116.3	116.3
Auburn	115.9	115.0	116.0	115.6
Arkansas	114.3	114.4	114.0	114.3
L S U	108.8	109.6	109.6	109.3
Mississippi St.	108.7	108.9	108.4	108.7
SEC Averages	111.7	111.9	111.9	111.8
Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Coastal Carolina	112.7	110.9	112.8	112.2
Appalachian St.	104.8	104.5	106.6	105.3
Georgia St.	94.0	93.3	93.6	93.6
Troy	91.5	91.9	91.9	91.7
Georgia Southern	88.4	88.8	88.2	88.4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Louisiana	107.1	105.3	106.9	106.4
South Alabama	91.8	91.6	90.9	91.4
Arkansas St.	83.7	84.1	82.8	83.5
Texas St.	84.4	82.4	82.6	83.1
UL-Monroe	75.1	75.1	73.2	74.5
Sun Averages	93.3	92.8	92.9	93.0

Conference Ratings

Rank	Conference	Rating
1	Southeastern	111.8
2	Big 12	109.7
3	Big Ten	108.4
4	Pac-12	106.5
5	Atlantic Coast	105.0
6	American Athletic	97.0
7	Mountain West	95.4
8	Sun Belt	93.0
9	Independents	91.6
10	Mid-American	90.5
11	Conference USA	86.0

Bowl Projections

Bowl	Team	Team
Bahamas	Florida Atlantic	Northern Illinois
Cure	SMU	Coastal Carolina
Boca	Louisiana	Air Force
New Mexico	UTEP	Wyoming
Independence	BYU	UAB
Lending Tree	Kent St.	San Jose St.
L. A.	San Diego St.	Arizona St.
New Orleans	Louisiana Tech	Liberty
Myrtle Beach	Charlotte	Appalachian St.
Famous Idaho Potato	Western Michigan	Boise St.
Frisco	Utah St.	Washington St.
Armed Forces	Army	Washington
Gasparilla	Western Ky.	Fresno St.
Hawaii	East Carolina	Hawaii
Camellia	Ball St.	South Alabama
Quick Lane	Central Michigan	Marshall
Military	Virginia	Houston
Birmingham	MTSU	Eastern Michigan
First Responder	Memphis	Kansas St.
Liberty	TCU	Arkansas
Holiday	North Carolina St.	Utah
Guaranteed Rate	Indiana	Texas Tech
Fenway	Central Florida	UTSA
Pinstripe	Pittsburgh	Rutgers
Cheez-It	Boston College	Baylor
Alamo	Iowa St.	UCLA
Duke’s Mayo	Wake Forest	Mississippi St.
Music City	Minnesota	Tennessee
Las Vegas	Wisconsin	Oregon St.
Tax Slayer Gator	Virginia Tech	Auburn
Tony The Tiger Sun	North Carolina	USC
Arizona	Toledo	Nevada
Citrus	Penn St.	Ole Miss
Outback	Michigan	Florida
Texas	Texas	Texas A&M
Peach	Clemson	Alabama
Fiesta	Notre Dame	Michigan St.
Rose	Oregon	Iowa
Sugar	Kentucky	Oklahoma St.
Cotton	Ohio St.	Cincinnati
Orange	Georgia	Oklahoma
Championship	Georgia	Ohio St.

PiRate Ratings NFL For Week 5–October 7-11, 2021

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Seattle	LA Rams	1.5	1.0	1.5
Atlanta (n)	N.Y. Jets	4.4	3.6	4.4
Tampa Bay	Miami	10.2	9.4	8.6
Carolina	Philadelphia	5.9	6.4	5.9
Washington	New Orleans	-9.6	-7.1	-10.3
Jacksonville	Tennessee	-5.6	-4.1	-5.5
Minnesota	Detroit	10.9	11.4	10.3
Pittsburgh	Denver	4.2	3.4	3.8
Cincinnati	Green Bay	-3.3	-2.3	-3.8
Houston	New England	-6.4	-6.7	-5.3
Las Vegas	Chicago	4.0	3.9	4.4
LA Chargers	Cleveland	0.6	0.8	1.9
Dallas	N.Y. Giants	7.5	8.6	7.3
Arizona	San Francisco	7.3	8.5	8.4
Kansas City	Buffalo	-1.1	-0.8	-1.7
Baltimore	Indianapolis	7.6	7.9	8.4

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Totals

Home	Visitor	Total
Seattle	LA Rams	55.5
Atlanta (n)	N.Y. Jets	49.5
Tampa Bay	Miami	47.5
Carolina	Philadelphia	42.5
Washington	New Orleans	43
Jacksonville	Tennessee	50.5
Minnesota	Detroit	50
Pittsburgh	Denver	33
Cincinnati	Green Bay	51
Houston	New England	43
Las Vegas	Chicago	43.5
LA Chargers	Cleveland	47.5
Dallas	N.Y. Giants	48.5
Arizona	San Francisco	52.5
Kansas City	Buffalo	57
Baltimore	Indianapolis	49.5

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

A F C
East	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Buffalo	109.0	108.8	109.5	109.1	24.5	3-1
New England	99.6	98.7	98.9	99.1	17.5	1-3
Miami	98.3	98.7	99.2	98.7	20	1-3
N. Y. Jets	91.1	91.8	92.0	91.7	20.5	1-3
North	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Baltimore	105.9	105.4	106.0	105.8	25	3-1
Cleveland	103.8	104.1	103.1	103.7	24.5	3-1
Pittsburgh	101.1	100.4	100.7	100.7	17	1-3
Cincinnati	97.1	97.9	96.8	97.3	24	3-1
South	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Indianapolis	101.3	100.5	100.6	100.8	24.5	1-3
Tennessee	99.1	99.1	98.9	99.0	28	2-2
Jacksonville	91.0	92.5	90.8	91.5	22.5	0-4
Houston	90.7	89.5	91.0	90.4	25.5	1-3
West	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Kansas City	104.9	104.9	104.8	104.9	32.5	2-2
LA Chargers	102.0	102.4	102.5	102.3	23	3-1
Denver	100.0	99.9	99.9	99.9	16	3-1
Las Vegas	97.6	97.8	97.8	97.7	26.5	3-1
N F C
East	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Dallas	101.3	102.4	100.7	101.5	29	3-1
N.Y. Giants	96.9	96.8	96.4	96.7	19.5	1-3
Philadelphia	95.4	95.1	96.1	95.5	20.5	1-3
Washington	94.8	95.3	94.5	94.9	21	2-2
North	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Green Bay	103.5	103.1	103.6	103.4	27	3-1
Minnesota	100.8	101.2	100.2	100.7	22.5	1-3
Chicago	96.1	96.4	95.9	96.1	17	2-2
Detroit	93.0	92.8	92.9	92.9	27.5	0-4
South	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
New Orleans	107.4	105.4	107.8	106.9	22	2-2
Tampa Bay	106.4	106.2	105.8	106.1	27.5	3-1
Carolina	98.3	98.4	99.0	98.6	22	3-1
Atlanta	95.6	95.4	96.4	95.8	29	1-3
West	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Arizona	105.8	106.8	106.7	106.4	28	4-0
LA Rams	106.0	106.5	105.9	106.1	28	3-1
Seattle	104.5	104.5	104.4	104.5	27.5	2-2
San Francisco	101.5	101.3	101.2	101.3	24.5	2-2

Playoff Projections begin next week!

PiRate Ratings College Football–October 7-9, 2021

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Tulane	Houston	-4.6	-4.9	-4.0
Arkansas St.	Coastal Carolina	-26.7	-23.6	-27.4
Cincinnati	Temple	43.0	41.0	43.9
Florida Int’l.	Charlotte	-0.3	-0.7	-0.5
Arizona St.	Stanford	12.6	12.4	13.3
North Carolina	Florida St.	17.8	18.2	20.2
Rutgers	Michigan St.	-8.0	-5.5	-6.6
Massachusetts	Connecticut	0.4	-1.4	-0.9
Syracuse	Wake Forest	-11.1	-10.2	-11.9
Central Florida	East Carolina	5.6	5.0	6.1
Ohio St.	Maryland	17.7	19.0	21.6
Bowling Green	Akron	3.3	5.7	5.0
Toledo	Northern Illinois	11.3	12.7	12.5
Kent St.	Buffalo	-0.3	2.2	-0.2
Duke	Georgia Tech	-6.7	-5.9	-7.7
Western Michigan	Ball St.	4.5	5.3	6.4
Liberty	Middle Tennessee	22.8	23.9	23.1
Louisville	Virginia	1.6	0.0	3.0
Air Force	Wyoming	5.1	4.8	4.9
BYU	Boise St.	9.8	9.6	9.8
Marshall	Old Dominion	22.6	21.6	22.5
Colorado St.	San Jose St.	-3.0	-2.9	-0.5
USC	Utah	7.4	7.5	9.2
Washington St.	Oregon St.	-9.3	-8.2	-9.6
Tennessee	South Carolina	9.0	8.7	9.5
Navy	SMU	-12.2	-13.6	-13.2
Texas Tech	TCU	-5.8	-4.0	-5.7
Auburn	Georgia	-14.6	-15.5	-16.1
Kentucky	LSU	-0.2	0.8	-0.8
Baylor	West Virginia	-1.0	0.2	0.3
Missouri	North Texas	25.0	25.7	25.3
Texas St.	South Alabama	-6.0	-8.2	-7.3
UAB	Florida Atlantic	5.7	3.8	4.5
Florida	Vanderbilt	38.6	40.8	40.5
Tulsa	Memphis	5.0	4.2	3.4
Louisiana-Monroe	Georgia St.	-11.9	-11.1	-13.5
Illinois	Wisconsin	-10.3	-10.0	-11.3
Eastern Michigan	Miami (O)	-2.8	-2.5	-3.3
Texas (N)	Oklahoma	-4.9	-4.1	-3.7
Nebraska	Michigan	0.0	-0.6	-0.5
Troy	Georgia Southern	5.3	5.3	6.1
Ohio U	Central Michigan	-9.3	-6.8	-7.3
Texas A&M	Alabama	-14.3	-12.8	-15.3
Ole Miss	Arkansas	6.0	5.9	7.0
Southern Miss.	UTEP	5.8	6.2	7.8
Western Kentucky	UTSA	-7.3	-6.2	-5.9
Iowa	Penn St.	6.0	4.4	4.6
Virginia Tech	Notre Dame	-2.1	-4.2	-5.1
Arizona	UCLA	-14.3	-15.2	-15.2
San Diego St.	New Mexico	24.0	23.3	25.0
Nevada	New Mexico St.	32.4	33.1	34.5

28 Teams Off This Week!

Appalachian St.

Army

Boston College

California

Clemson

Colorado

Fresno St.

Hawaii

Indiana

Iowa St.

Kansas

Kansas St.

Louisiana

Louisiana Tech

Miami (Fla.)

Minnesota

Mississippi St.

North Carolina St.

Northwestern

Oklahoma St.

Oregon

Pittsburgh

Purdue

Rice

South Florida

UNLV

Utah St.

Washington

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

Rank	Team	Rating
1	Georgia	134.4
2	Alabama	131.1
3	Oklahoma	123.4
4	Ohio St.	122.8
5	Cincinnati	121.5
6	Iowa St.	120.5
7	Iowa	119.7
8	Texas	119.1
9	Florida	118.3
10	Penn St.	117.7
11	Ole Miss	117.2
12	Clemson	117.2
13	Auburn	116.0
14	U S C	115.2
15	Arizona St.	114.9
16	North Carolina	114.1
17	Texas A&M	114.0
18	Michigan	113.9
19	Arkansas	113.9
20	Notre Dame	113.4
21	Oregon	112.5
22	L S U	112.2
23	Coastal Carolina	111.8
24	West Virginia	111.8
25	Oregon St.	111.8
26	T C U	111.5
27	Oklahoma St.	110.7
28	Nebraska	110.6
29	Wake Forest	110.2
30	Utah	110.1
31	BYU	109.9
32	Miami (Fla.)	109.5
33	U C L A	109.5
34	Kentucky	109.2
35	Baylor	108.6
36	Washington	108.6
37	Wisconsin	108.5
38	Michigan St.	108.4
39	Mississippi St.	108.4
40	NC State	108.0
41	Indiana	107.5
42	Tennessee	107.2
43	Liberty	107.1
44	Kansas St.	107.0
45	Virginia Tech	106.6
46	Maryland	106.4
47	Louisiana	106.1
48	Minnesota	105.9
49	Pittsburgh	105.5
50	Boston College	105.5
51	Stanford	105.1
52	Purdue	105.0
53	Appalachian St.	105.0
54	Virginia	104.6
55	Texas Tech	103.3
56	Boise St.	103.2
57	Louisville	103.1
58	Houston	103.0
59	SMU	102.6
60	Missouri	102.5
61	San Diego St.	102.0
62	Nevada	101.2
63	South Carolina	101.1
64	Fresno St.	100.3
65	UCF	100.3
66	Army	100.2
67	Air Force	100.1
68	Georgia Tech	99.8
69	Washington St.	99.8
70	Colorado	99.4
71	Rutgers	98.7
72	Miami (Ohio)	98.5
73	Florida St.	98.4
74	California	98.1
75	Wyoming	98.1
76	East Carolina	97.7
77	Toledo	97.1
78	U T S A	96.9
79	Northwestern	96.8
80	Central Michigan	96.3
81	Western Michigan	96.2
82	Syracuse	96.1
83	Tulane	96.0
84	San Jose St.	96.0
85	U A B	95.9
86	Illinois	95.5
87	Buffalo	95.4
88	Tulsa	95.2
89	Marshall	94.6
90	Florida Atlantic	93.7
91	Hawaii	93.6
92	Memphis	93.5
93	Kent St.	93.4
94	Ball St.	93.3
95	Eastern Michigan	93.0
96	South Alabama	91.9
97	Troy	91.8
98	Arizona	91.6
99	Georgia St.	91.4
100	Colorado St.	90.9
101	Duke	90.6
102	Utah St.	90.2
103	Louisiana Tech	89.5
104	Georgia Southern	88.7
105	USF	88.6
106	Western Kentucky	87.9
107	Northern Illinois	87.4
108	Navy	87.0
109	Middle Tennessee	86.8
110	Ohio	85.9
111	U N L V	85.1
112	Arkansas St.	83.9
113	Southern Miss.	83.0
114	Texas St.	82.7
115	Rice	82.1
116	Charlotte	81.9
117	Temple	81.8
118	Vanderbilt	81.4
119	New Mexico	80.9
120	North Texas	80.2
121	Kansas	79.9
122	Florida Int’l.	78.9
123	U T E P	78.4
124	Bowling Green	77.3
125	UL-Monroe	76.7
126	Old Dominion	74.9
127	Akron	74.1
128	Connecticut	71.8
129	New Mexico St.	70.8
130	UMass	69.6

PiRate Ratings By Conference

American Athletic Conference

Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Cincinnati	121.0	120.5	123.0	121.5
Houston	103.3	102.2	103.6	103.0
SMU	102.0	102.7	103.0	102.6
UCF	100.2	99.0	101.8	100.3
East Carolina	97.6	97.0	98.6	97.7
Tulane	96.2	94.8	97.0	96.0
Tulsa	95.4	95.3	94.9	95.2
Memphis	92.9	93.5	94.1	93.5
USF	88.9	88.2	88.8	88.6
Navy	87.3	86.6	87.3	87.0
Temple	81.0	82.5	82.0	81.8
AAC Averages	96.9	96.6	97.6	97.0

Atlantic Coast Conference

Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Clemson	116.5	116.6	118.4	117.2
Wake Forest	110.3	109.6	110.7	110.2
NC State	108.3	107.7	107.9	108.0
Boston College	105.1	105.6	105.7	105.5
Louisville	102.7	102.4	104.3	103.1
Florida St.	98.4	98.4	98.3	98.4
Syracuse	96.3	96.4	95.8	96.1
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
North Carolina	113.2	113.6	115.5	114.1
Miami (Fla.)	110.0	108.9	109.8	109.5
Virginia Tech	107.5	106.2	106.2	106.6
Pittsburgh	105.2	106.0	105.4	105.5
Virginia	104.1	105.4	104.3	104.6
Georgia Tech	99.8	99.9	99.8	99.8
Duke	90.6	91.5	89.6	90.6
ACC Averages	104.8	104.9	105.1	104.9

Big 12 Conference

Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oklahoma	124.7	122.4	123.0	123.4
Iowa St.	121.1	119.5	120.9	120.5
Texas	119.8	118.3	119.3	119.1
West Virginia	113.3	111.5	110.6	111.8
T C U	112.1	110.8	111.5	111.5
Oklahoma St.	111.0	110.8	110.2	110.7
Baylor	109.3	108.7	107.9	108.6
Kansas St.	107.3	107.2	106.5	107.0
Texas Tech	103.3	103.8	102.8	103.3
Kansas	82.4	80.0	77.3	79.9
Big 12 Averages	110.4	109.3	109.0	109.6

Big Ten Conference

East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ohio St.	122.3	122.2	124.0	122.8
Penn St.	116.4	117.4	119.2	117.7
Michigan	113.2	114.2	114.4	113.9
Michigan St.	108.7	108.4	108.2	108.4
Indiana	107.3	107.1	108.1	107.5
Maryland	107.6	106.2	105.4	106.4
Rutgers	97.6	99.9	98.5	98.7
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Iowa	119.4	118.9	120.8	119.7
Nebraska	110.2	110.6	110.9	110.6
Wisconsin	108.0	107.9	109.5	108.5
Minnesota	104.9	105.8	107.0	105.9
Purdue	104.6	104.2	106.3	105.0
Northwestern	96.9	97.0	96.6	96.8
Illinois	95.2	95.4	95.8	95.5
Big Ten Averages	108.0	108.3	108.9	108.4

Conference USA

East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Marshall	94.5	94.3	95.1	94.6
Florida Atlantic	92.8	94.4	94.0	93.7
Western Kentucky	86.9	88.5	88.3	87.9
Middle Tennessee	86.5	86.4	87.6	86.8
Charlotte	81.0	82.0	82.6	81.9
Florida Int’l.	78.2	78.9	79.6	78.9
Old Dominion	74.4	75.2	75.0	74.9
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
U T S A	96.7	97.2	96.8	96.9
U A B	96.0	95.8	95.9	95.9
Louisiana Tech	89.7	90.2	88.7	89.5
Southern Miss.	82.4	83.5	83.0	83.0
Rice	82.1	82.0	82.1	82.1
North Texas	80.5	80.3	79.8	80.2
U T E P	78.6	79.3	77.2	78.4
CUSA Averages	85.7	86.3	86.1	86.0

Independents

Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Notre Dame	112.6	113.4	114.3	113.4
BYU	109.9	109.4	110.4	109.9
Liberty	106.3	107.2	107.7	107.1
Army	100.3	100.3	99.9	100.2
Connecticut	72.1	73.1	70.2	71.8
New Mexico St.	71.2	71.9	69.4	70.8
UMass	71.0	70.1	67.8	69.6

Mid-American Conference

East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Miami (Ohio)	100.0	98.0	97.4	98.5
Buffalo	96.0	95.0	95.1	95.4
Kent St.	93.2	94.6	92.5	93.4
Ohio	85.3	86.5	86.0	85.9
Bowling Green	77.5	78.2	76.1	77.3
Akron	75.7	74.0	72.7	74.1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Toledo	97.6	97.2	96.4	97.1
Central Michigan	97.2	95.8	95.8	96.3
Western Michigan	96.1	96.7	95.7	96.2
Ball St.	94.1	94.0	91.8	93.3
Eastern Michigan	94.7	92.9	91.5	93.0
Northern Illinois	88.7	87.0	86.4	87.4
MAC Averages	91.3	90.8	89.8	90.7

Mountain West Conference

Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Boise St.	103.1	102.8	103.6	103.2
Air Force	99.7	100.0	100.6	100.1
Wyoming	97.6	98.1	98.7	98.1
Colorado St.	90.7	90.7	91.3	90.9
Utah St.	89.9	90.8	89.9	90.2
New Mexico	81.3	81.5	79.9	80.9
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
San Diego St.	102.3	101.8	101.9	102.0
Nevada	100.6	102.0	100.9	101.2
Fresno St.	99.2	100.6	101.3	100.3
San Jose St.	96.6	96.6	94.8	96.0
Hawaii	93.7	93.4	93.7	93.6
U N L V	85.5	84.6	85.2	85.1
MWC Averages	95.0	95.2	95.1	95.1

Pac-12 Conference

North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oregon	111.6	112.5	113.5	112.5
Oregon St.	111.6	111.6	112.1	111.8
Washington	107.5	109.0	109.2	108.6
Stanford	104.7	105.7	105.0	105.1
Washington St.	99.4	100.4	99.5	99.8
California	96.0	99.9	98.6	98.1
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
U S C	114.7	114.7	116.0	115.2
Arizona St.	114.4	115.1	115.3	114.9
Utah	110.4	110.2	109.8	110.1
U C L A	109.2	109.6	109.7	109.5
Colorado	99.9	99.4	98.9	99.4
Arizona	91.9	91.4	91.5	91.6
Pac-12 Averages	105.9	106.6	106.6	106.4

Southeastern Conference

East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Georgia	133.9	134.0	135.5	134.4
Florida	117.6	119.1	118.3	118.3
Kentucky	108.4	110.2	108.9	109.2
Tennessee	107.3	106.9	107.3	107.2
Missouri	102.5	103.0	102.1	102.5
South Carolina	101.4	101.2	100.8	101.1
Vanderbilt	82.0	81.3	80.8	81.4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Alabama	131.1	130.2	132.1	131.1
Ole Miss	117.1	117.0	117.5	117.2
Auburn	116.3	115.4	116.4	116.0
Texas A&M	113.8	114.4	113.8	114.0
Arkansas	114.1	114.1	113.5	113.9
L S U	111.6	112.4	112.7	112.2
Mississippi St.	108.4	108.6	108.1	108.4
SEC Averages	111.8	112.0	112.0	111.9

Sun Belt Conference

East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Coastal Carolina	112.5	110.3	112.5	111.8
Appalachian St.	104.5	104.2	106.3	105.0
Troy	91.5	91.9	92.0	91.8
Georgia St.	91.8	91.0	91.4	91.4
Georgia Southern	88.7	89.1	88.4	88.7
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Louisiana	106.8	105.0	106.6	106.1
South Alabama	92.1	92.1	91.4	91.9
Arkansas St.	83.9	84.7	83.1	83.9
Texas St.	84.1	81.9	82.1	82.7
UL-Monroe	77.3	77.4	75.4	76.7
Sun Averages	93.3	92.8	92.9	93.0

Conference Ratings

Rank	Conference	Rating
1	Southeastern	111.9
2	Big 12	109.6
3	Big Ten	108.4
4	Pac-12	106.4
5	Atlantic Coast	104.9
6	American Athletic	97.0
7	Mountain West	95.1
8	Sun Belt	93.0
9	Independents	91.8
10	Mid-American	90.7
11	Conference USA	86.0

PiRate Ratings Commence Bowl Projections Today

With one month of play in the books, it is time to begin issuing our Bowl Projections. This is starting to look like a fractured college football season. The Atlantic Coast Conference and Pac-12 Conference have basically been eliminated from Playoff contention. In the Big 12, Oklahoma looks anything like a Playoff team, and Ohio State’s loss at home to Oregon now looks much worse with Oregon losing to Stanford.

Meanwhile, the SEC has two super teams that should be co-number ones. Alabama and Georgia might finish the regular season as the top two seeds even though one team must lose a game in the SEC Championship Game.

Cincinnati’s road win over Notre Dame is enough for now to put them in the Field of Four, but only if either the Big 12 or Big Ten champions have a loss. The Bearcats still have some tough conference opposition to conquer in SMU and Houston.

The Redbox Bowl has already cancelled their 2021 game, and that leaves spots for 82 teams in the postseason. As of today, we count 85 teams that are on pace of a minimum of six wins. The 6-6 line has a large number of teams.

Here is our first stab at the projections for 2021-22. Unlike recent years, there is a lot more wiggle room for different conferences to appear in multiple bowls.

Bowl	Team	Team
Bahamas	UTSA	Toledo
Cure	Liberty	Marshall
Boca	Florida Atlantic	Coastal Carolina
New Mexico	UTEP	Wyoming
Independence	BYU	Louisiana Tech
Lending Tree	Western Michigan	Troy
L. A.	San Jose St.	Arizona St.
New Orleans	UAB	Louisiana
Myrtle Beach	Appalachian St.	Northern Illinois
Famous Idaho Potato	Kent St.	Boise St.
Frisco	Memphis	Utah St.
Armed Forces	Army	Washington
Gasparilla	East Carolina	Iowa St.
Hawaii	Houston	Nevada
Camellia	Miami (O)	South Alabama
Quick Lane	Ball St.	Western Kentucky
Military	Virginia Tech	Central Florida
Birmingham	Miami (Fla.)	Mississippi St.
First Responder	TCU	Fresno St.
Liberty	Kansas St.	Arkansas
Holiday	North Carolina	Utah
Guaranteed Rate	Air Force	Baylor
Fenway	Boston College	SMU
Pinstripe	Pittsburgh	Indiana
Cheez-It	Wake Forest	Texas
Alamo	Oklahoma St.	Stanford
Duke’s Mayo	North Carolina St.	Auburn
Music City	Minnesota	Tennessee
Las Vegas	Wisconsin	USC
Tax Slayer Gator	Virginia	LSU
Tony The Tiger Sun	Louisville	UCLA
Arizona	Central Michigan	San Diego St.
Citrus	Michigan	Ole Miss
Outback	Michigan St.	Florida
Texas	Texas Tech	Texas A&M
Peach	Clemson	Penn St.
Fiesta	Oregon	Notre Dame
Rose	Ohio St.	Oregon St.
Sugar	Kentucky	Oklahoma
Cotton	Iowa	Alabama
Orange	Georgia	Cincinnati
Championship	Georgia	Alabama

This Week’s TV Fare

This week presents fewer total games, as we mentioned early that 28 teams have bye weeks. There are a handful of important and exciting games on the schedule, but this may be the week to watch the Major League Baseball Playoffs more than college football.

Saturday, October 9
Time (ET)	Network	Home	Visitor
12:00 PM	ABC	Texas (n)	Oklahoma
	Fox	Ohio St.	Maryland
	ESPN	Ole Miss	Arkansas
	ESPN2	Tennessee	South Carolina
	FS1	Baylor	West Virginia
	CBSSN	Toledo	Northern Illinois
	BTN	Rutgers	Michigan St.
	SEC	Florida	Vanderbilt
3:00 PM	ACC	Louisville	Virginia
3:30 PM	CBS	Auburn	Georgia
	ABC	BYU	Boise St.
	ESPN	North Carolina	Florida St.
	ESPN2	Syracuse	Wake Forest
	FS1	Colorado St.	San Jose St.
	CBSSN	Navy	SMU
	BTN	Illinois	Wisconsin
4:00 PM	Fox	Iowa	Penn St.
	SEC	Missouri	North Texas
	Pac-12	Washington St.	Oregon St.
7:00 PM	ESPN	Texas Tech	TCU
	ESPNU	Kent St.	Buffalo
	CBSSN	Air Force	Wyoming
7:30 PM	ABC	Nebraska	Michigan
	SEC	Kentucky	LSU
	ACC	Virginia Tech	Notre Dame
8:00 PM	CBS	Texas A&M	Alabama
	FOX	USC	Utah
	FS1	San Diego St.	New Mexico
9:00 PM	ESPN2	Tulsa	Memphis
10:30 PM	ESPN	Arizona	UCLA
	CBSSN	Nevada	New Mexico St.

PiRate Picks–September 30-October 4, 2021

This edition will be short this week due to time constraints, but it is chock full of college money line parlays, as we perceive some excellent value on the college side and not on the NFL side. We even include a rare, 4-team parlay at +372.50. Remember, we never wager real money on our selections and recommend you do the same. Use this feature only for entertainment purposes or supplemental research.

Date:	September 30-October 4
1. Odds:	+173.19
Must Win	Opponent
Notre Dame	Cincinnati
Michigan St.	Western Kentucky
2. Odds:	+219.78
Must Win	Opponent
Purdue	Minnesota
Oregon	Stanford
Army	Ball St.
3. Odds:	+220.45
Must Win	Opponent
Missouri	Tennessee
USC	Colorado
West Virginia	Texas Tech
4. Odds:	+372.50
Must Win	Opponent
Texas	TCU
Wake Forest	Louisville
South Carolina	Troy
Oklahoma St.	Baylor

PiRate Ratings College Football–September 30-October 2, 2021

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Miami (Fla.)	Virginia	11.8	9.0	11.8
Tulsa	Houston	0.9	2.5	0.6
Maryland	Iowa	-0.3	-1.2	-4.2
Utah St.	BYU	-18.9	-17.5	-20.0
Florida St.	Syracuse	4.6	4.6	5.5
North Carolina	Duke	22.0	21.1	25.5
East Carolina	Tulane	-1.6	-1.2	-2.1
Clemson	Boston College	15.8	15.6	17.8
Purdue	Minnesota	5.2	3.7	5.2
Georgia Tech	Pittsburgh	3.2	2.5	3.4
North Carolina St.	Louisiana Tech	23.8	22.6	24.9
Georgia St.	Appalachian St.	-6.2	-6.4	-8.2
South Carolina	Troy	13.5	12.9	12.6
Ball St.	Army	-8.5	-8.8	-11.2
Penn St.	Indiana	8.8	10.0	10.6
Temple	Memphis	-12.4	-11.5	-12.9
Iowa St.	Kansas	40.0	40.6	45.4
Massachusetts	Toledo	-20.6	-21.2	-22.7
Illinois	Charlotte	17.6	17.0	16.7
Wake Forest	Louisville	11.4	10.9	10.4
Buffalo	Western Michigan	4.6	3.0	4.6
Rutgers	Ohio St.	-15.3	-13.1	-15.6
Coastal Carolina	Louisiana-Monroe	34.8	31.9	36.7
Northern Illinois	Eastern Michigan	-5.1	-5.4	-4.5
Boise St.	Nevada	10.0	8.3	10.6
New Mexico	Air Force	-10.6	-10.5	-12.7
Colorado	USC	-8.8	-9.2	-11.1
Notre Dame	Cincinnati	-4.1	-2.1	-4.0
San Jose St.	New Mexico St.	31.3	30.7	31.6
Oregon St.	Washington	7.5	6.0	6.5
California	Washington St.	3.3	6.8	6.6
Stanford	Oregon	-4.7	-4.8	-7.2
Miami (O)	Central Michigan	5.0	4.0	2.9
Kent St.	Bowling Green	19.3	20.5	20.7
Alabama	Ole Miss	16.5	15.4	16.8
Navy	Central Florida	-13.4	-13.1	-15.8
SMU	South Florida	13.7	15.3	14.6
Oklahoma St.	Baylor	3.6	3.7	3.7
Georgia	Arkansas	18.8	18.7	21.1
Akron	Ohio U	-4.5	-7.7	-8.6
Missouri	Tennessee	6.7	7.9	6.7
TCU	Texas	-4.2	-3.8	-3.9
Kentucky	Florida	-8.6	-8.4	-9.3
Kansas St.	Oklahoma	-16.2	-13.8	-15.8
Florida Atlantic	Florida Int’l.	9.6	10.6	9.0
Vanderbilt	Connecticut	13.6	11.7	14.7
West Virginia	Texas Tech	16.4	13.8	14.3
LSU	Auburn	-0.8	1.5	0.9
Wisconsin	Michigan	2.6	1.4	3.2
Texas A&M	Mississippi St.	12.3	12.9	13.0
Georgia Southern	Arkansas St.	2.1	1.2	2.2
UTSA	UNLV	14.8	16.6	15.6
Rice	Southern Miss.	1.8	0.2	0.9
South Alabama	Louisiana	-13.5	-11.5	-14.5
UAB	Liberty	-3.7	-4.9	-5.2
Middle Tennessee	Marshall	-8.1	-8.2	-7.7
Nebraska	Northwestern	7.8	8.1	8.8
Michigan St.	Western Kentucky	25.6	23.6	23.7
UTEP	Old Dominion	6.4	6.4	4.0
UCLA	Arizona St.	2.0	1.9	2.0
Hawaii	Fresno St.	-2.0	-4.4	-4.9

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

Rank	Team	Rating
1	Georgia	132.2
2	Alabama	130.8
3	Oklahoma	124.5
4	Cincinnati	120.3
5	Iowa St.	119.9
6	Florida	119.3
7	Ohio St.	119.1
8	Texas	118.5
9	Clemson	118.0
10	Ole Miss	117.6
11	Texas A&M	116.4
12	Penn St.	116.2
13	Arkansas	115.7
14	Auburn	115.1
15	Iowa	114.8
16	Notre Dame	113.9
17	U S C	113.6
18	West Virginia	113.6
19	Oregon	113.3
20	North Carolina	113.3
21	L S U	112.6
22	Arizona St.	112.2
23	Oregon St.	112.0
24	U C L A	111.7
25	Michigan	111.7
26	T C U	111.6
27	Miami (Fla.)	111.1
28	Wisconsin	111.1
29	Wake Forest	110.6
30	BYU	110.2
31	Coastal Carolina	110.0
32	Oklahoma St.	109.9
33	Maryland	109.9
34	Utah	109.8
35	NC State	109.4
36	Indiana	109.4
37	Baylor	109.2
38	Michigan St.	108.8
39	Washington	108.3
40	Kentucky	107.5
41	Louisiana	107.1
42	Mississippi St.	106.7
43	Missouri	106.7
44	Purdue	106.6
45	Nebraska	106.6
46	Virginia Tech	106.3
47	Kansas St.	106.2
48	Boise St.	105.8
49	Liberty	105.3
50	Minnesota	104.8
51	Stanford	104.7
52	Boston College	104.6
53	Virginia	103.3
54	Army	102.8
55	Louisville	102.7
56	Georgia Tech	102.7
57	Appalachian St.	102.7
58	Pittsburgh	102.6
59	Tennessee	102.6
60	UCF	102.5
61	Texas Tech	101.8
62	San Diego St.	101.7
63	South Carolina	101.4
64	Rutgers	101.4
65	Northwestern	101.3
66	SMU	101.3
67	Colorado	100.9
68	Fresno St.	100.9
69	Houston	100.5
70	California	100.4
71	Nevada	99.1
72	Tulane	98.9
73	Tulsa	98.8
74	Florida St.	98.7
75	Wyoming	97.9
76	Miami (Ohio)	97.9
77	Washington St.	97.8
78	San Jose St.	97.8
79	U A B	97.7
80	Air Force	97.6
81	U T S A	97.3
82	Central Michigan	96.9
83	Buffalo	96.7
84	Marshall	96.4
85	Syracuse	96.3
86	Illinois	95.7
87	Toledo	95.3
88	Western Michigan	95.1
89	Memphis	95.0
90	East Carolina	94.3
91	Eastern Michigan	94.2
92	Kent St.	94.2
93	Georgia St.	93.7
94	Hawaii	93.1
95	Troy	91.4
96	Duke	91.4
97	Arizona	91.3
98	South Alabama	90.9
99	Ball St.	90.7
100	Colorado St.	90.7
101	Florida Atlantic	90.7
102	Utah St.	89.9
103	USF	89.7
104	Louisiana Tech	88.6
105	Western Kentucky	87.5
106	Arkansas St.	86.6
107	Northern Illinois	86.2
108	Georgia Southern	86.0
109	Navy	85.4
110	Middle Tennessee	85.4
111	Ohio	85.0
112	U N L V	84.6
113	New Mexico	83.4
114	Southern Miss.	83.3
115	Texas St.	82.5
116	Vanderbilt	82.4
117	Florida Int’l.	82.0
118	Rice	81.8
119	Charlotte	81.6
120	Kansas	80.9
121	Temple	80.7
122	North Texas	80.0
123	UL-Monroe	78.5
124	U T E P	78.0
125	Bowling Green	76.5
126	Akron	75.6
127	Old Dominion	74.9
128	UMass	71.7
129	Connecticut	71.1
130	New Mexico St.	69.6

PiRate Ratings By Conference

American Athletic Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Cincinnati	120.0	119.2	121.8	120.3
UCF	102.2	101.1	104.2	102.5
SMU	100.7	101.5	101.6	101.3
Houston	100.9	99.5	101.0	100.5
Tulane	99.0	97.7	100.1	98.9
Tulsa	98.8	99.0	98.5	98.8
Memphis	94.3	94.9	95.7	95.0
East Carolina	94.3	93.6	95.0	94.3
USF	90.0	89.2	90.0	89.7
Navy	85.8	85.0	85.4	85.4
Temple	79.9	81.4	80.7	80.7
AAC Averages	96.9	96.6	97.6	97.0
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Clemson	117.2	117.4	119.4	118.0
Wake Forest	110.7	110.0	111.2	110.6
NC State	109.6	109.0	109.5	109.4
Boston College	104.4	104.8	104.7	104.6
Louisville	102.3	102.0	103.8	102.7
Florida St.	98.6	98.7	98.8	98.7
Syracuse	96.6	96.6	95.8	96.3
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
North Carolina	112.4	112.6	114.8	113.3
Miami (Fla.)	111.6	110.3	111.6	111.1
Virginia Tech	107.2	105.9	105.9	106.3
Virginia	102.8	104.3	102.8	103.3
Georgia Tech	102.6	102.7	102.8	102.7
Pittsburgh	102.4	103.2	102.4	102.6
Duke	91.4	92.5	90.3	91.4
ACC Averages	105.0	105.0	105.3	105.1
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oklahoma	125.8	123.3	124.3	124.5
Iowa St.	120.4	118.7	120.4	119.9
Texas	119.3	117.7	118.6	118.5
West Virginia	115.2	113.2	112.5	113.6
T C U	112.1	110.9	111.7	111.6
Oklahoma St.	110.3	110.0	109.3	109.9
Baylor	109.8	109.3	108.6	109.2
Kansas St.	106.5	106.6	105.5	106.2
Texas Tech	101.7	102.4	101.2	101.8
Kansas	83.4	81.1	78.1	80.9
Big 12 Averages	110.5	109.3	109.0	109.6
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ohio St.	118.6	118.6	120.1	119.1
Penn St.	114.9	115.9	117.6	116.2
Michigan	111.0	112.0	112.0	111.7
Maryland	111.1	109.7	108.7	109.9
Indiana	109.1	108.9	110.0	109.4
Michigan St.	109.1	108.7	108.6	108.8
Rutgers	100.3	102.5	101.4	101.4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Iowa	114.4	113.9	116.0	114.8
Wisconsin	110.5	110.4	112.2	111.1
Purdue	106.1	105.6	108.0	106.6
Nebraska	106.2	106.6	106.9	106.6
Minnesota	103.9	104.9	105.8	104.8
Northwestern	101.4	101.5	101.1	101.3
Illinois	95.4	95.7	96.1	95.7
Big Ten Averages	108.0	108.2	108.9	108.4
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Marshall	96.2	96.1	96.9	96.4
Florida Atlantic	89.8	91.4	90.8	90.7
Western Kentucky	86.5	88.2	87.9	87.5
Middle Tennessee	85.1	84.9	86.1	85.4
Florida Int’l.	81.2	81.9	82.8	82.0
Charlotte	80.8	81.7	82.3	81.6
Old Dominion	74.4	75.2	75.2	74.9
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
U A B	97.8	97.6	97.7	97.7
U T S A	97.0	97.7	97.3	97.3
Louisiana Tech	88.9	89.4	87.6	88.6
Southern Miss.	82.6	83.9	83.3	83.3
Rice	81.9	81.6	81.8	81.8
North Texas	80.3	80.1	79.6	80.0
U T E P	78.3	79.0	76.7	78.0
CUSA Averages	85.8	86.3	86.2	86.1
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Notre Dame	112.9	114.0	114.8	113.9
BYU	110.1	109.6	110.9	110.2
Liberty	104.5	105.4	105.9	105.3
Army	102.7	102.8	102.7	102.8
UMass	73.1	72.2	69.9	71.7
Connecticut	71.4	72.5	69.3	71.1
New Mexico St.	70.0	70.7	68.0	69.6
Indep. Averages	92.1	92.5	91.6	92.1
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Miami (Ohio)	99.6	97.4	96.6	97.9
Buffalo	97.3	96.3	96.6	96.7
Kent St.	93.8	95.4	93.4	94.2
Ohio	84.2	85.6	85.1	85.0
Bowling Green	76.9	77.4	75.2	76.5
Akron	77.3	75.4	74.1	75.6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Central Michigan	97.6	96.4	96.6	96.9
Toledo	95.8	95.4	94.6	95.3
Western Michigan	95.1	95.7	94.5	95.1
Eastern Michigan	95.8	94.1	92.7	94.2
Ball St.	91.7	91.5	89.0	90.7
Northern Illinois	87.6	85.8	85.2	86.2
MAC Averages	91.1	90.5	89.5	90.4
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Boise St.	105.6	105.3	106.3	105.8
Wyoming	97.4	97.9	98.5	97.9
Air Force	97.3	97.5	98.1	97.6
Colorado St.	90.5	90.5	91.1	90.7
Utah St.	89.7	90.6	89.4	89.9
New Mexico	83.7	84.0	82.4	83.4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
San Diego St.	102.0	101.5	101.6	101.7
Fresno St.	99.5	101.2	102.0	100.9
Nevada	98.6	100.0	98.7	99.1
San Jose St.	98.3	98.3	96.7	97.8
Hawaii	93.4	92.8	93.0	93.1
U N L V	85.2	84.1	84.7	84.6
MWC Averages	95.1	95.3	95.2	95.2
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oregon	112.2	113.2	114.5	113.3
Oregon St.	111.8	111.8	112.4	112.0
Washington	107.3	108.8	108.9	108.3
Stanford	104.4	105.3	104.3	104.7
California	98.0	102.2	101.0	100.4
Washington St.	97.7	98.4	97.4	97.8
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
U S C	113.2	113.1	114.5	113.6
Arizona St.	111.8	112.4	112.5	112.2
U C L A	111.3	111.8	112.0	111.7
Utah	110.1	109.9	109.5	109.8
Colorado	101.4	101.0	100.4	100.9
Arizona	91.6	91.1	91.2	91.3
Pac-12 Averages	105.9	106.6	106.5	106.3
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Georgia	131.7	131.7	133.3	132.2
Florida	118.4	120.0	119.4	119.3
Kentucky	106.9	108.6	107.1	107.5
Missouri	106.5	107.2	106.3	106.7
Tennessee	102.8	102.2	102.6	102.6
South Carolina	101.7	101.5	101.2	101.4
Vanderbilt	83.0	82.2	82.0	82.4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Alabama	130.9	129.8	131.7	130.8
Ole Miss	117.3	117.4	117.9	117.6
Texas A&M	116.1	116.8	116.3	116.4
Arkansas	115.8	115.9	115.2	115.7
Auburn	115.6	114.4	115.4	115.1
L S U	111.8	112.9	113.2	112.6
Mississippi St.	106.8	106.9	106.3	106.7
SEC Averages	111.8	112.0	112.0	111.9
Sunbelt Conference
East Division	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Coastal Carolina	110.8	108.3	110.8	110.0
Appalachian St.	102.2	101.8	104.0	102.7
Georgia St.	94.1	93.4	93.7	93.7
Troy	91.2	91.6	91.6	91.4
Georgia Southern	86.1	86.3	85.6	86.0
West Division	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Louisiana	107.7	105.8	107.8	107.1
South Alabama	91.2	91.3	90.2	90.9
Arkansas St.	86.5	87.5	85.9	86.6
Texas St.	83.9	81.7	81.9	82.5
UL-Monroe	79.0	79.4	77.1	78.5
Sun Averages	93.3	92.7	92.9	92.9

Conference Ratings

Rank	Conference	Rating
1	Southeastern	111.9
2	Big 12	109.6
3	Big Ten	108.4
4	Pac-12	106.3
5	Atlantic Coast	105.1
6	American Athletic	97.0
7	Mountain West	95.2
8	Sun Belt	92.9
9	Independents	92.1
10	Mid-American	90.4
11	Conference USA	86.1

Excellent TV Schedule For A 14-Hour Marathon

After a week with a minimum of outstanding TV games, you will have a feast of great games this coming weekend. It will be possible to sit on your sofa in your man cave from Noon Eastern Time until 2 AM Sunday and be presented with excellent football game choices. This is a weekend where you might want to have multiple monitors at the ready. Here are our starred games on the tube.

All Times Eastern Daylight

Friday Night

Maryland vs. Iowa

The Terrapins haven’t been 5-0 since 2001, when they won the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship and lost to Florida in the Orange Bowl. Maryland Stadium should be jam-packed as Coach Mike Locksley leads his charges onto the field to face the presumptive Big Ten West favorites in this battle of unbeaten teams. It’s still early, but a Hawkeye win to make Iowa 5-0 could put them on pace to run the table to the Big Ten Championship Game.

TV Info: 8 PM on FS1

Saturday Games

Georgia vs. Arkansas

Georgia’s quick 35-0 first quarter lead over Vanderbilt was achieved almost effortlessly, and Coach Kirby Smart took his starters out after the first quarter. It was like a walk-through practice for their regulars.

Arkansas played a tough 60-minute game against old Southwest Conference rival Texas A&M, knocking off the Aggies in a mild upset to start the season 4-0 for the first time since 2003. If you’re wondering when the last time Arkansas was 5-0, it was 1998. A week from today, that should still be true, but this should be an interesting game to watch to start the day. Beating Vanderbilt 62-0 this year is almost inevitable. Beating Arkansas by three touchdowns or more would justify moving the Bulldogs to number one in the nation. Of course, we did that this week.

TV Info: 12 Noon on ESPN

Wisconsin vs. Michigan

This is a fact-finding tour game for both teams. Can Wisconsin play a game without making multiple mental mistakes, or is this ingrained in their 2021 DNA? The Badgers could possibly be undefeated today if not for those crucial game-crushing mistakes. Was that Graham or Ethel Mertz throwing those touchdown passes to Notre Dame defenders at Soldier Field?

What are we to make of Michigan’s lack of offensive production against Rutgers? The Wolverines were leading the FBS in rushing yardage before the Scarlet Knights shut it down. The Maize and Blue need to control this game and win convincingly if they are really contenders for the Big Ten East title this year.

TV Info: 12 Noon on Fox

Missouri vs. Tennessee

Call this game a bowl qualifier. The winner has a strong path to bowl eligibility, while the loser will need to pull off at least one if not two upsets to get to 6-6. What makes this a much-watch game is that this is the middle of the SEC, and these teams have just enough talent to pull off an upset down the road against a potential Playoff-contender.

TV Info: 12 Noon on SEC Network

TCU vs. Texas

Some of the shine came off this game when TCU fell to Metroplex rival SMU. However, both teams are still undefeated in the Big 12, and the winner becomes the top contender to Oklahoma, who all of a sudden looks quite vulnerable. This should be your typical Southwestern Shootout with up to 90 total points scored, and if Texas wins handily like they did against Texas Tech, the Sooners better take notice before they head to the State Fair the week after.

TV Info: 12 Noon on ABC

Notre Dame vs. Cincinnati

Clemson has played itself out of the Playoff race with two losses. Ohio State will follow the Tigers if they lose another game. Texas A&M and Iowa State couldn’t live up to their preseason hype. If the Playoff Committee has to choose four teams today, Alabama, Georgia, and Oklahoma would be three of the choices, but choice number four would be wide open between Penn State, Oregon, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, and Florida. The winner of this game in South Bend is going to be in great shape to run the table. Notre Dame’s remaining schedule looks soft. Cinti has one tough game at home against SMU and a possible rematch in the AAC Championship Game. We pronounce this one to be the top game of the day. Clear your schedule. This game should be close and may not be decided until the closing minutes.

TV Info: 2:30 PM on NBC

Alabama vs. Ole Miss

For the rest of the nation not reading this feature, this will be their game of the week. The top two Heisman Trophy Award contenders will face off in Tuscaloosa. Tide quarterback Bryce Young is being called the best game manager in college football. You want to know another former Alabama quarterback that was an excellent game manager? Bart Starr merely led the Green Bay Packers to five NFL Championships.

Matt Corral is the exciting, dual threat superstar that has given Alabama all of its defeats in the last decade. Ole Miss could score 40 or more points in this game and still lose by double digits. It should be an interesting game, but the Tide has a bit more talent, and Nick Saban owns part of Lane Kiffin’s subconscious.

TV Info: 3:30 PM on CBS

Kansas St. vs. Oklahoma

Oklahoma doesn’t look anything like a Playoff contender, as they were lucky to survive at home against a fair but not great West Virginia team. Kansas State laid an egg against an Oklahoma State team that has not been the most dominant 4-0 team.

The loser of this game will most likely lose at least one other conference game, and that will eliminate that team from Playoff contention. Kansas State lost to Arkansas State the week before going to Norman last year and handing the Sooners a loss. The Wildcats have the talent to repeat the upset, especially if the OU offense doesn’t get a tune-up this week in practice.

TV Info: 3:30 PM on Fox

Stanford vs. Oregon

The Ducks earned a lot of Playoff Committee bonus points by winning at Ohio State, but their other games have not been totally impressive. The Pac-12 has so much parity that the also-ran teams have better chances to upset the contenders than in any other Power 5 league. Stanford hasn’t defeated a quality team this year, as USC has now proven to be mediocre at best. The Ducks have had difficulty winning in Palo Alto through the years, and a loss here would kill their chances of making the Playoffs, especially with road games against Washington, UCLA, and Utah still to be played.

TV Info: 3:30 PM on ABC

Rutgers vs. Ohio St.

As John McEnroe might say, “you cannot be serious!” Rutgers playing Ohio State is a key TV game? The Buckeyes might be walking into a garden ambush at SHI Stadium in Piscataway. Rutgers had a chance to win in Ann Arbor, and they stopped a btter running game than Ohio State has this year. Can they also stop a top passing game? It should be interesting and worth watching.

TV Info: 3:30 PM on Big Ten Network

Kentucky vs. Florida

Who will play top contender for the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC East? Kentucky has been improving year by year on the defensive side but has been lacking offensively due to problems passing the ball. Coach Mark Stoops brought Liam Coen to Lexington after running the Los Angeles Rams’ offense. The Wildcats still have a top notch defense, but the passing game is struggling a bit.

In the second half of their game against Alabama, Florida looked like the superior team. A lousy first half did the Gators in. Not having Anthony Richardson to play these last two games have played a little toll on the Gator offense. If Richardson is full strength, Florida should be able to top Kentucky in Lexington. Florida must keep winning every week to make the Georgia game essential. The Gators are still very much in the Playoff race.

TV Info: 6 PM on ESPN

Oklahoma St. vs. Baylor

Who would have predicted that these teams would both be 4-0 when they faced off? Both teams have to be considered Big 12 Championship Game contenders, but the Cowboys are probably a legitimate contender, where the Bears must still prove they are for real. A win here adds to the proof given when they beat Iowa State.

TV Info: 7 PM on ESPN2

Clemson vs. Boston College

It’s obvious by now that Clemson’s offense has suffered too many losses from last year’s team, as many defenses have successfully held that tiger. Boston College survived a 56-yard field goal to pick up a rare ACC win over an SEC team. At 4-0, the Eagles are one of two remaining undefeated teams left in the league (Wake Forest). If BC can win this game and look like it was not a fluke, then at least, the league can pretend to still have a playoff contender.

TV Info: 7:30 PM on ACC Network

Oregon State vs. Washington

Oregon State played one bad quarter against Purdue in the season opener, and that’s why the Beavers are not 4-0 and threatening to make the Pac-12 North a two-team race. Washington lost to Montana in week one and then fell to Michigan in week two. The Huskies still might win the North Division title, but they have no chance to make the Playoffs.

The winner of this game will be tied for first at the minimum and in sole possession of first if Stanford beats Oregon. OSU looked like a serious contender in their pasting of USC in the Coliseum. The last time the Beavers had won at the Coliseum was 1960, when Tommy Prothro was coaching the team, and future Heisman Trophy quarterback Terry Baker was leading it. If Tristan Gebbia can stay healthy, Oregon State just might be the team that Oregon has to worry about.

TV Info: 9 PM on Pac-12 Network

UCLA vs. Arizona St.

This is a battle for first place in the Pac-12 South, but neither team is in contention for a Playoff bid. ASU lost to BYU, while the Bruins lost to Fresno State. At 12-1, neither team would get in against a third place SEC school that is 11-1.

The PiRates begin updating the ratings during the second half of the late Pac-12 game, so we always have the audio up on these games while working through the wee hours of the morning. These games are always exciting and keep us alert. You get your money’s worth with Pac-12 games, even if it no longer really is the “conference of champions.”

TV Info: 10:30 PM on FS1

PiRate Ratings College Football, September 7, 2021

This Week’s Spreads

Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Coastal Carolina	Kansas	25.3	25.0	31.4
Boise St.	UTEP	28.6	26.8	30.8
Virginia	Illinois	10.3	11.9	9.3
Army	Western Kentucky	23.5	21.5	22.8
Ohio St.	Oregon	14.4	13.3	13.6
Massachusetts	Boston College	-31.1	-32.5	-36.3
South Florida	Florida	-25.7	-29.3	-27.2
Tennessee	Pittsburgh	5.3	3.5	5.3
East Carolina	South Carolina	-5.7	-6.8	-4.2
Florida Atlantic	Georgia Southern	-0.1	1.6	1.7
Minnesota	Miami (O)	8.6	12.8	15.3
Oklahoma St.	Tulsa	16.0	15.6	15.4
Northern Illinois	Wyoming	-2.8	-5.7	-7.4
Syracuse	Rutgers	0.0	-2.6	-1.7
Virginia Tech	Middle Tennessee	25.6	24.8	23.0
New Mexico	New Mexico St.	18.4	18.1	20.2
Notre Dame	Toledo	13.9	16.3	17.7
Connecticut	Purdue	-29.1	-27.4	-33.2
Navy	Air Force	-5.8	-6.5	-6.8
Penn St.	Ball St.	19.1	20.4	25.0
Akron	Temple	6.1	2.2	1.4
Georgia	UAB	31.3	31.4	33.6
TCU	California	24.6	18.6	21.4
Nebraska	Buffalo	6.2	7.8	7.1
Iowa St.	Iowa	8.1	6.9	6.0
Colorado (d)	Texas A&M	-9.7	-11.5	-12.2
Bowling Green	South Alabama	-18.6	-18.5	-20.5
Rice	Houston	-10.5	-8.8	-10.3
Miami (Fla.)	Appalachian St.	16.8	16.1	15.2
Florida Int’l.	Texas St.	-7.9	-4.5	-3.8
Mississippi St.	North Carolina St.	1.0	1.8	0.6
Wisconsin	Eastern Michigan	24.1	25.9	29.3
SMU	North Texas	13.9	15.4	15.6
Troy	Liberty	-7.7	-8.7	-9.4
Arkansas St.	Memphis	-0.4	0.4	-3.3
Arkansas	Texas	-5.2	-3.3	-6.0
Kentucky	Missouri	3.9	5.2	3.9
North Carolina	Georgia St.	24.4	25.3	28.4
Michigan	Washington	2.3	1.7	1.5
Colorado St.	Vanderbilt	1.5	2.6	3.4
Arizona	San Diego St.	-1.0	-1.0	-1.0
BYU	Utah	-0.8	-2.1	-0.1
Arizona St.	UNLV	28.9	31.5	31.3
USC	Stanford	20.9	19.6	23.3
Oregon St.	Hawaii	15.2	15.8	15.7
(d) CU-A&M game	played in Denver

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

Rank	Team	Rating
1	Alabama	132.7
2	Georgia	125.8
3	Oklahoma	125.4
4	Iowa St.	122.1
5	Ohio St.	121.9
6	Clemson	121.6
7	U S C	119.8
8	Cincinnati	119.2
9	Texas A&M	118.3
10	Auburn	117.8
11	Florida	117.1
12	Texas	117.0
13	Iowa	116.6
14	North Carolina	116.3
15	T C U	116.0
16	Miami (Fla.)	114.9
17	Penn St.	114.9
18	Wisconsin	114.6
19	Ole Miss	113.8
20	U C L A	113.0
21	Arizona St.	112.1
22	Indiana	112.1
23	Utah	111.9
24	L S U	111.6
25	West Virginia	111.4
26	Oklahoma St.	111.3
27	Oregon	111.1
28	Notre Dame	109.9
29	Arkansas	109.2
30	NC State	109.1
31	Coastal Carolina	108.9
32	BYU	108.9
33	Maryland	108.4
34	Louisiana	108.1
35	Washington	108.1
36	Kentucky	107.8
37	Wake Forest	107.3
38	Mississippi St.	107.3
39	Virginia Tech	107.2
40	Michigan	106.9
41	Minnesota	106.6
42	Liberty	106.5
43	Missouri	106.5
44	Boston College	106.4
45	Michigan St.	106.0
46	Oregon St.	106.0
47	Kansas St.	105.8
48	Colorado	105.7
49	Purdue	104.6
50	Baylor	104.1
51	Texas Tech	104.0
52	Army	103.8
53	Florida St.	103.8
54	Tennessee	103.7
55	Virginia	103.7
56	Boise St.	103.5
57	UCF	103.5
58	Nebraska	103.5
59	Northwestern	102.8
60	Tulane	102.2
61	South Carolina	102.0
62	Pittsburgh	102.0
63	Appalachian St.	101.9
64	Louisville	101.6
65	Stanford	101.5
66	San Jose St.	100.4
67	Nevada	100.1
68	Central Michigan	99.7
69	Rutgers	99.6
70	Washington St.	99.6
71	Buffalo	99.5
72	San Diego St.	98.9
73	Houston	98.6
74	Fresno St.	98.1
75	California	97.4
76	Miami (Ohio)	97.4
77	Wyoming	97.3
78	Tulsa	97.1
79	Toledo	97.0
80	Marshall	96.7
81	U A B	96.7
82	Georgia Tech	96.6
83	SMU	96.5
84	Ball St.	96.4
85	Illinois	96.2
86	U T S A	95.9
87	Air Force	95.7
88	Syracuse	95.7
89	Troy	95.4
90	Arizona	94.9
91	East Carolina	94.4
92	Memphis	93.5
93	Hawaii	93.4
94	Georgia St.	93.2
95	South Alabama	92.8
96	Kent St.	91.5
97	Eastern Michigan	91.2
98	Ohio	90.8
99	Arkansas St.	90.4
100	Georgia Southern	90.2
101	Northern Illinois	89.0
102	Western Michigan	89.0
103	Louisiana Tech	89.0
104	Utah St.	89.0
105	Florida Atlantic	88.8
106	Duke	88.3
107	Texas St.	88.2
108	Rice	87.7
109	USF	87.7
110	Vanderbilt	86.6
111	Navy	86.3
112	Colorado St.	86.2
113	Middle Tennessee	85.7
114	New Mexico	85.5
115	Kansas	84.7
116	U N L V	84.6
117	Western Kentucky	84.2
118	North Texas	83.0
119	Southern Miss.	82.8
120	Charlotte	80.7
121	Florida Int’l.	80.3
122	Akron	78.5
123	U T E P	77.8
124	Temple	77.3
125	UL-Monroe	75.6
126	Connecticut	72.7
127	Old Dominion	71.8
128	UMass	71.6
129	Bowling Green	71.1
130	New Mexico St.	68.6

PiRate Ratings By Conference

American Athletic Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Cincinnati	119.0	118.0	120.6	119.2
UCF	103.1	102.0	105.4	103.5
Tulane	102.0	100.7	103.8	102.2
Houston	99.1	97.5	99.2	98.6
Tulsa	97.2	97.3	96.7	97.1
SMU	95.8	96.9	96.9	96.5
East Carolina	94.5	93.4	95.3	94.4
Memphis	92.7	93.1	94.6	93.5
USF	88.3	87.0	87.7	87.7
Navy	86.8	86.0	86.3	86.3
Temple	76.4	78.1	77.4	77.3
AAC Averages	95.9	95.5	96.7	96.0
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Clemson	120.5	120.9	123.2	121.6
NC State	109.5	108.8	109.1	109.1
Wake Forest	107.7	106.5	107.8	107.3
Boston College	105.9	106.5	106.9	106.4
Florida St.	103.5	103.9	103.9	103.8
Louisville	101.3	100.9	102.5	101.6
Syracuse	96.2	95.9	95.1	95.7
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
North Carolina	115.2	115.3	118.3	116.3
Miami (Fla.)	115.2	114.0	115.6	114.9
Virginia Tech	108.1	106.8	106.8	107.2
Virginia	103.1	105.1	102.8	103.7
Pittsburgh	101.6	102.7	101.8	102.0
Georgia Tech	96.7	96.7	96.5	96.6
Duke	88.3	89.6	87.1	88.3
ACC Averages	105.2	105.3	105.5	105.3
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oklahoma	126.6	124.0	125.5	125.4
Iowa St.	122.6	120.8	122.9	122.1
Texas	118.0	115.9	117.2	117.0
T C U	116.6	115.1	116.3	116.0
West Virginia	113.0	111.1	110.1	111.4
Oklahoma St.	111.7	111.4	110.7	111.3
Kansas St.	106.2	106.2	105.1	105.8
Baylor	104.7	104.3	103.3	104.1
Texas Tech	104.0	104.8	103.2	104.0
Kansas	87.4	84.9	81.8	84.7
Big 12 Averages	111.1	109.8	109.6	110.2
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ohio St.	121.1	121.3	123.2	121.9
Penn St.	113.5	114.6	116.5	114.9
Indiana	111.7	111.6	113.0	112.1
Maryland	109.8	108.1	107.1	108.4
Michigan	106.2	107.1	107.3	106.9
Michigan St.	106.4	106.0	105.7	106.0
Rutgers	98.6	100.9	99.3	99.6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Iowa	116.0	115.5	118.4	116.6
Wisconsin	113.9	113.9	115.9	114.6
Minnesota	105.1	106.6	108.1	106.6
Purdue	104.4	103.8	105.6	104.6
Nebraska	103.2	103.7	103.5	103.5
Northwestern	102.9	102.8	102.6	102.8
Illinois	95.8	96.2	96.6	96.2
Big Ten Averages	107.8	108.0	108.8	108.2
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Marshall	96.7	96.7	96.9	96.7
Florida Atlantic	87.7	89.7	89.0	88.8
Middle Tennessee	85.4	85.1	86.7	85.7
Western Kentucky	83.2	85.1	84.3	84.2
Charlotte	79.9	80.9	81.3	80.7
Florida Int’l.	79.2	80.2	81.4	80.3
Old Dominion	71.5	72.1	71.7	71.8
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
U A B	96.9	96.7	96.4	96.7
U T S A	95.8	96.4	95.5	95.9
Louisiana Tech	89.3	89.9	87.9	89.0
Rice	87.6	87.7	87.9	87.7
North Texas	83.4	83.0	82.7	83.0
Southern Miss.	82.0	83.6	82.8	82.8
U T E P	78.0	79.0	76.2	77.8
CUSA Averages	85.5	86.1	85.8	85.8
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Notre Dame	108.7	110.3	110.8	109.9
BYU	109.0	108.0	109.7	108.9
Liberty	105.3	106.6	107.5	106.5
Army	103.7	103.6	104.1	103.8
Connecticut	73.3	74.5	70.4	72.7
UMass	73.3	72.5	69.1	71.6
New Mexico St.	69.2	69.9	66.8	68.6
Indep. Averages	91.8	92.2	91.2	91.7
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Buffalo	100.0	99.0	99.4	99.5
Miami (Ohio)	99.5	96.8	95.8	97.4
Kent St.	91.1	93.0	90.5	91.5
Ohio	89.7	91.6	91.0	90.8
Akron	80.5	78.3	76.9	78.5
Bowling Green	71.8	72.1	69.3	71.1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Central Michigan	100.4	99.1	99.5	99.7
Toledo	97.8	97.0	96.1	97.0
Ball St.	97.4	97.3	94.5	96.4
Eastern Michigan	92.9	91.0	89.6	91.2
Northern Illinois	90.6	88.6	87.9	89.0
Western Michigan	89.3	89.6	88.1	89.0
MAC Averages	91.7	91.1	89.9	90.9
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Boise St.	103.6	102.8	104.0	103.5
Wyoming	96.5	97.2	98.3	97.3
Air Force	95.6	95.5	96.1	95.7
Utah St.	88.7	89.8	88.5	89.0
Colorado St.	86.0	86.0	86.5	86.2
New Mexico	85.6	86.0	85.0	85.5
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
San Jose St.	100.9	101.0	99.4	100.4
Nevada	99.4	101.0	99.8	100.1
San Diego St.	99.4	98.7	98.6	98.9
Fresno St.	96.4	98.5	99.4	98.1
Hawaii	93.7	93.0	93.4	93.4
U N L V	85.5	84.0	84.3	84.6
MWC Averages	94.3	94.5	94.4	94.4
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oregon	109.8	111.1	112.6	111.1
Washington	106.9	108.4	108.9	108.1
Oregon St.	105.9	105.8	106.2	106.0
Stanford	101.3	102.4	100.8	101.5
Washington St.	99.5	100.3	99.1	99.6
California	95.0	99.5	97.9	97.4
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
U S C	119.2	119.0	121.0	119.8
U C L A	112.7	112.9	113.3	113.0
Arizona St.	111.4	112.5	112.6	112.1
Utah	111.8	112.1	111.8	111.9
Colorado	106.4	105.8	104.9	105.7
Arizona	95.4	94.7	94.6	94.9
Pac-12 Averages	106.3	107.0	107.0	106.8
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Georgia	125.2	125.1	127.1	125.8
Florida	116.0	118.3	116.9	117.1
Kentucky	107.2	109.1	107.1	107.8
Missouri	106.3	106.9	106.2	106.5
Tennessee	103.9	103.1	104.1	103.7
South Carolina	102.3	102.2	101.6	102.0
Vanderbilt	87.4	86.4	86.1	86.6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Alabama	132.8	131.4	133.9	132.7
Texas A&M	117.6	118.7	118.6	118.3
Auburn	118.2	117.0	118.3	117.8
Ole Miss	113.7	113.8	113.9	113.8
L S U	110.7	111.9	112.2	111.6
Arkansas	109.8	109.6	108.2	109.2
Mississippi St.	107.5	107.6	106.7	107.3
SEC Averages	111.3	111.5	111.5	111.5
Sunbelt Conference
East Division	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Coastal Carolina	109.7	106.9	110.1	108.9
Appalachian St.	101.3	100.9	103.4	101.9
Troy	95.1	95.4	95.7	95.4
Georgia St.	93.8	92.9	92.9	93.2
Georgia Southern	90.3	90.7	89.8	90.2
West Division	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Louisiana	108.8	106.5	109.1	108.1
South Alabama	92.9	93.1	92.3	92.8
Arkansas St.	90.3	91.5	89.3	90.4
Texas St.	89.6	87.2	87.7	88.2
UL-Monroe	76.2	76.5	73.9	75.6
Sun Averages	94.8	94.2	94.4	94.5

Rating of Conferences

Rank	Conference	Rating
1	Southeastern	111.5
2	Big 12	110.2
3	Big Ten	108.2
4	Pac-12	106.8
5	Atlantic Coast	105.3
6	American Athletic	96.0
7	Sun Belt	94.5
8	Mountain West	94.4
9	Independents	91.7
10	Mid-American	90.9
11	Conference USA	85.8

What To Make Of Week 1

Alabama Football 2021 = UCLA Basketball 1967-1973

College basketball between 1967 and 1973 was all about one team against the rest. UCLA so dominated basketball in those years that their games were seldom entertaining to non-Bruins fans. They won games by scores such as 115-65, 114-56, and 82-43. They beat other top 10 teams by scores like 79-53, 73-57, and 96-77. In the rare occasion that they played the #1 team, when they were not ranked #1, they merely won 101-69 after leading by 44 points before putting in the scrubs.

Alabama football has reached that same point. Games are no longer entertaining unless you are a Crimson Tide fan. Coach Nick Saban has reached the same level as John Wooden. Last year, Alabama played a 10-game all SEC schedule plus two playoff games. Six of the 13 opponents were ranked, and ‘Bama won these six gamed by an average of three touchdowns per game. The Tide suffered heavy losses to the NFL Draft, including the Heisman Trophy winner and a 1st round picked quarterback. For any other program, 2021 would be a large rebuilding season. For Alabama, they simply plug in the next 1st round draft pick at QB, who after one career start is now the front-runner for this year’s Heisman Trophy. It’s just like Sidney Wicks replacing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the best player in the nation in 1969-70, and Bill Walton replacing Wicks in 1971-72.

Revenge Of The FCS

Six FCS teams beat FBS teams in Week One of the college football season. While South Dakota State beating Colorado State may not have been all that surprising, since SDSU is the Alabama of FCS, but when Washington lost at home to Montana, that shook the Power 5 Pac-12 to its foundation.

There are two reasons why these FCS teams were more competitive than normal. First, these FCS teams played football in the Spring. Most of these teams looked like they were in mid-season form, playing more like a Power 5 team in a postseason bowl. Also, with the free extra year given to all players by the NCAA, age tends to lead to parity. An outstanding 5-star 18-year old is light years better than a 3-star 18-year old. A 23-year old college football player most likely is a 3-star holdover, and he is little better than a 23-year old 2-star player at an FCS school.

An excellent case in point is the East Tennessee State slaughter over Vanderbilt. Everything possible was in place to forecast this 20-point blowout win over the SEC host. The Buccaneers played in the Spring and enjoyed an incredible year on the defensive side of the ball. Most of their two-deep returned. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt brought in a new coaching staff after the Commodores went 0-9 and had to use a female soccer player as their placekicker in their final two games. Numerous players left the team via the Transfer Portal, and the incoming coach made it known that he preferred not to sign players from that portal. The Commodores are a very youthful team lacking any real star players, while ETSU had one player in his late 20’s playing Saturday night. Thus, not only was the game an upset that finished 41 points different from the spread, it was obvious that ETSU dominated the Commodores. In some respect, men beat boys.

With all FBS teams now having a game under their belts, expect some of this FCS advantage to disappear each week until it is gone.

Must Watch Games This Week

12 Noon Eastern

Oregon visits the giant horseshoe to face Ohio State on Fox. The Ducks underperformed in a win over Fresno State, but it was obvious that they didn’t show the nation all their weapons. The Pac-12 suffered numerous black eyes, with the rest of the North Division losing their first games.

3:30 PM Eastern

Saturday is the 20th anniversary of the tragic bombings in New York and Washington, D.C. It is no coincidence that Air Force and Navy will play on CBS rather than their regular SEC game.

On ABC, Iowa visits Iowa State for the Cy-Hawk Trophy. The Cyclones were not impressive in their opener against Northern Iowa, but last year, Iowa State lost to Louisiana-Lafayette by 17 in their first game and then beat Oklahoma two weeks later. Iowa looked like the class of the Big Ten West when they trounced Indiana.

7:00 PM Eastern

Perhaps the game of the day comes from Fayetteville, Arkansas, where the Razorbacks will host long-time arch-rival Texas in a game that will soon become a regular affair once Texas joins the SEC (maybe in 2022). Neither team is the dominant top 10 team like they were many times in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but this should be an incredibly, hard-fought game between two 1-0 teams. Catch this game on ESPN.

Mississippi State hosts North Carolina State, and the ACC is suffering more than the Pac-12 after one week. The Wolfpack were one of two bright spots for the ACC, while the Bulldogs had to win on the final play over Louisiana Tech. This should be a close game, and the teams will fight tooth and nail to get to 2-0. This one is on ESPN2.

7:30 PM Eastern

Missouri visits Kentucky in a battle to determine which SEC East team will become the potential top challenger to Georgia, assuming Florida does not retain this position. Missouri had a pedestrian performance in a win over Central Michigan in week one. On the other hand, Kentucky unveiled a new offense led by former Rams’ assistant Laim Coen. Coen’s offense made Penn State transfer Will Levis look like Jared Goff of 2018. Can the Cats put up flashy numbers against an SEC opponent? Tune into this one on The SEC Network.

10:15 PM Eastern

The late games this week could be duds except for the Utah at BYU game in Provo. Aside from it being a rivalry game, both schools looked strong in week one wins. Catch this rivalry game on ESPN.

American Athletic Conference Preview

Today, we preview the strongest of the Group of 5 conferences.  In a couple of years, we might be referring to the American Athletic Conference as the top of the “Tier 2” leagues.  It would not be surprising to see some of the Big 12 teams and some of the AAC teams merging into one league.

Until then, the AAC remains the conference where the top team is usually the leading contender for the guaranteed Group of 5 team in a New Year’s Six bowl.  Last year, Cincinnati ran the table in the abbreviated season and then beat Tulsa in an exciting game to move to 9-0 and earn the New Year’s Six bowl bid against Georgia in the Peach Bowl.  Playing basically a road game against the in-state school, the Bearcats had a chance to win the game and fell just short.

Bearcats coach Luke Fickell welcomes back a roster that has a little rebuilding to do, but the talent-level should be a little stronger thanks to some excellent recruiting classes bringing underclassmen to the roster.

UC has back-to-back games at Indiana and Notre Dame after beginning the year with winnable home games.  If the Bearcats can pick off the Hoosiers and Fighting Irish, they could find themselves in the same position as last year–in the hunt for a Playoff bid but probably looking at a #6 or #7 final rating and a repeat trip to a New Year’s Six bowl.

The Bearcats cannot be counted out this year against the big dogs on their schedule.  A defense that gave up 16.8 points and 325 yards per game last year, could be a little better in 2021.  The secondary coverage should be one of the five best in the nation, led by the top cover corner in the nation in Ahmad Gardner.

The only question for this year’s UC team is the offensive line, which must be rebuilt with more underclassmen than upperclassmen.  In a season where other teams might field 23-year old seniors, this could come to haunt the Bearcats.

Central Florida undergoes a big change as Josh Heupel and his up-tempo, high-powered spread offense have moved to Tennessee, while former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn brings his different style of spread offense to Orlando.  The former offense was driving on the interstate in open country, while the new offense will be like the old blue highway with winding roads and hilly terrain.  It won’t be as flashy, but the Knights could benefit by playing defense a lot less than they did in recent years.  This is going to benefit UCF’s young defense that must break in eight new starters, including four excellent defensive backs.

The UCF offense can become the team’s best defense if they can sustain long drives.  In Heupel’s time in Orlando, UCF had no trouble moving the ball, but they scored so quickly, the defense fatigued.  In the Knights’ three losses last year, second half defense was the reason they lost those games by eight to Tulsa, one to Memphis, and three to Cincinnati.

This is year three for Dana Holgorsen, and he’s 7-13 in two years at the helm.  This is a school that made it public that 8-4 records were grounds for divorce with its head coach, so Holgorsen better hope he can turn things around this year, or he might receive a lump sum alimony check with orders to vacate the premises.

An Air Raid style offense that struggles to pass the ball is an anomaly.  Houston also had a problem holding onto the ball in 2020, and the defense was overly tasked due to a lot of short offensive drives that turned the ball over via fumble, interception, or punt.  

What hurt the Cougars most last year was never knowing if they were going to play from week to week.  They were like understudies when the star had a cold.  They prepared all week and then found out on Friday that their game was cancelled.  It happened eight times!

Quarterback Clayton Tune has the potential to run the Air Raid.  Houston needs to have an extra receiver step up to complement Jeremy Singleton and Nathaniel Dell.  

Defensively, we expect the UH stop troops to show considerable progress this year, especially if the Cougars cut down on the turnovers.  They gave up slightly less than 400 yards per game and 32 points per game in 2020. With most of the top players returning, those numbers could drop to 350-370 yards and 25-28 points per game.  And, what might that bring UH?  Maybe an 8-4 record, and we know what that did to former coaches Major Applewhite and Tony Levine.

Tulsa was the big surprise of the AAC last year.  After multiple years languishing near or at the bottom of the standings, the Golden Hurricane discovered how to play defense.  TU surrendered 21.6 points and 333 yards per game, holding Oklahoma State to 16, Navy to 6, undefeated league champion Cincinnati to 27, and Mississippi State to 28 in the Armed Forces Bowl.

That defense returns 10 starters, so opponents are going to be in for a fight trying to score points on the Hurricane in 2021.  If the offense can live up to expectations, then TU might repeat with another trip to the AAC Championship Game.  Quarterback Davis Brin came off the bench as the backup last year against Tulane and led TU on three consecutive touchdown drives, and then led his team to an overtime victory.  If he can play an entire season like he did in that quarter and a half, Tulsa might be playing at Cincinnati in November with first place on the line.

Tulane has slowly improved year by year during coach Willie Fritz’s tenure in the Crescent City.  Now entering year six, Fritz has a minor defensive rebuild to perform, but the offense should remain potent after averaging 35 points per game and leading the league in rushing.  This is a team that may be a year away from contending for a spot in the conference championship game, and we expect the Green Wave to remain a .500 team this year.

East Carolina coach Mike Houston was the Nick Saban of FCS football during his tenure at James Madison.  Prior to that, he did the inevitable and won at The Citadel.  After a 4-8 record in year one at ECU, his 2020 shortened season record of 3-6 included consecutive wins over Temple and SMU to finish the 2020 season.  This just might be the year the Pirates cross the .500 threshold and return to a bowl for the first time since 2014.  10 starters return to both sides of the ball.  Houston’s short passing game is almost an aerial version of Woody Hayes’ three yards and a cloud of dust.  By spreading the field and throwing quick passes for 3 to 7 yards with an occasional run after catch of another 10-15 yards, it can be difficult to bend and not break for any defense.

The key will be the defense.  If the more experienced stop side can shave a touchdown off its 2020 average, that might be enough for the Pirates to break even in the league.  The problem is that ECU plays Appalachian State, South Carolina, and Marshall out of conference.

SMU enjoyed a 7-3 season that ended with a Frisco Bowl bid that never came to fruition due to Covid.  With nine starters returning to the attack side, one would think that the Mustangs are poised to top their 39 points per game average.  But, the biggest reason why this team moved the ball with relative ease last year is one of the two not returning.  Former Oklahoma backup Tanner Mordecai might be a talented passer, but he isn’t going to match what Shane Buechele did in Dallas.  With an expected drop in offense, and a defense that at best will be as good as 2020, expect the Mustangs to take a step backward this year, but they could still earn a bowl bid.

Since Justin Fuente won 19 games his last two years at Memphis and then took the Virginia Tech job, pundits have predicted the downfall of the Tigers’ fortunes.  Mike Norvell replaced Fuente and guided the Tigers to a Cotton Bowl berth before he took the Florida State job two years ago.  Ryan Silverfield took over last year, and during Covid, UM’s best offensive players opted out.  Memphis still managed to put together an 8-3 record that included a bowl win over Florida Atlantic.

Now, the Tigers face an issue at quarterback as former QB Brady White gambled on the NFL Draft, went undrafted, signed a free agent contract with the Tennessee Titans, and did not make it to the preseason.  Two transfers from Power 5 schools expect to vie for the starting QB job this year.  Former Arizona Wildcat Grant Gunnell and former LSU Tiger Peter Parrish are competing for the job, and we expect Gunnell to be under center when Memphis runs its first play of the 2021 season.  Considering that he had very little help at Arizona, as the Wildcats struggled to compete in the Pac-12, Gunnell looked decent enough to believe he can guide Memphis to a possible break-even or slightly winning record.

South Florida hired former Clemson offensive coordinator Jeff Scott to try to return the Bulls’ program to where it was in the prior decade.  Unfortunately, Scott couldn’t bring any of Clemson’s All-Americans to Tampa.  After going 1-8 with the lone win coming against FCS The Citadel, there is nowhere to go but up for the Bulls this year.  The offense has a chance to be improved this year, but there’s one small problem.  Scott still does not know who will be his starting quarterback as August practices have been underway for a week.  The defense is missing several key parts from a unit that was downright weak in 2020.  Against FBS competition, USF gave up 44.1 points and more than 450 yards per game.  

USF has a difficult schedule this year with games out of conference against North Carolina State, Florida, and BYU.  Winning three games would be considered a major advancement this year.

Navy was one of the most disappointing teams last year, but Coach Ken Niumtalolo failed to get the Midshipmen ready to play to start the season due to Covid concerns.  After an opening game pasting at the hands of BYU, Navy rebounded to get to 3-2, but then they dropped their final five games, scoring just 13 points in the last three.

The 2021 picture is anything but rosy for Navy.  The offense suffered severe losses, as players that would normally come back for an extra year at other schools are starting their military commitment.  When a triple option team has to break in a new quarterback, two new slotbacks, and three new offensive linemen, it is expected that the offense will suffer a drop in production.  Navy only scored 16.6 points per game and rushed for just 178 yards per game, an all-time low in Niumatololo’s 13 years.  Now, Navy embarks on a 2021 season with its toughest schedule in many years.  Marshall, Air Force, Notre Dame, and Army represent one of the toughest out of conference slates in all of FBS football, as all four should earn bowls this year.  This looks like a rough year in Annapolis.

After several really good years under Al Golden, Steve Addazio, Matt Rhule, and Geoff Collins, Temple looked like they pulled off a minor coup when they hired former Northern Illinois head coach Rod Carey to keep the good times rolling in Philly.  After an 8-5 season in 2019, Temple looked more like the 2003 and 2004 program that was kicked out of the old Big East Conference last year.  A 1-6 season almost became an 0-7 season, but the Owls benefitted from USF mistakes to pull out a 2-point win.

One would think that the program couldn’t be worse than last year, but the Owls have major rebuilding projects on both sides of the ball this year.

On the positive side, if you can call it that, Temple was one of the most affected teams by Covid last year.  They almost didn’t play at all and only played their first game in Mid-October, losing narrowly to a Navy team playing its fourth game of the season.  2021 should be another tough one at Lincoln Financial Field.

Here is how the American Athletic media voted at the preseason conference meetings.

2021 American Athletic Conference Preseason Media Poll

		Team (First-Place Votes)	Points
	1.	Cincinnati (22)	262
	2.	UCF (2)	241
	3.	SMU	188
	4.	Houston	181
	5.	Memphis	168
	6.	Tulsa	153
	7.	Tulane	132
	8.	East Carolina	85
		Navy	85
	10.	Temple	46
	11.	South Florida	43

The PiRate Ratings are not that different.

American Athletic Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Cincinnati	116.3	115.3	118.0	116.5
UCF	102.5	101.2	104.8	102.8
Houston	101.1	99.5	101.6	100.7
Tulsa	100.2	100.3	99.7	100.1
Tulane	98.8	97.5	100.6	99.0
East Carolina	95.3	94.3	96.2	95.3
SMU	94.3	95.4	95.4	95.0
Memphis	92.4	92.8	94.3	93.2
USF	91.0	89.7	90.6	90.4
Navy	90.8	90.0	90.3	90.3
Temple	80.6	82.4	81.9	81.6
AAC Averages	96.7	96.2	97.6	96.8

The PiRate Ratings are not designed to predict won-loss records for a season, as they have a use by date of the next week’s games.  Nevertheless, we issue predictions just for the fun of it.

American Athletic	Conf.	Overall
Cincinnati	8-0	12-1*
Central Florida	6-2	9-4
Houston	6-2	10-2
Tulsa	6-2	8-4
Memphis	5-3	8-4
Tulane	4-4	6-6
East Carolina	4-4	5-7
SMU	3-5	6-6
Navy	1-7	2-10
South Florida	1-7	2-10
Temple	0-8	2-10
* Cincinnati picked to win AAC Championship Game

Sunday Morning Bracketology

Preliminary to Final Prediction

The PiRates have been busy these last 12 hours rearranging the seed lines and replacing unfortunate at-large teams that were bumped twice yesterday, as Georgetown and Oregon State crashed the Dance party with impressive wins.

Five games remain to be played before the regular season comes to an end, and all five games could affect the final seed lines:

In the first game today, if Colgate beats Loyola of Maryland, the Raiders could move up one line, but the bigger possibility is the movement of more than a dozen seeds if Loyola pulls the upset. Colgate figures to be a 13 or 14 seed, but Loyola would be a 16 seed with a win. Colgate is somewhat of another issue, because the Raiders are a Top 10 team according to the NET Ratings, but they did so by facing no serious competition from top 100 teams. We believe the Committee will overrule their own criteria and send Colgate down the seed line.

In game two, St. Bonaventure faces VCU for the Atlantic 10 Championship. We believe both teams are locks to get into the Dance, but the winner and loser could be one seed apart. Or, the Committee might decide that this game doesn’t really matter and keep the two teams where they have them today. This is highly likely, and we are using that belief in our second to last seeding prediction. The Committee will be faced with an afternoon headache, where many teams will have to be shifted to accommodate a potential bid-thief. In fact, they will have two different brackets and keep one depending on what happens later in the day.

LSU and Alabama face off in what brings up memories of the Game of the Year in football, but this is the SEC Basketball Championship Game. Alabama has a sliver of hope to move to the 1-seed line with an impressive win and an Illinois loss in the Big Ten, but we believe they are probably locked in at the 2-seed line. However, should LSU pull off the upset, the Tigers might move up one line and knock somebody back a line.

The big mover and shaker game is the American Athletic Conference Championship Game this afternoon. Cincinnati could steal a bid away with an upset of Houston, and at the same time knock the Cougars down a spot in the seedings. If Houston wins, then everything is copacetic.

Because it will be the last game of the day, and both teams are rather secure in their destinies, we believe the Big Ten Conference Championship Game will be meaningless toward the final seedings. Illinois has done the work to earn a 1-seed, while Ohio State has worked their way back to a 2-seed. The Committee will not have time to alter their brackets at this point, so they will choose to ignore this game.

The important news then is who are the teams on the Bubble? Rather than announce 68 teams like in other years, the Committee will announce 72 teams, the regular 68 plus four alternates in case teams like Virginia and Kansas cannot field rosters for the tournament.

As we see it this morning, Drake is the last team in the field, currently an 11-seed looking at a First Four game against possibly UCLA. Should Cincinnati upset Houston today, the Bearcats would be looking at a 12 or 13-seed, and Drake would be dropped to the alternate pool, while Boise St. or Saint Louis would be dropped from the alternate pool to the NIT. Other teams just on the thin line include Utah State and Syracuse, two teams we show in the First Four, and Wichita State and Colorado State, two teams we show in the alternate list.

The First Four seedings moved from 12 to 11 last night when Georgetown and Oregon State kicked through the Dance hall door. The Hoyas and Beavers cannot be 11 seeds. We slotted them both on the 12-seed line, but we are not totally convinced yet that they will remain there. Doing a little research, the last time a power conference team with a similar record crashed the party like this, Georgia earned a 14-seed. Because teams like Colgate, Winthrop, UNCG, and UCSB are capable of moving up a line, there is a chance for chaos if Cincinnati wins today, because the Bearcats are not deserving of a 12-seed and maybe not even a 13-seed.

Here is how our field looks this morning with Cincinnati not in the Tournament.

Date	3/14/2021	Morning Edition
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Gonzaga	Baylor	Illinois	Michigan
2	Ohio St.	Alabama	Iowa	Houston
3	Oklahoma St.	Arkansas	Kansas	Texas
4	West Virginia	Purdue	Florida St.	Virginia
5	Tennessee	Villanova	Creighton	USC
6	Colorado	Texas Tech	LSU	Missouri
7	BYU	Oklahoma	Oregon	Connecticut
8	Clemson	San Diego St.	Wisconsin	Florida
9	Virginia Tech	Loyola (Chi.)	Rutgers	North Carolina
10	Georgia Tech	St. Bonaventure	Maryland	VCU
11	Louisville	Michigan St.	UCLA	Syracuse	Utah St.	Drake
12	Oregon St.	Georgetown	UCSB	Winthrop
13	Ohio U	Liberty	UNCG	North Texas
14	Colgate	Morehead St.	Abilene Christian	E. Washington
15	Cleveland St.	Drexel	Grand Canyon	Iona
16	Oral Roberts	Hartford	Norfolk St.	Mount St. Mary’s	Texas Southern	Appalachian St.

Four Alternates

69	Wichita St.
70	Colorado St.
71	Saint Louis
72	Boise St.

Note: We have already begun putting our

Bracketnomics Data into a spreadsheet, and we will

have it completed late tonight. We will then spend

Monday looking at the data and be ready to reveal

our opinions on the field on Tuesday. Look for our

annually most read post to publish

Tuesday afternoon, approximately 3 PM Eastern

Daylight Time, giving you plenty of time to read and

then fill out the brackets in your competitions.