PiRate Ratings Picks For November 14-18, 2019

Your 1962 New York Mets of Selections

The lovable 1962 New York Mets won 40 games in their initial season in Major League Baseball.  There were a couple of star players, and the rest of the roster belonged in the International League.  

That’s how our selections have fared this year.  A couple of times, we came up with some incredible wins on some long shot picks, but the rest of the time, our picks belonged in the bush leagues.

The good thing about the Mets was that eventually 1969 came, and they performed miracles in winning the World Series.  Of course, having player development that brought them Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan, Cleon Jones, Jerry Grote, and Bud Harrelson, as well as some nice acquisitions in Tommie Agee and Donn Clendenon, made their roster quite strong.  The PiRate Ratings have not developed any young talent in the last few weeks with hopes that a wagering week like 1969 will create a second miracle.

On the other hand, this has historically been the week that our ratings have enjoyed the most over the last 10 years.  The third week of November has brought us our highest return on imaginary investment (our picks are for entertainment purposes and never actually wagered on by us) of the season.

Three years ago, we hit on some outrageous parlays and outright picks against the spread, making a slight ROI on the year into a windfall profit margin.  Two years ago, we turned a slight deficit on the year into a nice profit that when combined with the bowl season gave us another year in the black.  Last year, we went from large deficit to almost break even after this week.

You can see the trend.  Every year, this week turned the momentum in our direction, but each year, this week reversed more malaise than the previous season.  In 2019, we find ourselves so deep in the whole that even the best ever finish on this week will still leave us well in the red.

So, remember, even though  this week has been rather successful for us in the past, please DO NOT WAGER your money on what you will read below.  If we have not faith in these picks, why should you?

Disclaimer: This does not apply to those handful of Smarts that somehow take our spreads and other data and make money off them somehow in Nevada and in the Caribbean.  How you do it, we do not know.  But, we do know that a group of Smarts uses our ratings and consistently beats the books.  

This week, we are going to issue a few less choices overall, but this is because we feel the heat on us.  This has been a winning week so many times for us that we spent an extra 10 minutes or so per selection looking them over.  We found a couple of special teasers that cross over the important spread numbers.  We isolated on some money line parlays that we feel strong about.

As for our experimental Davey19 system, the biggest difference in the line and its predicted score just so happened to pop up this week.  There is a reason for this.  The oddsmakers definitely consider psychological factors when making the line.  Davey19 has no personality.  Davey is a computer program with no emotion.  

What game are we talking about?  The Iowa-Minnesota game in Iowa City has the Gophers playing on the road in a tough environment coming off their monumental home win over Penn State.  The oddsmakers have Iowa favored in this game as a trap for Minnesota.  Davey19 strictly picks games when its experimental spread differs from the line by more than 3.5 points.  Davey19 says Minnesota is a touchdown better than Iowa at Kinnick Stadium.  That’s a full 10 points different.  Minnesota might indeed suffer a letdown, but 10 points of letdown is a lot.  And, the Gophers aren’t just playing a game following an upset win.  They have a lot more to play for now.  They have the Playoffs in their sites, and for now, every game is the biggest game in school history since Sandy Stephens, Roger Hagberg, and Bobby Bell played for the #3 Gophers against #1 Iowa in 1960.  Yes, this is the biggest game in Minnesota history since they played Iowas 59 years ago and basically secured the national championship with a convincing win over the #1 team.

Without further adieu, here are our picks for the week.

 

PiRate Picks

College Money Line Parlays

 

#1–3 Games at +142

Winner	Loser
Virginia Tech	Georgia Tech
Georgia Southern	UL-Monroe
Middle Tennessee	Rice

 

#2–3 Games at +148

Winner	Loser
Marshall	Louisiana Tech
Florida	Missouri
Kansas St.	West Virginia

 

#3–4 Games at +133

Winner	Loser
Michigan	Michigan St.
Kentucky	Vanderbilt
Duke	Syracuse
Texas A&M	South Carolina

 

#4–2 Games at +134

Winner	Loser
Notre Dame	Navy
Georgia	Auburn

 

#5–3 Games at +151

Winner	Loser
Memphis	Houston
Air Force	Colorado St.
Louisville	N. Carolina St.

 

NFL 10-Point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Minnesota	Denver	0.5	Minnesota
Oakland	Cincinnati	0.5	Oakland
Chicago	LA Rams	3.5	LA Rams

 

NFL 13-Point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Cleveland	Pittsburgh	16	Pittsburgh
Tampa Bay	New Orleans	7.5	New Orleans
Atlanta	Carolina	7.5	Carolina
Washington	N.Y. Jets	14.5	N.Y. Jets

 

Davey19

An Experimental College Football Selection System

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Fresno St.	San Diego St.	1	San Diego St.
Ball St.	Central Michigan	2.5	Ball St.
USC	California	6.5	USC
TCU	Texas Tech	3.5	Texas Tech
Southern Miss.	UTSA	17	UTSA
LSU	Ole Miss	21	Ole Miss
Iowa	Minnesota	3	Minnesota

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings Picks For November 7-11, 2019

Welcome to Thursday Comedy Relief.  It’s official now: this is the worst season in the 21st Century for PiRate Picks.  As we always tell you, these picks are free and maybe not worth what you pay for them.  In past years, we have had better access to information that has been unavailable to us, and so these picks are not going to be as reliable as when we were actually winning consistently.

We know that some of you reading this have discovered the little “secret” system in our regular weekly ratings that through super computer programming, you can come up with a half-dozen or so picks that are rewarding you with better than 62% wins.  It’s so secret, that we do not know the real particulars, and we unwisely recommended that you not tell us how you are doing it, because it might be too tempting to try it ourselves and then lose our mortgage payments (figuratively, since we burned our mortgage some time ago).

This is the absolute best week for college football to date.  This week’s games between Alabama and LSU, preceded by Minnesota and Penn State, and including Baylor-TCU, Iowa State-Oklahoma, and even including the best FCS game of the year and the celebration of the 150th anniversary of college football–undefeated Princeton versus undefeated Dartmouth at Yankee Stadium, we know that a lot of you love to add a little excitement when watching these top games.

Please, please, please, disregard our selections when considering whether or not you will wager on these games.  We are hitting 48% in our selections this year.  That’s total crappy status.  You cannot win at 48%, because even if you wager the exact opposite, at 52% you still lose.  None of your reading this feature are one of those folks with the supercomputer winning on 63+% of the wagers that our ratings somehow pop up 6-10 games per week, and our selections below are not part of that system.

 

This Week’s PiRate Picks

College Games

10-point Teasers

 

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Florida St.	Boston College	11	Boston College
Ohio St.	Maryland	32	Ohio St.
Michigan St.	Illinois	24.5	Illinois
Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Florida	Vanderbilt	16.5	Florida
Ole Miss	N. Mexico St.	38.5	N. Mexico St.
Kentucky	Tennessee	11	Tennessee
Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Georgia	Ole Miss	6.5	Georgia
Virginia	Georgia Tech	26	Georgia Tech
BYU	Liberty	27	Liberty

 

13-Point Teasers

 

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Texas Tech	West Virginia	15.5	West Virginia
Miami (Fla.)	Louisville	19.5	Louisville
Wake Forest	Virginia Tech	15.5	Virginia Tech
Penn St.	Minnesota	20	Minnesota
Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Northwestern	Purdue	15.5	Purdue
Charlotte	UTEP	Pk	Charlotte
Baylor	TCU	10.5	TCU
Oklahoma	Iowa St.	1.5	Oklahoma

 

College Money Line Parlay –4 games at +268

 

Winner	Loser
Louisiana Tech	North Texas
Fresno St.	Utah St.
Notre Dame	Duke
Washington	Oregon St.

 

NFL Games

13-Point Teasers

 

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
LA Chargers	Oakland	14.5	Oakland
New Orleans	Atlanta	Pk	New Orleans
Cincinnati	Baltimore	3	Baltimore
Carolina	Green Bay	8	Green Bay
Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Chicago	Detroit	15.5	Detroit
Miami	Indianapolis	2.5	Indianapolis
N.Y. Jets	N.Y. Giants	10.5	N.Y. Giants
Tampa Bay	Arizona	17.5	Arizona

 

Money Line Parlay –2 Games at +149

 

Winner	Loser
N.Y. Giants	N.Y. Jets
Green Bay	Carolina

 

 

Davey19 Experimental Picks

 

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Louisiana	Coastal Carolina	14.5	Coastal Carolina
Michigan St.	Illinois	15	Illinois
Boise St.	Wyoming	13.5	Wyoming
Alabama	LSU	5.5	Alabama
Troy	Georgia Southern	3	Georgia Southern
Kentucky	Tennessee	1	Tennessee
Louisiana Tech	North Texas	5	Louisiana Tech

 

 

PiRate College Football Ratings: November 3, 2019

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Tuesday	November 5
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Toledo	Kent St.	2.8	3.2	3.2
Western Michigan	Ball St.	10.9	10.5	10.8
Wednesday	November 6
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Ohio U	Miami (O)	7.4	7.8	7.5
Thursday	November 7
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Coastal Carolina	Louisiana	-11.7	-10.7	-12.1
South Florida	Temple	-3.9	-1.8	-4.3
Friday	November 8
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Oregon St.	Washington	-11.6	-10.2	-12.9
Tulsa	Central Florida	-18.6	-17.1	-18.3
Saturday	November 9
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Alabama	LSU	9.2	8.4	9.9
Arizona St.	USC	2.9	1.8	3.1
Arkansas	Western Kentucky	5.8	5.1	3.9
Army	Massachusetts	38.5	36.9	39.1
Boise St.	Wyoming	9.9	7.7	9.6
Boston College	Florida St.	2.6	2.4	3.0
BYU	Liberty	17.2	15.9	17.4
California	Washington St.	-7.1	-6.7	-7.3
Cincinnati	Connecticut	38.8	34.5	40.2
Colorado	Stanford	-5.5	-5.1	-5.6
Duke	Notre Dame	-7.7	-6.5	-7.3
Florida	Vanderbilt	28.5	26.9	29.3
Florida Atlantic	Florida Int’l.	9.4	9.5	10.9
Fresno St.	Utah St.	-1.0	0.9	-1.2
Georgia	Missouri	18.1	18.6	18.6
Hawaii	San Jose St.	12.0	11.5	11.1
Kentucky	Tennessee	2.2	1.0	2.0
Louisiana Tech	North Texas	6.4	7.1	6.2
Miami (Fla.)	Louisville	10.7	10.4	11.8
Michigan St.	Illinois	14.0	12.1	13.9
Minnesota	Penn St.	-3.9	-3.1	-4.5
New Mexico	Air Force	-21.4	-20.3	-23.4
North Carolina St.	Clemson	-35.7	-33.8	-36.9
Northwestern	Purdue	1.5	0.5	0.7
Ohio St.	Maryland	42.4	42.6	44.9
Oklahoma	Iowa St.	11.8	10.3	11.2
Old Dominion	UTSA	0.7	-1.1	0.9
Ole Miss	New Mexico St.	33.0	30.0	32.9
San Diego St.	Nevada	14.7	14.9	15.2
SMU	East Carolina	26.3	24.6	27.0
South Carolina	Appalachian St.	8.1	7.4	8.1
Southern Miss.	UAB	7.0	4.0	6.5
TCU	Baylor	-4.1	-1.7	-3.2
Texas	Kansas St.	0.7	1.0	0.6
Texas St.	South Alabama	9.8	7.8	9.8
Troy	Georgia Southern	-2.9	-2.1	-3.5
UL-Monroe	Georgia St.	-4.1	-5.0	-4.3
UTEP	Charlotte	-15.1	-11.5	-14.9
Virginia	Georgia Tech	15.8	17.6	15.9
Virginia Tech	Wake Forest	-1.5	-1.0	-1.5
West Virginia	Texas Tech	1.2	0.7	1.6
Wisconsin	Iowa	4.3	5.7	4.3

 

Special Game–150th Anniversary of College Football

Dartmouth and Princeton will play Saturday at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx at 3:30 PM EST.  The game is available on ESPNU, and both teams sport perfect 7-0 records in the FCS Division.  It will mark the 150th anniversary of college football.  Princeton (known then as the College of New Jersey until 1896) and Rutgers met for the first college game in November 6, 1869, and Rutgers won that game 6 goals to 4.

This might be the most important Ivy League game since 8-0-0 Harvard and 8-0-0 Yale battled to an unbelievable 29-29 tie to conclude the 1968 season.  Yale led 29-13 with less than a minute to play, and Harvard scored twice with successful two-point conversions to tie the game and claim part of the Ivy League Championship.

Dartmouth and Princeton have been the top two programs in recent Ivy League history.  Both teams have enjoyed some incredible seasons in the distant past as well.  The 1970 Darmouth team was the best in Ivy League history, as they won the Lambert Trophy for best overall team from the East and finished ranked in the top 20 in the nation after  finishing 9-0.  That Dartmouth team surrendered just 42 points all season, but they didn’t give up a point in their final four games.

Princeton was one of the final teams in major college football to use the old Single Wing offense.  The Tigers went 9-0 and won the Ivy League in 1964, but their 1950 and 1951 teams that went undefeated finished number six in the AP Poll, and star back Dick Kazmaier won the 1951 Heisman Trophy.

The Ivy League isn’t Division 1 any more, and the champion doesn’t even get to go to the FCS Playoffs, but this is still an incredible game worth watching if you have a second monitor to watch in addition to that other 3:30 PM game in Tuscaloosa, AL.

The PiRate Ratings do not rate FCS teams the same way as we rate FBS teams.  We can estimate a power rating based on a former PiRate Formula, which we used from 1980 to 1996.

The estimate for this game is: 

Dartmouth 19

Princeton 16

 

 

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

#	Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	Ohio St.	139.0	138.1	140.1	139.1
2	Clemson	135.3	133.0	136.3	134.9
3	Alabama	135.6	132.5	136.3	134.8
4	L S U	129.4	127.1	129.3	128.6
5	Georgia	126.7	124.8	126.7	126.1
6	Penn St.	124.9	124.1	125.2	124.8
7	Utah	123.7	122.6	124.5	123.6
8	Oklahoma	123.5	122.7	123.2	123.1
9	Michigan	123.0	121.6	123.3	122.6
10	Auburn	122.5	120.8	122.3	121.9
11	Oregon	121.2	121.3	122.5	121.7
12	Florida	122.8	119.9	122.3	121.6
13	Wisconsin	120.4	120.0	120.3	120.2
14	Iowa	119.1	117.3	119.0	118.4
15	Minnesota	118.1	117.9	117.8	117.9
16	Notre Dame	116.4	114.7	116.0	115.7
17	Texas A&M	116.2	114.6	115.1	115.3
18	Iowa St.	114.8	115.4	115.0	115.1
19	Washington	114.3	114.0	115.3	114.5
20	Central Florida	113.5	112.8	114.2	113.5
21	Baylor	113.5	113.5	112.8	113.3
22	Washington St.	113.0	112.2	113.5	112.9
23	Kansas St.	112.3	112.2	112.3	112.3
24	Michigan St.	112.7	111.8	112.2	112.2
25	Mississippi St.	110.8	107.5	114.7	111.0
26	South Carolina	111.7	110.0	111.1	110.9
27	Missouri	111.6	109.2	111.1	110.6
28	Indiana	110.6	109.6	110.3	110.2
29	Oklahoma St.	110.0	110.7	109.7	110.1
30	Texas	109.9	110.2	109.9	110.0
31	Tennessee	109.5	109.3	108.6	109.1
32	T C U	107.3	109.8	107.6	108.2
33	Kentucky	108.7	107.3	107.6	107.9
34	Virginia	107.7	107.8	107.9	107.8
35	U S C	107.3	107.8	107.6	107.6
36	Miami (Fla.)	107.2	106.8	108.3	107.4
37	Arizona St.	107.2	106.5	107.7	107.2
38	Cincinnati	107.0	106.0	107.4	106.8
39	Wake Forest	106.5	106.0	107.0	106.5
40	SMU	106.2	105.9	107.1	106.4
41	Memphis	105.9	105.9	106.7	106.2
42	Appalachian St.	106.6	105.6	106.0	106.1
43	Ole Miss	106.4	105.4	106.3	106.0
44	Boise St.	106.0	105.9	106.1	106.0
45	Pittsburgh	105.7	105.3	106.0	105.7
46	North Carolina	105.4	105.2	106.1	105.6
47	Duke	105.7	105.1	105.6	105.5
48	Air Force	103.7	105.0	104.5	104.4
49	Texas Tech	104.4	104.6	103.5	104.2
50	Stanford	104.0	103.3	103.7	103.7
51	Florida St.	103.6	103.5	103.6	103.6
52	Purdue	103.6	103.4	102.9	103.3
53	BYU	103.2	103.2	103.4	103.3
54	Boston College	103.2	102.9	103.6	103.2
55	Nebraska	103.1	103.6	102.3	103.0
56	California	102.8	102.4	103.3	102.8
57	West Virginia	102.7	102.3	102.1	102.3
58	Virginia Tech	102.0	102.0	102.5	102.2
59	Illinois	101.7	102.6	101.3	101.9
60	Northwestern	102.5	101.4	101.2	101.7
61	U C L A	101.7	101.6	101.5	101.6
62	Louisiana	101.3	101.6	101.4	101.4
63	Tulane	99.7	100.5	100.2	100.1
64	Oregon St.	99.8	100.8	99.5	100.0
65	Wyoming	99.0	101.2	99.6	99.9
66	Louisville	99.6	99.4	99.5	99.5
67	Navy	97.9	100.5	98.9	99.1
68	Utah St.	99.2	98.4	99.8	99.1
69	Maryland	99.6	98.5	98.2	98.8
70	Western Michigan	98.8	97.9	98.7	98.5
71	San Diego St.	97.9	99.6	97.7	98.4
72	Temple	98.3	97.5	99.1	98.3
73	Syracuse	98.5	97.7	97.8	98.0
74	Houston	97.0	97.9	99.1	98.0
75	Georgia Southern	96.9	96.7	96.4	96.7
76	Arizona	96.7	96.5	96.2	96.5
77	North Carolina St.	96.6	96.2	96.5	96.4
78	Vanderbilt	97.3	96.0	96.0	96.4
79	Florida Atlantic	95.6	95.5	96.9	96.0
80	Kansas	95.5	96.5	95.4	95.8
81	Fresno St.	95.2	96.2	95.6	95.7
82	Hawaii	95.2	96.6	94.3	95.4
83	Colorado	95.5	95.2	95.1	95.2
84	Georgia Tech	94.8	93.2	95.0	94.3
85	Ohio	94.4	93.5	94.9	94.3
86	Southern Miss.	94.6	93.3	94.8	94.2
87	Louisiana Tech	94.0	94.4	94.3	94.2
88	Army	94.1	94.2	93.4	93.9
89	Buffalo	92.9	93.6	94.4	93.6
90	Georgia St.	92.5	93.8	92.2	92.8
91	Tulsa	91.8	92.7	92.9	92.5
92	Arkansas	92.2	92.2	91.6	92.0
93	South Florida	91.4	92.6	91.8	91.9
94	Troy	91.6	92.1	90.5	91.4
95	Arkansas St.	91.3	91.6	91.2	91.4
96	Marshall	90.8	90.4	91.6	90.9
97	U A B	90.1	91.8	90.7	90.9
98	North Texas	90.6	90.2	91.1	90.6
99	Ball St.	90.4	89.9	90.4	90.2
100	Western Kentucky	89.4	90.2	90.8	90.1
101	Liberty	89.5	90.8	89.6	89.9
102	Middle Tennessee	89.8	89.0	89.9	89.6
103	Northern Illinois	89.5	88.7	89.6	89.3
104	Miami (Ohio)	89.5	88.2	89.9	89.2
105	Toledo	88.4	88.7	89.1	88.7
106	Central Michigan	88.2	88.8	89.1	88.7
107	Colorado St.	87.1	90.7	87.7	88.5
108	San Jose St.	87.7	89.5	87.7	88.3
109	Kent St.	87.6	87.4	87.9	87.6
110	Florida Int’l.	87.7	87.5	87.5	87.6
111	Coastal Carolina	87.2	88.4	86.8	87.5
112	Nevada	86.2	87.7	85.5	86.5
113	Charlotte	86.1	86.4	86.5	86.3
114	Louisiana-Monroe	85.8	86.4	85.4	85.9
115	Eastern Michigan	84.2	84.3	84.5	84.4
116	Rutgers	84.1	83.8	82.9	83.6
117	U N L V	83.1	84.7	82.7	83.5
118	East Carolina	82.9	84.3	83.1	83.4
119	Texas St.	81.8	82.3	81.0	81.7
120	New Mexico	79.8	82.2	78.5	80.2
121	Rice	79.5	80.4	78.7	79.6
122	New Mexico St.	76.4	78.5	76.4	77.1
123	Texas-San Antonio	75.6	77.7	75.5	76.2
124	South Alabama	74.5	77.0	73.7	75.1
125	Bowling Green	74.1	73.9	74.1	74.1
126	Old Dominion	73.8	74.0	73.9	73.9
127	Connecticut	71.2	74.5	70.2	72.0
128	U T E P	68.5	72.5	69.1	70.0
129	Akron	66.9	66.7	65.6	66.4
130	Massachusetts	58.6	60.3	57.3	58.7

 

PiRate Ratings For Conference

American Athletic Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Central Florida	113.5	112.8	114.2	113.5	4-1	7-2
Cincinnati	107.0	106.0	107.4	106.8	4-0	7-1
Temple	98.3	97.5	99.1	98.3	2-2	5-3
South Florida	91.4	92.6	91.8	91.9	2-2	4-4
East Carolina	82.9	84.3	83.1	83.4	0-5	3-6
Connecticut	71.2	74.5	70.2	72.0	0-5	2-7
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
SMU	106.2	105.9	107.1	106.4	4-1	8-1
Memphis	105.9	105.9	106.7	106.2	4-1	8-1
Tulane	99.7	100.5	100.2	100.1	3-2	6-3
Navy	97.9	100.5	98.9	99.1	5-1	7-1
Houston	97.0	97.9	99.1	98.0	1-4	3-6
Tulsa	91.8	92.7	92.9	92.5	0-5	2-7
AAC Averages	96.9	97.6	97.6	97.3
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Clemson	135.3	133.0	136.3	134.9	6-0	9-0
Wake Forest	106.5	106.0	107.0	106.5	3-1	7-1
Florida St.	103.6	103.5	103.6	103.6	3-4	4-5
Boston College	103.2	102.9	103.6	103.2	3-3	5-4
Louisville	99.6	99.4	99.5	99.5	3-2	5-3
Syracuse	98.5	97.7	97.8	98.0	0-5	3-6
North Carolina St.	96.6	96.2	96.5	96.4	1-3	4-4
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Virginia	107.7	107.8	107.9	107.8	4-2	6-3
Miami (Fla.)	107.2	106.8	108.3	107.4	3-3	5-4
Pittsburgh	105.7	105.3	106.0	105.7	3-2	6-3
North Carolina	105.4	105.2	106.1	105.6	3-3	4-5
Duke	105.7	105.1	105.6	105.5	2-3	4-4
Virginia Tech	102.0	102.0	102.5	102.2	3-2	5-3
Georgia Tech	94.8	93.2	95.0	94.3	1-4	2-6
ACC Averages	105.1	104.6	105.4	105.0
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	B12	Overall
Oklahoma	123.5	122.7	123.2	123.1	4-1	7-1
Iowa St.	114.8	115.4	115.0	115.1	3-2	5-3
Baylor	113.5	113.5	112.8	113.3	5-0	8-0
Kansas St.	112.3	112.2	112.3	112.3	3-2	6-2
Oklahoma St.	110.0	110.7	109.7	110.1	3-3	6-3
Texas	109.9	110.2	109.9	110.0	3-2	5-3
T C U	107.3	109.8	107.6	108.2	2-3	4-4
Texas Tech	104.4	104.6	103.5	104.2	1-4	3-5
West Virginia	102.7	102.3	102.1	102.3	1-4	3-5
Kansas	95.5	96.5	95.4	95.8	1-5	3-6
Big 12 Averages	109.4	109.8	109.1	109.4
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Ohio St.	139.0	138.1	140.1	139.1	5-0	8-0
Penn St.	124.9	124.1	125.2	124.8	5-0	8-0
Michigan	123.0	121.6	123.3	122.6	4-2	7-2
Michigan St.	112.7	111.8	112.2	112.2	2-3	4-4
Indiana	110.6	109.6	110.3	110.2	4-2	7-2
Maryland	99.6	98.5	98.2	98.8	1-5	3-6
Rutgers	84.1	83.8	82.9	83.6	0-6	2-7
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Wisconsin	120.4	120.0	120.3	120.2	3-2	6-2
Iowa	119.1	117.3	119.0	118.4	3-2	6-2
Minnesota	118.1	117.9	117.8	117.9	5-0	8-0
Purdue	103.6	103.4	102.9	103.3	2-4	3-6
Nebraska	103.1	103.6	102.3	103.0	2-4	4-5
Illinois	101.7	102.6	101.3	101.9	3-3	5-4
Northwestern	102.5	101.4	101.2	101.7	0-6	1-7
Big Ten Averages	111.6	111.0	111.2	111.3
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Florida Atlantic	95.6	95.5	96.9	96.0	4-1	6-3
Marshall	90.8	90.4	91.6	90.9	4-1	6-3
Western Kentucky	89.4	90.2	90.8	90.1	4-2	5-4
Middle Tennessee	89.8	89.0	89.9	89.6	2-3	3-6
Florida Int’l.	87.7	87.5	87.5	87.6	3-3	5-4
Charlotte	86.1	86.4	86.5	86.3	2-3	4-5
Old Dominion	73.8	74.0	73.9	73.9	0-5	1-8
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Southern Miss.	94.6	93.3	94.8	94.2	3-1	5-3
Louisiana Tech	94.0	94.4	94.3	94.2	4-0	7-1
U A B	90.1	91.8	90.7	90.9	3-1	6-2
North Texas	90.6	90.2	91.1	90.6	3-2	4-5
Rice	79.5	80.4	78.7	79.6	0-5	0-9
Texas-San Antonio	75.6	77.7	75.5	76.2	2-2	3-5
U T E P	68.5	72.5	69.1	70.0	0-5	1-7
CUSA Averages	86.1	86.7	86.5	86.4
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	Conf.	Overall
Notre Dame	116.4	114.7	116.0	115.7	x	6-2
BYU	103.2	103.2	103.4	103.3	x	4-4
Army	94.1	94.2	93.4	93.9	x	3-6
Liberty	89.5	90.8	89.6	89.9	x	6-3
New Mexico St.	76.4	78.5	76.4	77.1	x	0-8
Massachusetts	58.6	60.3	57.3	58.7	x	1-8
Indep. Averages	89.7	90.3	89.3	89.8
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Ohio	94.4	93.5	94.9	94.3	3-1	4-4
Buffalo	92.9	93.6	94.4	93.6	3-2	5-4
Miami (Ohio)	89.5	88.2	89.9	89.2	3-1	4-4
Kent St.	87.6	87.4	87.9	87.6	2-2	3-5
Bowling Green	74.1	73.9	74.1	74.1	2-3	3-6
Akron	66.9	66.7	65.6	66.4	0-5	0-9
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Western Michigan	98.8	97.9	98.7	98.5	3-2	5-4
Ball St.	90.4	89.9	90.4	90.2	3-1	4-4
Northern Illinois	89.5	88.7	89.6	89.3	2-3	3-6
Toledo	88.4	88.7	89.1	88.7	2-2	5-3
Central Michigan	88.2	88.8	89.1	88.7	4-2	6-4
Eastern Michigan	84.2	84.3	84.5	84.4	1-4	4-5
MAC Averages	87.1	86.8	87.4	87.1
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Boise St.	106.0	105.9	106.1	106.0	4-0	7-1
Air Force	103.7	105.0	104.5	104.4	4-1	7-2
Wyoming	99.0	101.2	99.6	99.9	3-1	6-2
Utah St.	99.2	98.4	99.8	99.1	3-1	4-4
Colorado St.	87.1	90.7	87.7	88.5	3-2	4-5
New Mexico	79.8	82.2	78.5	80.2	0-5	2-7
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
San Diego St.	97.9	99.6	97.7	98.4	4-1	7-1
Fresno St.	95.2	96.2	95.6	95.7	2-2	4-4
Hawaii	95.2	96.6	94.3	95.4	2-3	5-4
San Jose St.	87.7	89.5	87.7	88.3	1-4	4-5
Nevada	86.2	87.7	85.5	86.5	2-3	5-4
U N L V	83.1	84.7	82.7	83.5	1-5	2-7
MWC Averages	93.3	94.8	93.3	93.8
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Oregon	121.2	121.3	122.5	121.7	6-0	8-1
Washington	114.3	114.0	115.3	114.5	2-4	5-4
Washington St.	113.0	112.2	113.5	112.9	1-4	4-4
Stanford	104.0	103.3	103.7	103.7	3-3	4-4
California	102.8	102.4	103.3	102.8	1-4	4-4
Oregon St.	99.8	100.8	99.5	100.0	3-2	4-4
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Utah	123.7	122.6	124.5	123.6	5-1	8-1
U S C	107.3	107.8	107.6	107.6	4-2	5-4
Arizona St.	107.2	106.5	107.7	107.2	2-3	5-3
U C L A	101.7	101.6	101.5	101.6	4-2	4-5
Arizona	96.7	96.5	96.2	96.5	2-4	4-5
Colorado	95.5	95.2	95.1	95.2	1-5	3-6
Pac-12 Averages	107.3	107.0	107.5	107.3
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Georgia	126.7	124.8	126.7	126.1	4-1	7-1
Florida	122.8	119.9	122.3	121.6	5-2	7-2
South Carolina	111.7	110.0	111.1	110.9	3-4	4-5
Missouri	111.6	109.2	111.1	110.6	2-2	5-3
Tennessee	109.5	109.3	108.6	109.1	2-3	4-5
Kentucky	108.7	107.3	107.6	107.9	2-4	4-4
Vanderbilt	97.3	96.0	96.0	96.4	1-4	2-6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Alabama	135.6	132.5	136.3	134.8	5-0	8-0
L S U	129.4	127.1	129.3	128.6	4-0	8-0
Auburn	122.5	120.8	122.3	121.9	4-2	7-2
Texas A&M	116.2	114.6	115.1	115.3	3-2	6-3
Mississippi St.	110.8	107.5	114.7	111.0	2-4	4-5
Ole Miss	106.4	105.4	106.3	106.0	2-4	3-6
Arkansas	92.2	92.2	91.6	92.0	0-6	2-7
SEC Averages	114.4	112.6	114.2	113.7
Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Appalachian St.	106.6	105.6	106.0	106.1	4-1	7-1
Georgia Southern	96.9	96.7	96.4	96.7	3-1	5-3
Georgia St.	92.5	93.8	92.2	92.8	3-1	6-2
Troy	91.6	92.1	90.5	91.4	1-3	3-5
Coastal Carolina	87.2	88.4	86.8	87.5	1-3	4-4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Louisiana	101.3	101.6	101.4	101.4	3-1	6-2
Arkansas St.	91.3	91.6	91.2	91.4	3-2	5-4
Louisiana-Monroe	85.8	86.4	85.4	85.9	2-2	3-5
Texas St.	81.8	82.3	81.0	81.7	1-3	2-6
South Alabama	74.5	77.0	73.7	75.1	0-4	1-7
SBC Averages	91.0	91.6	90.5	91.0

 

Rating The Conferences

#	League	Average
1	Southeastern	113.7
2	Big Ten	111.3
3	Big 12	109.4
4	Pac-12	107.3
5	Atlantic Coast	105.0
6	American	97.3
7	Mountain West	93.8
8	Sun Belt	91.0
9	Independents	89.8
10	Mid-American	87.1
11	Conference USA	86.4

 

PiRate Rating Guess On Initial Top 4

Prediction on Selection Committee Choices on Tuesday
1	LSU
2	Ohio St.
3	Alabama
4	Penn St.

 

 

Top 5 Group of 5
1	Memphis
2	Cincinnati
3	Boise St.
4	Navy
5	SMU

Playoffs and Bowl Projections

 

Bowl	Conf	Conf	Team	Team
Bahamas	MAC	CUSA	Buffalo	Marshall
Frisco	AAC	At-large	SMU	[Boise St.]
Cure	AAC	SBC	[Liberty]	Arkansas St.
New Mexico	CUSA	MWC	UAB	Hawaii
Boca Raton	AAC	MAC	Tulane	Ohio
Camellia	MAC	SBC	Central Michigan	Georgia St.
Las Vegas	MWC #1	Pac-12	San Diego St.	Oregon St.
New Orleans	CUSA	SBC #1	Louisiana Tech	Louisiana
Gasparilla	AAC	CUSA	Cincinnati	Florida Atlantic
Hawaii	BYU/MWC	AAC	BYU	Navy
Independence	ACC	SEC	Miami (Fla.)	[Southern Miss.]
Quick Lane	ACC	Big Ten	North Carolina	Michigan St.
Military	ACC	AAC	Boston College	Temple
Pinstripe	ACC	Big Ten	Virginia	Michigan
Texas	Big 12	SEC	Texas	Texas A&M
Holiday	Pac-12	Big Ten	USC	Iowa
Cheez-It	Big 12	Pac-12	Iowa St.	Arizona St.
Camping World	ACC	Big 12	Notre Dame	Oklahoma St.
Cotton	At-large	At-large	Memphis	Baylor
First Responder	CUSA	Big 12	Western Kentucky	[Fresno St.]
Redbox	Pac-12	Big Ten	Washington	Illinois
Music City	SEC	ACC	[Ball St.]	Pittsburgh
Orange	ACC	BTen/SEC	Wake Forest	Florida
Belk	ACC	SEC	Virginia Tech	Mississippi St.
Sun	ACC	Pac-12	Louisville	Washington St.
Liberty	Big 12	SEC	TCU	[Stanford]
Arizona	SBC	MWC	Appalachian St.	Air Force
Alamo	Big 12	Pac-12	Kansas St.	Utah
Citrus	SEC	BTen/ACC	Auburn	Wisconsin
Outback	Big Ten	SEC	Penn St.	Tennessee
Rose	Big Ten	Pac-12	Minnesota	Oregon
Sugar	Big 12	SEC	Oklahoma	Georgia
Birmingham	AAC	SEC	Central Florida	[Duke]
Taxslayer/Gator	SEC	Big Ten	Kentucky	Indiana
Idaho Potato	MAC	MWC	Toledo	Utah St.
Armed Forces	Big Ten	MWC	Nebraska	Wyoming
Dollar General	MAC	SBC	Western Michigan	Georgia Southern
FBS PLAYOFFS
Fiesta	Top 4	Top 4	Ohio St.	Clemson
Peach	Top 4	Top 4	Alabama	LSU
Championship	Fiesta	Peach	Ohio St.	Alabama
Teams in [Brackets] are at-large selections

 

 

This Is The Weekend

We don’t really need to say anything.  If you are reading this publication, you already know how incredible this weekend will be in college football.  On a typical November 9 in prior years, the incredible Princeton-Dartmouth game at Yankee Stadium might be the marquee game of the weekend.  Unfortunately, it starts at the same time as the biggie at Bryant-Denny.  Let’s take a brief look at the games that may make you want to stay home on Saturday, throw some logs on the fireplace, enjoy your favorite snacks and beverages, and watch two to three games at the same time.

 

12 Noon EST

 

 

Penn St. (8-0) at Minnesota (8-0)–ABC

The winner stays in the hunt for a Playoff spot, while the loser probably falls out of the Rose Bowl race.  Minnesota hasn’t played in a November game that had this type of importance since they played at Purdue in November of 1967 with a Rose Bowl bid on the line.  Purdue clobbered the Gophers that day, and even though Minnesota beat undefeated Indiana the following week, when the season ended in a three-way tie for first, Indiana received the Rose Bowl bid because Minnesota and Purdue had been in the Rose Bowl more recently (It was the Hoosiers’ only Rose Bowl invitation).

Penn State has been in the Rose Bowl more recently, but the Nittany Lions would consider a trip to Pasadena this year to be a failure.  James Franklin has his team in line for the Playoffs if they could upset Ohio State on the November 23 and then win the Big Ten Championship.  Of course, the same holds true for the Gophers.  Wins over Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin, and then Ohio State would definitely put Minnesota in the Playoffs.  Consider this game the equivalent of a Sweet 16 game in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

 

Baylor (8-0) at TCU (4-4)–FS1

This is a 100% definite trap game for the undefeated Bears.  Baylor hosts Oklahoma on November 16, and no matter how hard Coach Matt Rhule tries to convince his squad that TCU is good enough to beat them, the players are already counting down the days until the Sooners come to Waco.

TCU is on the verge of having to worry about where two more victories will come, so bowl eligibility is not yet a given in Forth Worth.  The Horned Frogs have to win two of their final four and have games at Texas Tech and Oklahoma, as well as a home finale with West Virginia.  They will be underdogs in three of their final four and must upset somebody to get to a bowl.

 

 

3:30 PM EST

 

LSU (8-0) at Alabama (8-0)–CBS

The knock against LSU in recent years was that the Tigers were too conservative on the offensive attack, and defense and running couldn’t beat Alabama and other behemoths.  This year, LSU’s offense can light it up against anybody, including Alabama’s defense.

The rub is that with the increased offensive efficiency and quick scoring passing attack, the Tigers’ defense has been forced to play up to 20 additional snaps per game, and opponents are finding ways to move the ball on the former tough defense.

All that’s changed is that LSU wins games 42-27 instead of 27-12.  A 15-point victory is a 15-point victory.  In the SEC, talent at each of the two-deep offenses and defenses just mean more than whether a team can pass the ball for 300 yards and score 30 points or hold the opponents to 250 total yards and 14 points.

Alabama still has the superior overall talent in the two-deeps on both sides of the ball.  In the past, Alabama might have won this game 24-14.  We believe they will continue to dominate this series and win it 45-35.  A 10-point superior team is still 10 points better than the other team.

 

Dartmouth (7-0) vs. Princeton (7-0) @ Yankee Stadium in the Bronx–ESPNU

This is the 150th Anniversary of College Football, so it is worth tuning in to watch when and if the big game is not as exciting.  It isn’t the original Yankee Stadium, but Yankee Stadium has been the site of many great college football games including the incredible Army-Notre Dame game of 1946, which ended 0-0.

 

Kansas St. (6-2) at Texas (5-3)–ESPN

Both teams are 3-2 in the Big 12, and they are still mathematically in the race for the number two spot in the Conference Championship Game.  Kansas State holds the tiebreaker over Oklahoma, so if the Wildcats can win out, and Oklahoma loses to Baylor or Oklahoma State, the Wildcats will play for a chance to go to the Sugar Bowl.

This has been a down year for Texas, and the Longhorns could be falling far enough to be placed in a bowl game in Houston against those Aggies.  The Texas Bowl would love that, but the Longhorns wouldn’t.

 

Illinois (5-4) at Michigan St. (4-4)–FS1

Why do we consider this game so important?  Illinois was given up for dead in early October, as the Illini appeared to be headed to a 6th or 7th place finish in the Big Ten West, and Coach Lovie Smith was probably on the way out.  Illinois had defeated Akron and Connecticut, two of the bottom 10 teams in the nation, and they had lost to Eastern Michigan.  At 2-4, Illinois then upset Wisconsin and followed that up with an impressive win at Purdue and a four-touchdown trouncing of Rutgers.  The Illini need one more victory to go bowling.  They are likely to get it against Northwestern to close out the season, but if Illinois can win at Michigan State, they will move up a couple of places in the bowl pecking order.

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio is going to have to learn how to change or else he could be on his way toward retirement.  Dantonio is one of the lone holdovers to horse and buggy football.  Michigan State plays like it is still 1975, and the team that rushes for 200 yards and holds the other to less than 100 yards is going to win with relative ease.  That’s not how teams win these days.  If Sparty loses this game, there is a better than 50-50 chance that they will not get six wins or go to a bowl.  Even if they win this game, they may only be able to garner the lowly Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit.

 

Louisville (5-3) at Miami (Fla.) (5-4)–FS1

Louisville coach Scott Satterfield should receive some votes for ACC Coach of the Year, as the Cardinals were picked to finish last in the Atlantic Division, and they are most likely going to be bowl eligible.

Miami still has a small chance to win the Coastal Division, but a lot of things have to happen to make that a reality.  First and foremost is that the Hurricanes win their last three games.

The winner of this game becomes bowl eligible, and you should get the best from both teams, which will make this exciting enough to put an auxiliary monitor on this game.

 

4:00 PM EST

 

 

Iowa (6-2) at Wisconsin (6-2)–Fox

Minnesota has not clinched the West Division in the Big Ten, so the winner of this game remains in contention for the flag, since both must still play the Gophers.  If Penn State wins the 12:00 game, then whoever wins this one will get a chance to play Minnesota for first place later in November.

Expect a hard-fought, defensive struggle in this one, and the weather is expected to be cold and windy.  If you like the old blood and guts games of the 1950’s (yes, we know we have some gray-haired readers), then this is the game for you.  It could be one of those 12-10 games.

 

 

7:30 PM EST

 

 

Tennessee (4-5) at Kentucky (4-4)–SEC Network

How about a career saving resurrection?  Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt was one step out the door in Knoxville a month ago.  At 1-4 with losses at home to Georgia State and BYU, the Vols looked like a potentially 2-10 or possible 1-11 team.

Tennessee was reborn after a blowout loss to Georgia.  Wins over Mississippi State, South Carolina, and UAB, and a loss to Alabama that was still in doubt into the fourth quarter has the Vols on the verge of becoming bowl eligible.

Kentucky began the season strong enough to contend for a New Year’s 6 Bowl.  Losing quarterback Terry Wilson probably cost the Wildcats two, possibly three wins to date, and Kentucky’s defense is not strong enough to hold Tennessee below 20 points in Lexington.  Can the Wildcats find some offense that they have not been able to find without Wilson under center?  A loss here will put the K-Cats under .500, but with Vanderbilt and UT-Martin following this game, the blue and white can still get to 6-6.

 

8:00 PM EST

 

 

Iowa State (5-3) at Oklahoma (7-1)–Fox

The last time Iowa State came to Norman, the Cyclones pulled off a major upset.  If they want to make the Big 12 Championship Game, they will have to do it again.  Of course, Oklahoma is coming off a bye week following their upset loss to Kansas State, so the Sooners are likely to play their best game of the season.

The question is, can Oklahoma’s defense stop Iowa State’s offense, and can the Sooners score at least 38 points in this game?

There’s another little issue in this game.  Oklahoma has a date at Baylor next week.  Even coming off a loss and a bye week, some of the Sooners may have a hard time thinking about Iowa State with the undefeated Bears coming up next week.  This should be an exciting game, especially under the lights at Owen Field.

 

 

10:15 PM EST

 

 

Wyoming (6-2) at Boise St. (7-1)–ESPN

Boise State has been a bit off in October and November.  The Broncos are not likely to earn the Group of 5 bid to a NY6 bowl, and they are now playing for their lives in the Mountain Division of the Mountain West.

Wyoming is a no-nonsense hard-hitting team that can wear teams down in the second half.  The Cowboys have enough talent to go to the Field of Blue and move into first place in the division.  If you are a night owl and stay up late on Saturday night watching games from the Rockies and West Coast, this is definitely one you should plan to watch.  Wyoming is coming into this game looking like they are sitting on their best production in the next few weeks.  We have this sneaky suspicion that the Cowboys will be in the lead in the fourth quarter in this game.

 

 

10:30 PM EST

 

 

Nevada (5-4) at San Diego St. (7-1)–ESPN2

San Diego State is in first place in the West Division of the Mountain West, but the Aztecs must play Nevada, Fresno State, and Hawaii in successive weeks, so even though Nevada is just 2-3 in conference play, the Wolf Pack are still alive in the division race.  This should be a relatively close game, and it could be decided on a late turnover or big play.  If you can stay up until 1:45 on the East Coast, you may be rewarded with some excitement to end your college football fix.

PiRate College Football Ratings: October 28, 2019

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Thursday	October 31
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Appalachian St.	Georgia Southern	16.9	16.3	17.3
Baylor	West Virginia	14.9	15.7	15.4
Friday	November 1
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Connecticut	Navy	-20.7	-19.8	-22.6
Saturday	November 2
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Wake Forest	North Carolina St.	6.2	5.9	6.4
Massachusetts	Liberty	-24.7	-23.9	-26.1
Florida Int’l.	Old Dominion	17.4	16.9	17.3
Coastal Carolina	Troy	-2.6	-2.1	-2.3
Georgia Tech	Pittsburgh	-7.6	-9.1	-7.4
Purdue	Nebraska	3.5	2.6	3.7
Central Florida	Houston	19.9	18.3	18.7
Maryland	Michigan	-17.1	-16.4	-18.7
Indiana	Northwestern	7.1	7.1	8.0
Bowling Green	Akron	5.9	5.7	7.0
Illinois	Rutgers	19.3	20.6	19.8
East Carolina	Cincinnati	-24.6	-21.8	-25.2
Syracuse	Boston College	6.6	6.3	5.7
Eastern Michigan	Buffalo	-0.6	-1.1	-1.5
North Carolina	Virginia	1.8	1.6	2.8
Utah St.	BYU	4.4	3.6	5.2
Notre Dame	Virginia Tech	19.2	17.4	18.5
USC	Oregon	-5.7	-5.2	-6.6
UCLA	Colorado	7.9	7.8	7.6
Kansas	Kansas St.	-12.0	-10.9	-11.7
Louisiana	Texas St.	22.1	21.5	22.6
South Carolina	Vanderbilt	17.4	16.9	18.1
Central Michigan	Northern Illinois	-7.2	-5.5	-6.5
Rice	Marshall	-8.4	-6.7	-10.0
Colorado St.	UNLV	4.3	6.5	5.1
Memphis	SMU	2.0	2.1	1.3
Texas A&M	UTSA	44.8	40.6	43.9
Air Force	Army	13.5	14.9	15.5
Arizona	Oregon St.	4.3	3.1	4.6
Tennessee	UAB	22.4	20.0	20.2
Auburn	Ole Miss	21.3	20.4	21.5
Florida (n)	Georgia	-3.5	-4.5	-3.8
Oklahoma St.	TCU	5.7	3.5	4.7
North Texas	UTEP	24.4	19.5	23.9
Tulane	Tulsa	10.9	10.8	10.1
Arkansas	Mississippi St.	-11.2	-7.3	-15.8
Charlotte	Middle Tennessee	-5.2	-4.0	-5.2
Western Kentucky	Florida Atlantic	-1.5	-0.3	-0.8
UL-Monroe	Arkansas St.	-2.6	-2.1	-2.4
Florida St.	Miami (Fla.)	2.1	2.9	1.5
Nevada	New Mexico	8.7	7.4	8.8
Washington	Utah	-6.3	-5.7	-6.2
San Jose St.	Boise St.	-16.1	-13.8	-16.7
Hawaii	Fresno St.	5.4	6.0	4.3
FBS vs.	FCS
Clemson	Wofford	48

 

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

#	Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	Ohio St.	138.7	137.8	139.8	138.8
2	Clemson	135.0	132.7	136.0	134.6
3	Alabama	135.3	132.2	136.0	134.5
4	L S U	129.1	126.8	129.0	128.3
5	Georgia	126.5	124.6	126.4	125.8
6	Penn St.	124.6	123.8	124.9	124.5
7	Utah	123.7	122.6	124.5	123.6
8	Auburn	123.7	122.0	123.7	123.1
9	Oklahoma	123.2	122.4	122.9	122.8
10	Florida	123.0	120.1	122.6	121.9
11	Michigan	121.5	119.9	121.8	121.1
12	Wisconsin	120.1	119.7	120.0	119.9
13	Oregon	118.4	118.4	119.6	118.8
14	Iowa	118.8	117.0	118.7	118.1
15	Minnesota	117.8	117.6	117.5	117.6
16	Notre Dame	117.6	115.8	117.3	116.9
17	Texas A&M	117.4	115.6	116.4	116.5
18	Iowa St.	114.5	115.1	114.7	114.8
19	Washington	114.3	114.0	115.3	114.5
20	Baylor	114.3	114.5	113.9	114.2
21	Central Florida	113.7	113.0	114.5	113.7
22	Washington St.	112.7	111.9	113.2	112.6
23	Michigan St.	112.4	111.5	111.9	111.9
24	South Carolina	111.7	110.0	111.1	110.9
25	Missouri	111.3	108.9	110.8	110.3
26	Kansas St.	110.4	110.3	110.2	110.3
27	Oklahoma St.	110.0	110.5	109.5	110.0
28	U S C	109.6	110.2	110.0	110.0
29	Texas	109.6	109.9	109.6	109.7
30	Mississippi St.	109.1	105.5	113.1	109.2
31	Tennessee	109.5	109.1	108.3	109.0
32	Cincinnati	108.6	107.4	109.2	108.4
33	T C U	107.3	110.0	107.8	108.4
34	Indiana	108.8	107.7	108.4	108.3
35	Appalachian St.	108.7	107.8	108.4	108.3
36	Kentucky	108.4	107.0	107.3	107.6
37	Virginia	107.2	107.2	107.1	107.2
38	SMU	106.7	106.5	107.9	107.0
39	Arizona St.	106.9	106.2	107.4	106.9
40	Boise St.	106.4	106.1	106.7	106.4
41	North Carolina	105.9	105.8	106.9	106.2
42	Memphis	105.7	105.6	106.2	105.8
43	Florida St.	105.6	105.7	105.8	105.7
44	Miami (Fla.)	105.5	104.9	106.4	105.6
45	Pittsburgh	105.6	105.3	105.7	105.5
46	Duke	105.4	104.8	105.3	105.2
47	Air Force	104.3	105.7	105.4	105.1
48	Ole Miss	105.5	104.5	105.2	105.1
49	Northwestern	104.6	103.6	103.4	103.9
50	Texas Tech	104.1	104.3	103.2	103.9
51	Wake Forest	103.8	103.2	104.1	103.7
52	Stanford	103.7	103.0	103.4	103.4
53	Purdue	103.6	103.3	102.9	103.3
54	Nebraska	103.1	103.7	102.3	103.0
55	Syracuse	103.4	102.7	102.8	103.0
56	California	102.5	102.1	103.0	102.5
57	Utah St.	102.5	101.7	103.3	102.5
58	West Virginia	102.4	101.8	101.5	101.9
59	Virginia Tech	101.3	101.4	101.7	101.5
60	Illinois	101.2	102.1	100.6	101.3
61	Louisiana	101.1	101.2	101.0	101.1
62	U C L A	101.0	100.8	100.6	100.8
63	Maryland	101.4	100.5	100.0	100.6
64	Tulane	99.7	100.5	100.1	100.1
65	Boston College	99.8	99.4	100.1	99.8
66	Wyoming	98.7	100.9	99.3	99.6
67	BYU	99.6	99.6	99.6	99.6
68	North Carolina St.	99.6	99.3	99.7	99.5
69	Louisville	99.3	99.1	99.2	99.2
70	Arizona	98.9	98.7	98.6	98.7
71	Western Michigan	98.6	97.7	98.5	98.3
72	San Diego St.	97.6	99.3	97.4	98.1
73	Temple	98.0	97.2	98.8	98.0
74	Oregon St.	97.6	98.6	97.1	97.8
75	Houston	96.8	97.7	98.8	97.7
76	Kansas	96.9	97.9	97.0	97.3
77	Navy	95.9	98.4	96.8	97.1
78	Vanderbilt	97.3	96.0	96.0	96.4
79	Colorado	96.2	96.0	96.0	96.0
80	Hawaii	95.8	97.3	95.0	96.0
81	Fresno St.	94.9	95.8	95.2	95.3
82	Arkansas	94.9	95.2	94.2	94.8
83	Florida Atlantic	94.5	94.2	95.5	94.7
84	Georgia Tech	94.9	93.2	95.3	94.5
85	Georgia Southern	94.8	94.5	94.0	94.5
86	Ohio	94.2	93.3	94.7	94.1
87	Northern Illinois	94.3	93.4	94.5	94.1
88	Southern Miss.	94.4	93.1	94.6	94.0
89	Louisiana Tech	93.8	94.2	94.1	94.0
90	Army	93.8	93.8	92.8	93.5
91	Georgia St.	92.3	93.6	92.0	92.6
92	Tulsa	91.8	92.7	93.0	92.5
93	Troy	92.1	92.7	91.2	92.0
94	Middle Tennessee	91.9	91.1	92.2	91.7
95	South Florida	91.1	92.3	91.5	91.6
96	Western Kentucky	90.5	91.5	92.2	91.4
97	Buffalo	90.5	91.1	91.8	91.1
98	U A B	90.1	92.0	91.0	91.1
99	Arkansas St.	91.1	91.3	90.8	91.1
100	Marshall	90.6	90.0	91.4	90.7
101	North Texas	90.5	89.8	90.8	90.4
102	Ball St.	90.2	89.7	90.2	90.0
103	Miami (Ohio)	89.3	88.0	89.7	89.0
104	Toledo	88.2	88.5	88.9	88.5
105	Liberty	87.9	89.0	88.0	88.3
106	Florida Int’l.	88.3	88.1	88.3	88.2
107	San Jose St.	87.3	89.3	87.1	87.9
108	Eastern Michigan	87.3	87.5	87.8	87.6
109	Kent St.	87.4	87.2	87.7	87.4
110	Colorado St.	85.9	89.6	86.4	87.3
111	Coastal Carolina	87.0	88.1	86.4	87.2
112	Nevada	86.1	87.4	85.2	86.2
113	Louisiana-Monroe	86.0	86.7	85.8	86.2
114	Central Michigan	84.7	85.4	85.5	85.2
115	U N L V	84.6	86.1	84.3	85.0
116	Charlotte	84.3	84.6	84.5	84.5
117	Rutgers	84.9	84.6	83.9	84.5
118	Texas St.	82.0	82.7	81.4	82.0
119	East Carolina	81.0	82.6	81.0	81.5
120	New Mexico	79.9	82.5	78.8	80.4
121	Rice	79.7	80.8	78.9	79.8
122	New Mexico St.	76.2	78.3	76.2	76.9
123	Texas-San Antonio	74.7	77.0	74.5	75.4
124	South Alabama	74.3	76.8	73.5	74.9
125	Connecticut	73.2	76.6	72.3	74.0
126	Old Dominion	73.5	73.7	73.4	73.5
127	Bowling Green	72.7	72.4	72.6	72.6
128	U T E P	68.6	72.9	69.4	70.3
129	Akron	69.4	69.3	68.2	68.9
130	Massachusetts	60.7	62.6	59.4	60.9

 

PiRate Ratings By Conference

American Athletic Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Central Florida	113.7	113.0	114.5	113.7	3-1	6-2
Cincinnati	108.6	107.4	109.2	108.4	3-0	6-1
Temple	98.0	97.2	98.8	98.0	2-2	5-3
South Florida	91.1	92.3	91.5	91.6	2-2	4-4
East Carolina	81.0	82.6	81.0	81.5	0-4	3-5
Connecticut	73.2	76.6	72.3	74.0	0-4	2-6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
SMU	106.7	106.5	107.9	107.0	4-0	8-0
Memphis	105.7	105.6	106.2	105.8	3-1	7-1
Tulane	99.7	100.5	100.1	100.1	2-2	5-3
Houston	96.8	97.7	98.8	97.7	1-3	3-5
Navy	95.9	98.4	96.8	97.1	4-1	6-1
Tulsa	91.8	92.7	93.0	92.5	0-4	2-6
AAC Averages	96.8	97.5	97.5	97.3
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Clemson	135.0	132.7	136.0	134.6	6-0	8-0
Florida St.	105.6	105.7	105.8	105.7	3-3	4-4
Wake Forest	103.8	103.2	104.1	103.7	2-1	6-1
Syracuse	103.4	102.7	102.8	103.0	0-4	3-5
Boston College	99.8	99.4	100.1	99.8	2-3	4-4
North Carolina St.	99.6	99.3	99.7	99.5	1-2	4-3
Louisville	99.3	99.1	99.2	99.2	3-2	5-3
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Virginia	107.2	107.2	107.1	107.2	3-2	5-3
North Carolina	105.9	105.8	106.9	106.2	3-2	4-4
Miami (Fla.)	105.5	104.9	106.4	105.6	2-3	4-4
Pittsburgh	105.6	105.3	105.7	105.5	2-2	5-3
Duke	105.4	104.8	105.3	105.2	2-3	4-4
Virginia Tech	101.3	101.4	101.7	101.5	3-2	5-2
Georgia Tech	94.9	93.2	95.3	94.5	1-3	2-5
ACC Averages	105.2	104.6	105.4	105.1
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	B12	Overall
Oklahoma	123.2	122.4	122.9	122.8	4-1	7-1
Iowa St.	114.5	115.1	114.7	114.8	3-2	5-3
Baylor	114.3	114.5	113.9	114.2	4-0	7-0
Kansas St.	110.4	110.3	110.2	110.3	2-2	5-2
Oklahoma St.	110.0	110.5	109.5	110.0	2-3	5-3
Texas	109.6	109.9	109.6	109.7	3-2	5-3
T C U	107.3	110.0	107.8	108.4	2-2	4-3
Texas Tech	104.1	104.3	103.2	103.9	1-4	3-5
West Virginia	102.4	101.8	101.5	101.9	1-3	3-4
Kansas	96.9	97.9	97.0	97.3	1-4	3-5
Big 12 Averages	109.3	109.7	109.0	109.3
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Ohio St.	138.7	137.8	139.8	138.8	5-0	8-0
Penn St.	124.6	123.8	124.9	124.5	5-0	8-0
Michigan	121.5	119.9	121.8	121.1	3-2	6-2
Michigan St.	112.4	111.5	111.9	111.9	2-3	4-4
Indiana	108.8	107.7	108.4	108.3	3-2	6-2
Maryland	101.4	100.5	100.0	100.6	1-4	3-5
Rutgers	84.9	84.6	83.9	84.5	0-5	2-6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Wisconsin	120.1	119.7	120.0	119.9	3-2	6-2
Iowa	118.8	117.0	118.7	118.1	3-2	6-2
Minnesota	117.8	117.6	117.5	117.6	5-0	8-0
Northwestern	104.6	103.6	103.4	103.9	0-5	1-6
Purdue	103.6	103.3	102.9	103.3	1-4	2-6
Nebraska	103.1	103.7	102.3	103.0	2-3	4-4
Illinois	101.2	102.1	100.6	101.3	2-3	4-4
Big Ten Averages	111.5	110.9	111.1	111.2
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Florida Atlantic	94.5	94.2	95.5	94.7	3-1	5-3
Middle Tennessee	91.9	91.1	92.2	91.7	2-2	3-5
Western Kentucky	90.5	91.5	92.2	91.4	4-1	5-3
Marshall	90.6	90.0	91.4	90.7	3-1	5-3
Florida Int’l.	88.3	88.1	88.3	88.2	2-3	4-4
Charlotte	84.3	84.6	84.5	84.5	1-3	3-5
Old Dominion	73.5	73.7	73.4	73.5	0-4	1-7
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Southern Miss.	94.4	93.1	94.6	94.0	3-1	5-3
Louisiana Tech	93.8	94.2	94.1	94.0	4-0	7-1
U A B	90.1	92.0	91.0	91.1	3-1	6-1
North Texas	90.5	89.8	90.8	90.4	2-2	3-5
Rice	79.7	80.8	78.9	79.8	0-4	0-8
Texas-San Antonio	74.7	77.0	74.5	75.4	2-2	3-4
U T E P	68.6	72.9	69.4	70.3	0-4	1-6
CUSA Averages	86.1	86.7	86.5	86.4
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	Conf.	Overall
Notre Dame	117.6	115.8	117.3	116.9	x	5-2
BYU	99.6	99.6	99.6	99.6	x	3-4
Army	93.8	93.8	92.8	93.5	x	3-5
Liberty	87.9	89.0	88.0	88.3	x	5-3
New Mexico St.	76.2	78.3	76.2	76.9	x	0-8
Massachusetts	60.7	62.6	59.4	60.9	x	1-7
Indep. Averages	89.3	89.8	88.9	89.3
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Ohio	94.2	93.3	94.7	94.1	3-1	4-4
Buffalo	90.5	91.1	91.8	91.1	2-2	4-4
Miami (Ohio)	89.3	88.0	89.7	89.0	3-1	4-4
Kent St.	87.4	87.2	87.7	87.4	2-2	3-5
Bowling Green	72.7	72.4	72.6	72.6	1-3	2-6
Akron	69.4	69.3	68.2	68.9	0-4	0-8
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Western Michigan	98.6	97.7	98.5	98.3	3-2	5-4
Northern Illinois	94.3	93.4	94.5	94.1	2-2	3-5
Ball St.	90.2	89.7	90.2	90.0	3-1	4-4
Toledo	88.2	88.5	88.9	88.5	2-2	5-3
Eastern Michigan	87.3	87.5	87.8	87.6	1-3	4-4
Central Michigan	84.7	85.4	85.5	85.2	3-2	5-4
MAC Averages	87.2	87.0	87.5	87.2
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Boise St.	106.4	106.1	106.7	106.4	3-0	6-1
Air Force	104.3	105.7	105.4	105.1	4-1	6-2
Utah St.	102.5	101.7	103.3	102.5	3-1	4-3
Wyoming	98.7	100.9	99.3	99.6	3-1	6-2
Colorado St.	85.9	89.6	86.4	87.3	2-2	3-5
New Mexico	79.9	82.5	78.8	80.4	0-4	2-6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
San Diego St.	97.6	99.3	97.4	98.1	4-1	7-1
Hawaii	95.8	97.3	95.0	96.0	2-2	5-3
Fresno St.	94.9	95.8	95.2	95.3	1-2	3-4
San Jose St.	87.3	89.3	87.1	87.9	1-3	4-4
Nevada	86.1	87.4	85.2	86.2	1-3	4-4
U N L V	84.6	86.1	84.3	85.0	1-4	2-6
MWC Averages	93.7	95.1	93.7	94.2
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Oregon	118.4	118.4	119.6	118.8	5-0	7-1
Washington	114.3	114.0	115.3	114.5	2-3	5-3
Washington St.	112.7	111.9	113.2	112.6	1-4	4-4
Stanford	103.7	103.0	103.4	103.4	3-3	4-4
California	102.5	102.1	103.0	102.5	1-4	4-4
Oregon St.	97.6	98.6	97.1	97.8	2-2	3-4
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Utah	123.7	122.6	124.5	123.6	4-1	7-1
U S C	109.6	110.2	110.0	110.0	4-1	5-3
Arizona St.	106.9	106.2	107.4	106.9	2-3	5-3
U C L A	101.0	100.8	100.6	100.8	3-2	3-5
Arizona	98.9	98.7	98.6	98.7	2-3	4-4
Colorado	96.2	96.0	96.0	96.0	1-4	3-5
Pac-12 Averages	107.1	106.9	107.4	107.1
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Georgia	126.5	124.6	126.4	125.8	3-1	6-1
Florida	123.0	120.1	122.6	121.9	5-1	7-1
South Carolina	111.7	110.0	111.1	110.9	2-4	3-5
Missouri	111.3	108.9	110.8	110.3	2-2	5-3
Tennessee	109.5	109.1	108.3	109.0	2-3	3-5
Kentucky	108.4	107.0	107.3	107.6	2-4	4-4
Vanderbilt	97.3	96.0	96.0	96.4	1-3	2-5
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Alabama	135.3	132.2	136.0	134.5	5-0	8-0
L S U	129.1	126.8	129.0	128.3	4-0	8-0
Auburn	123.7	122.0	123.7	123.1	3-2	6-2
Texas A&M	117.4	115.6	116.4	116.5	3-2	5-3
Mississippi St.	109.1	105.5	113.1	109.2	1-4	3-5
Ole Miss	105.5	104.5	105.2	105.1	2-3	3-5
Arkansas	94.9	95.2	94.2	94.8	0-5	2-6
SEC Averages	114.5	112.7	114.3	113.8
Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Appalachian St.	108.7	107.8	108.4	108.3	4-0	7-0
Georgia Southern	94.8	94.5	94.0	94.5	2-1	4-3
Georgia St.	92.3	93.6	92.0	92.6	3-1	6-2
Troy	92.1	92.7	91.2	92.0	1-2	3-4
Coastal Carolina	87.0	88.1	86.4	87.2	0-3	3-4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Louisiana	101.1	101.2	101.0	101.1	2-1	5-2
Arkansas St.	91.1	91.3	90.8	91.1	2-2	4-4
Louisiana-Monroe	86.0	86.7	85.8	86.2	2-1	3-4
Texas St.	82.0	82.7	81.4	82.0	1-2	2-5
South Alabama	74.3	76.8	73.5	74.9	0-4	1-7
SBC Averages	90.9	91.5	90.5	91.0

 

Conference Power Ratings
#	League	Average
1	Southeastern	113.8
2	Big Ten	111.2
3	Big 12	109.3
4	Pac-12	107.1
5	Atlantic Coast	105.1
6	American	97.3
7	Mountain West	94.2
8	Sun Belt	91.0
9	Independents	89.3
10	Mid-American	87.2
11	Conference USA	86.4

 

Top 5 Group of 5
1	SMU
2	Appalachian St.
3	Cincinnati
4	Navy
5	Boise St.

 

This Week’s Look At Some Key Contenders Not Getting Enough Publicity

What a difference a strange weekend of football makes!  With Kansas State beating Oklahoma, and LSU taking care of business against Auburn, the playoff picture began to swing toward the SEC getting two teams into the Playoffs.  At the moment, the Big Ten still has three undefeated teams, so there is a chance that the Big Ten could get two teams into the Playoffs if the regular season ends with a 13-0 team and a 12-1 or 11-1 team.

Minnesota will get its chance to prove whether they truly are Golden Gophers or just pests digging a hole in the ground.  If  Minny can beat Penn State, and then the Gophers follow it up with wins at Iowa and at home against Wisconsin, then the least Minnesota could get for a postseason reward would be their first trip to the Rose Bowl since January of 1962.

Having closely watched and diagnosed every scrimmage play in Minnesota’s last two games, this team looks to be legitimate.  The Gophers have an excellent inside-outside running attack.  Their running backs hit the perimeter quickly with speed.  The Gophers can get yards between the tackles as well.  Of all the teams we have seen so far this year, Minnesota’s rushing attack is the most consistent among teams that do not use the option.

The Gopher passing attack is one of the best in the nation with Tanner Morgan just a fraction behind Ohio State’s Justin Fields in league passer efficiency.

The Gophers aren’t all offense.  The Minnesota defense is surrendering just 284 yards (13th best in the nation) and 20 points per game. But, the defense is on a roll.  After giving up 119 points in their first four games, UM has given up just 41 in the last four.

Penn State and Minnesota both have the week off to prepare for this big game.  Unfortunately, this is the same day as the Alabama-LSU game, so it will be second banana to the first of many “game of the years.”

 

Baylor is still undefeated, the final team from the Big 12 that can say that now that Oklahoma has fallen.  In order for Baylor to get to the playoffs, the Bears must run the table, and that means almost assuredly having to beat Oklahoma twice.  A split puts Baylor in either the Sugar Bowl or Cotton Bowl, if that it their only loss.

 

Out in the Pac-12, Utah and Oregon face key games this week.  Utah plays at Washington, while Oregon  plays at USC.  If both division leaders win, then they must be put in contention for a playoff spot if the Conference Championship Game winner is 12-1, while the runner-up is 11-2.

 

In the Group of 5 this week, SMU plays at Memphis, and the winner will be a co-leader with Cincinnati for the Cotton Bowl bid.  Appalachian State is still undefeated, but the Mountaineers will have to win out (including winning at South Carolina), while SMU will have to lose a game, before Appy has a chance to get to the Cotton Bowl. 

 

This Week’s Playoffs and Bowl Projections

American Athletic

SMU held on to a narrow road win against Houston, so the Mustangs are the current top Group of 5 team in line to play at home in the Cotton Bowl.  Memphis is still alive only by a fluke missed chip-shot field goal by Tulsa.  Cincinnati and Navy still have shots at that Cotton Bowl bid, while Central Florida is still around with two losses should a bunch of teams lose in November.

East Carolina, Houston, and South Florida still have minute chances to get bowl eligible, but our ratings are calling for all three to miss out.  Tulane needs one more win to become bowl eligible, and they must beat Tulsa this weekend, or the Green Wave could miss out.  Their final three games are tough.

Expected Bowl Eligible Teams: 7

 

Atlantic Coast

Clemson should be able to coast home with a 13-0 record and Playoff bid.  The Tigers should win their final four regular season games by margins of 20 or more every week.  The Coastal Division will probably send a 5-3 team to the ACC Championship Game, and other than North Carolina looking for revenge, we don’t see any of the other contenders making the title game close.

Notre Dame caucuses with the ACC for bowl bids, and with no viable ACC team looking formidable, the Irish will most likely take the next bowl in the ACC pecking order.  This week, we are going with a Big Ten team in the Orange Bowl, so for now it looks like the Citrus Bowl for the number two team in this group.

Including Notre Dame, there is a good chance that the ACC will have 12 bowl eligible teams, meaning there will be room for two additional at-large bowl bids.  The ACC has secondary agreements with the Birmingham and Gasparilla Bowls.  The Birmingham Bowl will most definitely need an at-large team, so ACC #11 will get that bid.  The Gasparilla Bowl most likely will not need an at-large team, but that ACC #12 will still receive an at-large bid.  With the SEC obviously falling well short this year, that #12 ACC team could end up in Memphis in the Liberty Bowl.

Expected Bowl Eligible Teams: 12 (includes Notre Dame)

 

Big 12

With Oklahoma losing, for now, we are keeping the Big 12 out of the Playoffs.  There is still a 20% chance that either Baylor or Oklahoma run the table to stay in contention at the end.  One team will have to sweep the other to pull it off.

TCU’s upset of Texas (wasn’t really an upset) puts the Horned Frogs back into position to become bowl eligible, while Texas Tech’s loss to Kansas knocks the Red Raiders out of contention for now.  We’re not ready to put Les Miles and his Jayhawks into contention, but if KU knocks off Kansas State this weekend, then we might be forced to give them some consideration.

Expected Bowl Eligible Teams: 7

 

Big Ten

Ohio State has an excellent chance to make the Playoffs as the top seed.  On the other hand, they might have to get there by beating an undefeated Penn State or Minnesota team, and they have to play at Michigan.  Could history from repeat itself from 50 years ago?  In 1969, the best ever Ohio State team coming off a really embarrassing blowout of Michigan the year before, went to Ann Arbor to face a two-loss Michigan team.  Michigan’s defense did the near-impossible, stopping the greatest Buckeye offense in school history.  We can hardly wait.

Indiana’s win at Nebraska virtually guarantees that the Hoosiers will become bowl eligible.  Illinois’s win over Purdue puts Lovie Smith’s Illini in strong contention for a bowl bid, while Purdue played itself out of contention.

Michigan State is struggling, but the Spartans should win six or seven games to become bowl eligible, while Nebraska is hoping the return of Adrian Martinez and games with Purdue and Maryland will get the Cornhuskers to 6-6.

Expected Bowl Eligible Teams: 10

 

Conference USA

This is a down year for CUSA, as no team is in contention for the Group of 5 NY6 Bowl bid.  In the East, Marshall is now in control of their destiny thanks to a last-play 53-yard field goal against Western Kentucky.  Florida Atlantic and WKU are the other teams still in contention, but all three of these teams will get bowl bids.

In the West, it is looking like there could be a three-way tie between Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, and UAB.  North Texas is suffering a disappointing year, and the Mean Green have been removed from bowl contention by our ratings.

We expect CUSA to have on more bowl eligible team than it has bowl contracts, and that sixth team might be headed to Shreveport, Louisiana in late December.

Expected Bowl Eligible Teams: 6

 

Independents

(not including Notre Dame, which counts with the ACC)

This has turned into a disappointing season for Army, and we now have the Black Knights finishing under .500.  Brigham Young has an automatic bowl bid to Hawaii if the Cougars go 6-6 or better.  6-6 is the most likely record for BYU.

Liberty has not been to a bowl in its short history in FBS football, but the Flames have a secondary agreement with the Cure Bowl should the Cure Bowl need an at-large team.  This week, for the first time, we have the Cure Bowl needing an at-large team, so Hugh Freeze might be staying quite warm in Florida in December.

Expected Bowl Eligible Teams: 2

 

Mid-American

This is a down year in the MAC, but the parity is going to lead to many more bowl eligible teams than the MAC has bowls to place them.  The MAC has five guaranteed bowl bids plus secondary agreements with two others.  One of those other secondary agreements is the Quick Lane Bowl which will not need an at-large team.  The Frisco Bowl always needs an at-large team, since there is only one tie-in, so the MAC can expect a second consecutive bowl bid there.  This year, the MAC is likely to see at least one additional team go to a bowl that has no MACtion secondary agreement.  Because our ratings this week forecast 79 bowl eligible teams, the odd team out is likely to be a 6-6 MAC team.

Expected Bowl Eligible Teams: 8 (But only 7 will receive bids)

 

Mountain West

The Mountain West will most likely lose its secondary chance at the Hawaii and Cheez-it Bowls, which means that the league will only have five guaranteed bowl bids.  This league will most likely have seven bowl eligible teams, so two members will be headed East and South in December.

Boise State still remains in contention for the Group of 5 NY6 bid to the Cotton Bowl, but the Broncos still have three tough tests remaining.  They must beat Utah State and Wyoming and then the West Division representative in the MWC Championship Game.  For now, we have Boise winning the championship but not getting the Cotton Bowl bid.

Air Force has a chance to finish 10-2, and the Falcons could be moved out of the MWC’s bowl tie-ins in order to fly east to a more prestigious bowl, maybe replacing the SEC in a Southern bowl game.  Air Force can fill up most stadiums with Cadets, and they don’t have problems with airline reservations.

Expected Bowl Eligible Teams: 7

 

Pac-12

Oregon and Utah still have minor chances to sneak into the Playoffs, but until teams like Clemson, Ohio State, Alabama, LSU, and Penn State start losing games, we will put the league champion in Pasadena.

This week, we remove California from bowl contention and put rival Stanford back in.  We also remove Arizona for now, so there will not be extra bowl eligible teams if our scenario plays itself out.

Expected Bowl Eligible Teams: 7

 

Southeastern

It may be the strongest league in college football, but the SEC is going to be the league that causes multiple bowls to look elsewhere for at-large teams.  The Independence and Birmingham Bowls must already be looking at potential at-large teams.  The Belk, Liberty, and Music City Bowls might also wish to start looking around for potential at-large teams.

If both Alabama and LSU make the playoffs, and then Florida and Georgia (or Auburn) then receive Sugar and Orange Bowl bids, four teams are already removed before the meat of the bowls look for what’s left.

Because Missouri is ineligible for a bowl, and Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and South Carolina look to be out of bowl contention, an Ole Miss Egg Bowl win over Mississippi State will likely leave the SEC with just 8 Bowl Eligible teams.  Only four teams will remain for the nine SEC spots needed to fulfill the SEC’s bowl contracts.

The Citrus, Outback, Gator, and Texas Bowls are the bowls that the SEC will need to fill.  That leaves the Belk, Music City, Liberty, Birmingham, and Independence Bowls without SEC teams.

Expected Bowl Eligible Teams: 8

 

Sun Belt

Congratulations go out to Georgia State for joining Appy State as teams already eligible for bowls this year.  Appy State is hoping for a miracle.  If the Mountaineers win at South Carolina and finish the regular season 13-0, there is a chance they  could get the Cotton Bowl bid.  For now, we see them coming up one game short.

Louisiana is one win away from becoming bowl eligible, while Arkansas State and Georgia Southern have legitimate paths to bowl eligibility, and UL-Monroe has a path, just not as legitimate as the other two.

Expected Bowl Eligible Teams: 5

 

Bowl	Conf	Conf	Team	Team
Bahamas	MAC	CUSA	Western Michigan	Marshall
Frisco	AAC	At-large	SMU	[Miami (O)]
Cure	AAC	SBC	[Liberty]	Arkansas St.
New Mexico	CUSA	MWC	Louisiana Tech	San Diego St.
Boca Raton	AAC	MAC	Memphis	Eastern Michigan
Camellia	MAC	SBC	Central Michigan	Louisiana
Las Vegas	MWC #1	Pac-12	Boise St.	Washington St.
New Orleans	CUSA	SBC #1	Southern Miss.	Appalachian St.
Gasparilla	AAC	CUSA	Central Florida	Florida Atlantic
Hawaii	BYU/MWC	AAC	BYU	Navy
Independence	ACC	SEC	Florida St.	[Western Kentucky]
Quick Lane	ACC	Big Ten	North Carolina St.	Illiois
Military	ACC	AAC	Pittsburgh	Temple
Pinstripe	ACC	Big Ten	North Carolina	Michigan St.
Texas	Big 12	SEC	Texas	Texas A&M
Holiday	Pac-12	Big Ten	USC	Michigan
Cheez-It	Big 12	Pac-12	TCU	Stanford
Camping World	ACC	Big 12	Virginia Tech	Oklahoma St.
Cotton	At-large	At-large	Cincinnati	Baylor
First Responder	CUSA	Big 12	UAB	[Utah St.]
Redbox	Pac-12	Big Ten	Washington	Iowa
Music City	SEC	ACC	[Air Force]	Louisville
Orange	ACC	BTen/SEC	Georgia	Penn St.
Belk	ACC	SEC	Wake Forest	[Buffalo]
Sun	ACC	Pac-12	Virginia	Arizona St.
Liberty	Big 12	SEC	Iowa St.	[Duke]
Arizona	SBC	MWC	Georgia Southern	San Jose St.
Alamo	Big 12	Pac-12	Kansas St.	Oregon
Citrus	SEC	BTen/ACC	Auburn	Notre Dame
Outback	Big Ten	SEC	Indiana	Tennessee
Rose	Big Ten	Pac-12	Minnesota	Utah
Sugar	Big 12	SEC	Oklahoma	Florida
Birmingham	AAC	SEC	Tulane	[Miami (Fla.)]
Taxslayer/Gator	SEC	Big Ten	Kentucky	Wisconsin
Idaho Potato	MAC	MWC	Toledo	Wyoming
Armed Forces	Big Ten	MWC	Nebraska	Hawaii
Dollar General	MAC	SBC	Ohio U	Georgia St.
FBS PLAYOFFS
Fiesta	Top 4	Top 4	Ohio St.	LSU
Peach	Top 4	Top 4	Alabama	Clemson
Championship	Fiesta	Peach	Ohio St.	Alabama
Teams in [Brackets] are at-large selections

 

PiRate Ratings Picks For October 24-28, 2019

It couldn’t last.  Our winning streak ended soon after it began, and both the PiRate Picks and Experimental Davey19 picks fell to the losing side last week.  We’re back at it again hoping that maybe if you see a game you have thought about wagering real money on the outcome, you will see that we agree with you, and you will quickly forget playing that game.

Remember, the PiRates do not wager real money on football games, and we encourage you not to use our picks as handicapping aids if you happen to play for real.  These picks are free and are priced exactly where they need to be.

PiRate Picks

This week, we add a new twist that hasn’t been shown here in several years.  We are going to make a few 6-point teaser picks (2-game parlays @ 10-11 odds)

College 6-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Connecticut	Massachusetts	4	UConn
Memphis	Tulsa	4.5	Memphis

 

College 6-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Texas A&M	Mississippi St.	4.5	Texas A&M
Iowa	Northwestern	4	Iowa

 

College 6-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Miami (Fla.)	Pittsburgh	0.5	Pittsburgh
Arkansas St.	Texas St.	5.5	Arkansas St.

 

College 10-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
SMU	Houston	4	SMU
Central Michigan	Buffalo	7.5	Buffalo
Purdue	Illinois	20	Illinois

 

College 10-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Liberty	Rutgers	17	Rutgers
Rice	Southern Miss.	0.5	Southern Miss
Wyoming	Nevada	4	Wyoming

 

College 10-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Fresno St.	Colorado St.	4.5	Fresno St
Georgia Southern	N. Mexico St.	4.5	Ga. Southern
Iowa St.	Oklahoma St.	0.5	Iowa St.

 

College 10-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Ohio	Ball St.	7.5	Ball St.
Oklahoma	Kansas St.	13.5	Oklahoma
Minnesota	Maryland	6.5	Minnesota

 

College 10-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Texas	TCU	11.5	TCU
Ohio St.	Wisconsin	4.5	Ohio St.
LSU	Auburn	0.5	LSU

 

College 13-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Troy	Georgia St.	12	Georgia St.
Penn St.	Michigan St.	19.5	Michigan St.
Middle Tennessee	Florida Int’l.	10.5	Fla. Intl
South Carolina	Tennessee	17.5	Tennessee

 

NFL 10-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Minnesota	Washington	6.5	Minnesota
N.Y. Giants	Detroit	3	Detroit
Tampa Bay	Tennessee	7.5	Tennessee

 

NFL 10-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
LA Chargers	Chicago	6	Chicago
N.Y. Jets	Jacksonville	4	Jacksonville
Philadelphia	Buffalo	8.5	Buffalo

 

NFL 10-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
LA Rams	Cincinnati	3	LA Rams
New Orleans	Arizona	0.5	New Orleans
Oakland	Houston	3	Houston

 

NFL 10-point Teaser

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Denver	Indianapolis	4.5	Indianapolis
New England	Cleveland	3	New England
Miami	Pittsburgh	4.5	Pittsburgh

 

Davey19 Selections

College Picks Against The Spread

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Connecticut	Massachusetts	10	UMass
Purdue	Illinois	10	Illinois
Central Florida	Temple	11	Temple
Buffalo	Central Michigan	2.5	Buffalo
Liberty	Rutgers	7.5	Rutgers
Marshall	Western Kentucky	5	Western Kentucky
Iowa St.	Oklahoma St.	10.5	Oklahoma St.
Ball St.	Ohio	2.5	Ball St.
North Texas	Charlotte	4.5	Charlotte

 

Note: For those of you that play for real, please be aware that in both college and pro football this weekend, Miami is playing Pittsburgh at Heinz Stadium.  Don’t confuse the games on the card.

The Pitt Panthers and Miami of Florida Hurricanes face off Saturday at Noon Eastern Daylight Time.  The Steelers host the Dolphins on Monday Night at 8:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time.

 

And, as a reminder, next Sunday’s NFL games will kick off in Standard Time.  Daylight Savings Time goes to bed Sunday morning at 2 AM, November 3.  It never ceases to amaze us as to how many 9 to 5 workers fail to notice that one of their car’s headlights, taillights, brake lights, or signal lights is not working, until after the clocks are set back in the Fall, and they drive home from work in the dark. 

Please check all your lights before you turn your clock back an hour.  Darkness at 4:30 PM always leads to increased traffic accidents in large cities, so play it safe and prepare by becoming a better defensive driver.  The life you save, may be mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings NFL Forecast for Week 8: October 24-28, 2019

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Margins

Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Minnesota	Washington	19.2	16.5	17.7
Detroit	N.Y. Giants	8.5	6.8	7.2
Tennessee	Tampa Bay	4.8	2.7	1.9
Chicago	LA Chargers	8.3	4.6	5.8
Atlanta	Seattle	-4.7	-4.1	-4.8
Jacksonville	N.Y. Jets	9.6	9.0	10.7
Buffalo	Philadelphia	-2.0	1.2	1.1
LA Rams	Cincinnati	13.6	12.3	12.1
New Orleans	Arizona	16.8	13.3	13.1
Houston	Oakland	10.3	10.7	9.7
San Francisco	Carolina	5.0	6.1	5.7
Indianapolis	Denver	4.0	4.7	4.6
New England	Cleveland	14.2	15.1	14.6
Kansas City	Green Bay	-0.7	-0.3	-1.3
Pittsburgh	Miami	15.1	15.2	15.9

 

Totals

Home	Visitor	Total
Minnesota	Washington	41
Detroit	N.Y. Giants	48.5
Tennessee	Tampa Bay	44
Chicago	LA Chargers	41.5
Atlanta	Seattle	52
Jacksonville	N.Y. Jets	39.5
Buffalo	Philadelphia	43
LA Rams	Cincinnati	52
New Orleans	Arizona	48
Houston	Oakland	48
San Francisco	Carolina	47.5
Indianapolis	Denver	41
New England	Cleveland	44.5
Kansas City	Green Bay	56.5
Pittsburgh	Miami	48

 

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

A F C
East	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
New England	111.0	112.2	111.8	111.7	21	7-0
Buffalo	99.4	100.6	100.1	100.0	17.5	5-1
N. Y. Jets	92.5	93.5	92.2	92.7	20.5	1-5
Miami	86.8	87.0	86.6	86.8	26.5	0-6
North	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Baltimore	101.7	101.3	102.3	101.8	23	5-2
Cleveland	99.8	100.1	100.2	100.0	23.5	2-4
Pittsburgh	98.8	99.3	99.6	99.2	21.5	2-4
Cincinnati	93.6	93.4	93.8	93.6	24	0-7
South	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Houston	103.9	104.2	103.8	104.0	23.5	4-3
Indianapolis	100.1	101.0	100.6	100.6	22.5	4-2
Jacksonville	99.1	99.5	99.9	99.5	19	3-4
Tennessee	98.1	98.4	98.0	98.2	15.5	3-4
West	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Kansas City	100.7	101.2	100.6	100.8	30.5	5-2
LA Chargers	99.5	99.7	98.8	99.3	22	2-5
Denver	99.2	99.3	99.0	99.2	18.5	2-5
Oakland	96.6	96.6	97.1	96.8	24.5	3-3
N F C
East	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Dallas	104.1	104.7	104.1	104.3	20.5	4-3
Philadelphia	103.9	101.9	101.5	102.4	25.5	3-4
N.Y. Giants	94.1	94.5	95.0	94.5	24.5	2-5
Washington	91.2	92.2	91.6	91.7	18.5	1-6
North	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
Minnesota	107.4	105.7	106.2	106.5	22.5	5-2
Green Bay	104.5	104.5	104.9	104.6	26	6-1
Chicago	104.8	101.3	101.6	102.6	19.5	3-3
Detroit	99.5	98.4	99.2	99.1	24	2-3-1
South	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
New Orleans	108.2	105.2	105.6	106.3	24.5	6-1
Carolina	102.3	102.5	103.3	102.7	24.5	4-2
Tampa Bay	95.9	98.2	98.6	97.6	28.5	2-4
Atlanta	94.8	95.1	94.4	94.7	26.5	1-6
West	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals	W-L
LA Rams	107.2	105.7	105.9	106.3	28	4-3
San Francisco	104.3	105.6	106.0	105.3	23	6-0
Seattle	102.5	102.2	102.2	102.3	25.5	6-1
Arizona	94.5	94.9	95.5	95.0	23.5	3-3-1

 

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Playoff Projections

 

AFC Seeding
1	New England
2	Indianapolis
3	Kansas City
4	Baltimore
5	Buffalo
6	Houston

NFC Seeding
1	Green Bay
2	New Orleans
3	San Francisco
4	Dallas
5	Minnesota
6	LA Rams

Wildcard Round

Kansas City over Houston

Buffalo over Baltimore

LA Rams over San Francisco

Minnesota over Dallas

Divisional Round

New England over Buffalo

Kansas City over Indianapolis

Green Bay over LA Rams

New Orleans over Minnesota

Conference Championship

New England over Kansas City

Green Bay over New Orleans

Super Bowl 54

New England over Green Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate College Football Ratings: October 21, 2019

This Week’s PiRate Rating Spreads

 

Thursday	October 24
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Houston	SMU	-8.1	-7.1	-7.5
Friday	October 25
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Colorado	USC	-11.1	-12.2	-12.3
Saturday	October 26
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Massachusetts	Connecticut	-7.6	-9.3	-7.6
Purdue	Illinois	11.4	10.5	11.8
Army	San Jose St.	13.6	11.4	13.3
Georgia St.	Troy	-2.2	-1.3	-1.6
Clemson	Boston College	33.5	30.9	33.7
Tulsa	Memphis	-12.8	-12.0	-12.5
Toledo	Eastern Michigan	3.5	3.7	3.8
Texas A&M	Mississippi St.	9.6	11.6	3.9
Temple	Central Florida	-7.0	-7.0	-6.7
Western Michigan	Bowling Green	25.8	24.9	25.5
Nebraska	Indiana	-2.1	0.0	-2.1
Buffalo	Central Michigan	5.9	5.6	6.0
Northwestern	Iowa	-9.7	-8.8	-10.7
East Carolina	South Florida	-2.0	-1.2	-2.0
Florida St.	Syracuse	3.0	3.9	3.4
Rutgers	Liberty	-2.4	-4.2	-3.9
Rice	Southern Miss.	-11.8	-8.8	-12.5
Utah	California	20.2	19.4	20.2
Wyoming	Nevada	12.9	13.5	13.7
Air Force	Utah St.	0.0	2.5	-0.1
New Mexico	Hawaii	-12.2	-10.6	-12.4
Marshall	Western Kentucky	2.8	1.2	2.1
Stanford	Arizona	7.6	6.7	7.1
Oregon	Washington St.	10.1	11.2	11.2
Fresno St.	Colorado St.	19.2	16.3	19.4
Kentucky	Missouri	-5.0	-4.0	-6.2
North Carolina	Duke	1.7	2.2	3.0
Michigan St.	Penn St.	-5.4	-5.3	-5.8
Kent St.	Miami (O)	2.2	3.7	2.5
South Alabama	Appalachian St.	-32.1	-28.5	-32.7
Georgia Southern	New Mexico St.	18.2	15.2	16.8
Iowa St.	Oklahoma St.	10.3	10.6	11.2
Middle Tennessee	Florida Int’l.	0.2	-0.8	0.1
Old Dominion	Florida Atlantic	-13.0	-12.1	-13.9
Ball St.	Ohio U	1.1	1.7	0.8
Alabama	Arkansas	43.1	39.2	44.5
Tennessee	South Carolina	-3.3	-2.0	-4.7
Kansas St.	Oklahoma	-14.6	-14.0	-14.8
Minnesota	Maryland	12.7	13.2	13.3
Navy	Tulane	-1.3	0.6	-1.2
TCU	Texas	-4.5	-2.0	-4.4
Pittsburgh	Miami (Fla.)	4.8	5.4	4.4
Louisville	Virginia	-8.1	-8.7	-8.5
Northern Illinois	Akron	22.3	21.0	23.4
Kansas	Texas Tech	-7.7	-6.7	-6.8
Charlotte	North Texas	-5.1	-4.1	-5.6
Ohio St.	Wisconsin	18.7	18.0	19.8
Arkansas St.	Texas St.	8.8	8.0	8.7
LSU	Auburn	9.0	8.4	9.4
UTEP	Louisiana Tech	-23.1	-18.4	-22.6
Michigan	Notre Dame	1.5	1.4	1.6
UCLA	Arizona St.	-6.2	-5.7	-7.7
UNLV	San Diego St.	-11.6	-12.1	-12.1

 

 

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

 

PiRate Ratings
#	Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	Ohio St.	137.4	136.4	138.4	137.4
2	Alabama	135.3	132.0	136.0	134.4
3	Clemson	132.6	130.0	133.4	132.0
4	L S U	129.4	127.1	129.5	128.7
5	Oklahoma	125.8	125.1	125.7	125.5
6	Georgia	126.2	124.3	126.1	125.5
7	Auburn	123.4	121.7	123.2	122.8
8	Penn St.	122.7	121.8	122.8	122.5
9	Wisconsin	121.7	121.4	121.7	121.6
10	Florida	122.7	119.8	122.3	121.6
11	Utah	121.6	120.4	122.2	121.4
12	Notre Dame	120.5	118.8	120.4	119.9
13	Oregon	119.1	119.2	120.5	119.6
14	Michigan	118.9	117.2	119.0	118.4
15	Iowa	117.7	115.8	117.5	117.0
16	Iowa St.	115.9	116.6	116.2	116.2
17	Texas A&M	116.7	115.0	115.3	115.7
18	Washington	114.0	113.7	115.0	114.2
19	Minnesota	114.2	113.9	113.7	113.9
20	Baylor	114.0	114.2	113.6	113.9
21	Michigan St.	114.3	113.5	114.0	113.9
22	Missouri	114.2	111.8	114.0	113.3
23	South Carolina	113.6	111.9	113.4	113.0
24	Texas	111.7	111.9	111.9	111.8
25	Washington St.	112.0	111.1	112.3	111.8
26	U S C	109.9	110.7	110.6	110.4
27	Central Florida	110.4	109.6	111.0	110.3
28	Mississippi St.	110.1	106.4	114.5	110.3
29	Virginia	108.8	109.0	108.9	108.9
30	Oklahoma St.	108.6	109.0	108.0	108.5
31	Arizona St.	108.4	107.7	109.2	108.5
32	Appalachian St.	108.8	107.8	108.6	108.4
33	Cincinnati	108.3	107.1	108.9	108.1
34	Kansas St.	108.3	108.1	107.9	108.1
35	Indiana	108.5	107.2	107.9	107.9
36	SMU	107.2	107.0	108.5	107.6
37	Memphis	106.8	106.8	107.5	107.0
38	Pittsburgh	106.6	106.4	106.9	106.6
39	Tennessee	107.3	106.9	105.7	106.6
40	Purdue	106.8	106.6	106.3	106.6
41	T C U	105.2	108.0	105.5	106.2
42	Boise St.	106.1	105.8	106.4	106.1
43	North Carolina	105.7	105.7	106.9	106.1
44	Texas Tech	105.8	106.0	105.0	105.6
45	Duke	105.6	104.9	105.3	105.3
46	Kentucky	106.2	104.8	104.8	105.3
47	Utah St.	104.9	104.0	105.9	104.9
48	Miami (Fla.)	104.8	104.1	105.5	104.8
49	Ole Miss	105.2	104.2	104.9	104.8
50	Northwestern	105.4	104.5	104.3	104.7
51	Florida St.	104.5	104.6	104.5	104.6
52	California	104.3	104.0	105.0	104.4
53	Syracuse	104.5	103.8	104.1	104.1
54	Maryland	104.5	103.7	103.3	103.8
55	Nebraska	103.4	104.2	102.8	103.5
56	Wake Forest	103.5	102.9	103.8	103.4
57	Stanford	103.6	102.7	103.1	103.1
58	Air Force	101.9	103.4	102.8	102.7
59	Boston College	102.2	102.1	102.7	102.3
60	West Virginia	102.1	101.5	101.2	101.6
61	Virginia Tech	101.0	101.1	101.4	101.2
62	Temple	100.8	100.1	101.8	100.9
63	Louisiana	100.9	101.0	100.8	100.9
64	Tulane	99.8	100.5	100.4	100.2
65	Fresno St.	99.0	99.8	99.5	99.4
66	BYU	99.3	99.3	99.3	99.3
67	North Carolina St.	99.3	99.0	99.4	99.2
68	Arizona	99.0	99.0	98.9	99.0
69	U C L A	99.2	99.0	98.5	98.9
70	San Diego St.	98.3	100.1	98.3	98.9
71	Illinois	98.3	99.1	97.5	98.3
72	Wyoming	97.3	99.4	97.6	98.1
73	Houston	96.6	97.5	98.5	97.5
74	Oregon St.	97.3	98.3	96.8	97.5
75	Louisville	97.7	97.3	97.4	97.4
76	Western Michigan	97.5	96.4	97.2	97.0
77	Navy	95.5	98.1	96.2	96.6
78	Vanderbilt	97.0	95.7	95.7	96.1
79	Hawaii	95.7	97.0	94.9	95.9
80	Army	96.0	95.9	95.2	95.7
81	Colorado	95.9	95.5	95.4	95.6
82	Kansas	95.2	96.2	95.2	95.5
83	Arkansas	95.2	95.7	94.5	95.2
84	Georgia Tech	94.6	92.9	95.0	94.2
85	Troy	94.3	94.8	93.4	94.2
86	Louisiana Tech	94.0	94.0	94.3	94.1
87	Southern Miss.	94.2	92.6	94.3	93.7
88	Georgia Southern	93.3	92.7	92.2	92.8
89	Ohio	92.9	91.9	93.3	92.7
90	Florida Atlantic	91.9	91.4	92.8	92.0
91	Northern Illinois	92.2	91.1	92.3	91.9
92	Tulsa	91.0	91.8	92.0	91.6
93	Western Kentucky	90.6	91.8	92.4	91.6
94	Florida Int’l.	91.4	91.4	91.6	91.5
95	Ball St.	91.5	91.1	91.6	91.4
96	North Texas	91.2	90.5	91.7	91.1
97	U A B	89.9	91.8	90.8	90.9
98	Marshall	90.4	90.0	91.5	90.6
99	Georgia St.	89.6	91.0	89.3	90.0
100	Buffalo	89.3	89.8	90.4	89.8
101	Arkansas St.	89.7	89.8	89.2	89.6
102	Liberty	89.0	90.3	89.3	89.5
103	Middle Tennessee	89.1	88.1	89.2	88.8
104	South Florida	88.3	89.3	88.5	88.7
105	Toledo	88.3	88.6	89.0	88.6
106	Kent St.	88.2	88.2	88.7	88.4
107	Miami (Ohio)	88.5	87.0	88.7	88.1
108	Nevada	87.5	88.9	86.9	87.8
109	Eastern Michigan	87.2	87.4	87.7	87.5
110	Coastal Carolina	86.8	87.9	86.2	87.0
111	Central Michigan	85.9	86.7	86.9	86.5
112	Louisiana-Monroe	85.8	86.5	85.6	86.0
113	San Jose St.	85.4	87.5	85.0	86.0
114	U N L V	84.2	85.6	83.7	84.5
115	East Carolina	83.8	85.6	84.0	84.5
116	Colorado St.	82.8	86.6	83.1	84.2
117	Charlotte	83.6	83.9	83.6	83.7
118	Texas St.	83.4	84.2	83.0	83.5
119	Rutgers	84.1	83.6	82.9	83.5
120	New Mexico	80.0	82.8	79.0	80.6
121	Rice	79.9	81.3	79.2	80.2
122	New Mexico St.	78.2	80.6	78.5	79.1
123	Old Dominion	76.4	76.8	76.4	76.5
124	Texas-San Antonio	74.5	76.8	74.3	75.2
125	South Alabama	74.2	76.8	73.3	74.8
126	Bowling Green	74.1	74.0	74.2	74.1
127	Connecticut	71.9	75.4	70.8	72.7
128	Akron	72.5	72.6	71.4	72.1
129	U T E P	68.4	73.1	69.2	70.2
130	Massachusetts	62.3	64.1	61.2	62.5

 

PiRate Ratings By Conference

 

American Athletic Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Central Florida	110.4	109.6	111.0	110.3	2-1	5-2
Cincinnati	108.3	107.1	108.9	108.1	3-0	6-1
Temple	100.8	100.1	101.8	100.9	2-1	5-2
South Florida	88.3	89.3	88.5	88.7	1-2	3-4
East Carolina	83.8	85.6	84.0	84.5	0-3	3-4
Connecticut	71.9	75.4	70.8	72.7	0-4	1-6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
SMU	107.2	107.0	108.5	107.6	3-0	7-0
Memphis	106.8	106.8	107.5	107.0	2-1	6-1
Tulane	99.8	100.5	100.4	100.2	2-1	5-2
Houston	96.6	97.5	98.5	97.5	1-2	3-4
Navy	95.5	98.1	96.2	96.6	3-1	5-1
Tulsa	91.0	91.8	92.0	91.6	0-3	2-5
AAC Averages	96.7	97.4	97.3	97.1
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Clemson	132.6	130.0	133.4	132.0	5-0	7-0
Florida St.	104.5	104.6	104.5	104.6	2-3	3-4
Syracuse	104.5	103.8	104.1	104.1	0-3	3-4
Wake Forest	103.5	102.9	103.8	103.4	2-1	6-1
Boston College	102.2	102.1	102.7	102.3	2-2	4-3
North Carolina St.	99.3	99.0	99.4	99.2	1-2	4-3
Louisville	97.7	97.3	97.4	97.4	2-2	4-3
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Virginia	108.8	109.0	108.9	108.9	3-1	5-2
Pittsburgh	106.6	106.4	106.9	106.6	2-1	5-2
North Carolina	105.7	105.7	106.9	106.1	2-2	3-4
Duke	105.6	104.9	105.3	105.3	2-2	4-3
Miami (Fla.)	104.8	104.1	105.5	104.8	1-3	3-4
Virginia Tech	101.0	101.1	101.4	101.2	3-2	5-2
Georgia Tech	94.6	92.9	95.0	94.2	1-3	2-5
ACC Averages	105.1	104.6	105.4	105.0
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	B12	Overall
Oklahoma	125.8	125.1	125.7	125.5	4-0	7-0
Iowa St.	115.9	116.6	116.2	116.2	3-1	5-2
Baylor	114.0	114.2	113.6	113.9	4-0	7-0
Texas	111.7	111.9	111.9	111.8	3-1	5-2
Oklahoma St.	108.6	109.0	108.0	108.5	1-3	4-3
Kansas St.	108.3	108.1	107.9	108.1	1-2	4-2
T C U	105.2	108.0	105.5	106.2	1-2	3-3
Texas Tech	105.8	106.0	105.0	105.6	1-3	3-4
West Virginia	102.1	101.5	101.2	101.6	1-3	3-4
Kansas	95.2	96.2	95.2	95.5	0-4	2-5
Big 12 Averages	109.3	109.7	109.0	109.3
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Ohio St.	137.4	136.4	138.4	137.4	4-0	7-0
Penn St.	122.7	121.8	122.8	122.5	4-0	7-0
Michigan	118.9	117.2	119.0	118.4	3-2	5-2
Michigan St.	114.3	113.5	114.0	113.9	2-2	4-3
Indiana	108.5	107.2	107.9	107.9	2-2	5-2
Maryland	104.5	103.7	103.3	103.8	1-3	3-4
Rutgers	84.1	83.6	82.9	83.5	0-5	1-6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Wisconsin	121.7	121.4	121.7	121.6	3-1	6-1
Iowa	117.7	115.8	117.5	117.0	2-2	5-2
Minnesota	114.2	113.9	113.7	113.9	4-0	7-0
Purdue	106.8	106.6	106.3	106.6	1-3	2-5
Northwestern	105.4	104.5	104.3	104.7	0-4	1-5
Nebraska	103.4	104.2	102.8	103.5	2-2	4-3
Illinois	98.3	99.1	97.5	98.3	1-3	3-4
Big Ten Averages	111.3	110.6	110.9	110.9
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Florida Atlantic	91.9	91.4	92.8	92.0	2-1	4-3
Western Kentucky	90.6	91.8	92.4	91.6	4-0	5-2
Florida Int’l.	91.4	91.4	91.6	91.5	2-2	4-3
Marshall	90.4	90.0	91.5	90.6	2-1	4-3
Middle Tennessee	89.1	88.1	89.2	88.8	1-2	2-5
Charlotte	83.6	83.9	83.6	83.7	0-3	2-5
Old Dominion	76.4	76.8	76.4	76.5	0-3	1-6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Louisiana Tech	94.0	94.0	94.3	94.1	3-0	6-1
Southern Miss.	94.2	92.6	94.3	93.7	2-1	4-3
North Texas	91.2	90.5	91.7	91.1	2-1	3-4
U A B	89.9	91.8	90.8	90.9	3-1	6-1
Rice	79.9	81.3	79.2	80.2	0-3	0-7
Texas-San Antonio	74.5	76.8	74.3	75.2	2-2	3-4
U T E P	68.4	73.1	69.2	70.2	0-3	1-5
CUSA Averages	86.1	86.7	86.5	86.4
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	Conf.	Overall
Notre Dame	120.5	118.8	120.4	119.9	x	5-1
BYU	99.3	99.3	99.3	99.3	x	3-4
Army	96.0	95.9	95.2	95.7	x	3-4
Liberty	89.0	90.3	89.3	89.5	x	5-2
New Mexico St.	78.2	80.6	78.5	79.1	x	0-7
Massachusetts	62.3	64.1	61.2	62.5	x	1-6
Indep. Averages	90.9	91.5	90.6	91.0
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Ohio	92.9	91.9	93.3	92.7	2-1	3-4
Buffalo	89.3	89.8	90.4	89.8	1-2	3-4
Kent St.	88.2	88.2	88.7	88.4	2-1	3-4
Miami (Ohio)	88.5	87.0	88.7	88.1	2-1	3-4
Bowling Green	74.1	74.0	74.2	74.1	1-2	2-5
Akron	72.5	72.6	71.4	72.1	0-3	0-7
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Western Michigan	97.5	96.4	97.2	97.0	2-2	4-4
Northern Illinois	92.2	91.1	92.3	91.9	1-2	2-5
Ball St.	91.5	91.1	91.6	91.4	3-0	4-3
Toledo	88.3	88.6	89.0	88.6	1-2	4-3
Eastern Michigan	87.2	87.4	87.7	87.5	1-2	4-3
Central Michigan	85.9	86.7	86.9	86.5	3-1	5-3
MAC Averages	87.3	87.1	87.6	87.3
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Boise St.	106.1	105.8	106.4	106.1	3-0	6-1
Utah St.	104.9	104.0	105.9	104.9	3-0	4-2
Air Force	101.9	103.4	102.8	102.7	3-1	5-2
Wyoming	97.3	99.4	97.6	98.1	2-1	5-2
Colorado St.	82.8	86.6	83.1	84.2	1-2	2-5
New Mexico	80.0	82.8	79.0	80.6	0-3	2-5
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Fresno St.	99.0	99.8	99.5	99.4	1-1	3-3
San Diego St.	98.3	100.1	98.3	98.9	3-1	6-1
Hawaii	95.7	97.0	94.9	95.9	1-2	4-3
Nevada	87.5	88.9	86.9	87.8	1-2	4-3
San Jose St.	85.4	87.5	85.0	86.0	1-3	3-4
U N L V	84.2	85.6	83.7	84.5	1-3	2-5
MWC Averages	93.6	95.1	93.6	94.1
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Oregon	119.1	119.2	120.5	119.6	4-0	6-1
Washington	114.0	113.7	115.0	114.2	2-3	5-3
Washington St.	112.0	111.1	112.3	111.8	1-3	4-3
California	104.3	104.0	105.0	104.4	1-3	4-3
Stanford	103.6	102.7	103.1	103.1	2-3	3-4
Oregon St.	97.3	98.3	96.8	97.5	2-2	3-4
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Utah	121.6	120.4	122.2	121.4	3-1	6-1
U S C	109.9	110.7	110.6	110.4	3-1	4-3
Arizona St.	108.4	107.7	109.2	108.5	2-2	5-2
Arizona	99.0	99.0	98.9	99.0	2-2	4-3
U C L A	99.2	99.0	98.5	98.9	2-2	2-5
Colorado	95.9	95.5	95.4	95.6	1-3	3-4
Pac-12 Averages	107.0	106.8	107.3	107.0
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Georgia	126.2	124.3	126.1	125.5	3-1	6-1
Florida	122.7	119.8	122.3	121.6	5-1	7-1
Missouri	114.2	111.8	114.0	113.3	2-1	5-2
South Carolina	113.6	111.9	113.4	113.0	2-3	3-4
Tennessee	107.3	106.9	105.7	106.6	1-3	2-5
Kentucky	106.2	104.8	104.8	105.3	1-4	3-4
Vanderbilt	97.0	95.7	95.7	96.1	1-3	2-5
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Alabama	135.3	132.0	136.0	134.4	4-0	7-0
L S U	129.4	127.1	129.5	128.7	3-0	7-0
Auburn	123.4	121.7	123.2	122.8	3-1	6-1
Texas A&M	116.7	115.0	115.3	115.7	2-2	4-3
Mississippi St.	110.1	106.4	114.5	110.3	1-3	3-4
Ole Miss	105.2	104.2	104.9	104.8	2-3	3-5
Arkansas	95.2	95.7	94.5	95.2	0-4	2-5
SEC Averages	114.5	112.7	114.3	113.8
Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Appalachian St.	108.8	107.8	108.6	108.4	3-0	6-0
Troy	94.3	94.8	93.4	94.2	1-1	3-3
Georgia Southern	93.3	92.7	92.2	92.8	2-1	3-3
Georgia St.	89.6	91.0	89.3	90.0	2-1	5-2
Coastal Carolina	86.8	87.9	86.2	87.0	0-3	3-4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Louisiana	100.9	101.0	100.8	100.9	2-1	5-2
Arkansas St.	89.7	89.8	89.2	89.6	1-2	3-4
Louisiana-Monroe	85.8	86.5	85.6	86.0	2-1	3-4
Texas St.	83.4	84.2	83.0	83.5	1-1	2-4
South Alabama	74.2	76.8	73.3	74.8	0-3	1-6
SBC Averages	90.7	91.3	90.2	90.7

 

 

Conference Ratings

 

#	League	Average
1	Southeastern	113.8
2	Big Ten	110.9
3	Big 12	109.3
4	Pac-12	107.0
5	Atlantic Coast	105.0
6	American	97.1
7	Mountain West	94.1
8	Independents	91.0
9	Sun Belt	90.7
10	Mid-American	87.3
11	Conference USA	86.4

 

 

Top 5 Group of 5
1	SMU
2	Appalachian St.
3	Cincinnati
4	Navy
5	Boise St.

 

 

This Week’s Bowl and Playoff Projections

 

There was considerable shuffling of the bowl projections this week, with these teams being affected the most (by alphabetical conference).

AAC: With Boise St. losing, the likelihood of the AAC Champion making it to the Cotton Bowl went way up.  SMU is the leader at the moment, but the Mustangs will have to win at Memphis more than likely if they are to stay home for a NY6 Bowl.  Memphis has the most favorable schedule, while Cincinnati and Navy are still in the race.

ACC: Clemson cannot afford to lose a game, and most every so-called college football expert believes this is so.  There is no strong number two in this league, but Notre Dame caucuses here for bowl invitation, so the Irish look like a sure thing to garner one of the NY6 Bowl bids.  Boston College, Louisville,  and Syracuse appear to be on the outside looking in from the Atlantic Division, while Miami now drops into our predicted 5-7 teams and falls out of the bowl picture for now.  The Coastal is still a wide open race, but we think Pittsburgh has the best chance to become fodder for Clemson in the Title Game.

Big 12: Baylor keeps surprising a lot of folks, as even the folks in Nevada were a bit surprised at how they handles Oklahoma State in Stillwater.  Can the Bears beat Oklahoma, or to put it more accurately beat them once in two tries?  If Oklahoma runs the table, the Sooners are in the Playoffs.  If Baylor runs the table, they will most likely make the playoffs.  If they split two games, then the LSU-Alabama loser at 11-1 will be in the Playoffs.  Texas and Iowa State appear to be jostling for third place as of now.  Meanwhile, a group that included Oklahoma State, Kansas State, TCU, and Texas Tech all have shots a bowl eligibility, and we believe three of the four will make it.

Big Ten: Wisconsin’s loss to Illinois, makes the Penn State-Ohio State game in Columbus a Playoff Qualifier.  The winner of that game has a great shot at being 13-0 and Playoff bound.  Michigan and Michigan State are now fighting it out for third in the East, while Indiana virtually locked up a fifth bowl eligible spot in the division.  Minnesota still gets no respect, and the Gophers will host Penn State in two weeks with a chance to get that respect.  If they upset the Nittany Lions, Roses could be in Minnesota’s future for the first time since January 1, 1962.  With the Big Ten having the most specific bowl rules, it appears that in order to keep teams out of making repeat bowl appearances, some teams with two fewer wins may jump over others for more prestigious bowls.

Conference USA: This league has no chance to earn the NY6 Bowl bid as too many teams would have to lose before a Louisiana Tech or UAB would even enter the contention picture.  Marshall will host Western Kentucky this weekend, and the winner will just about wrap up the East Division flag.  The West is still a four-team mess, but Louisiana Tech has the upper hand.  UAB hosts the Bulldogs in November, and the winner of that game will most likely take the West Division crown.

Independents: Since Notre Dame figures in the ACC bowl, we don’t include them here.  The big change here was removing Army from bowl contention and placing BYU back into bowl contention.  If BYU goes 6-6 or better, they are guaranteed the Hawaii Bowl bid.  Keep an eye on Liberty.  If Liberty can win at Rutgers this Saturday, the Flames are looking at an eight-win season.  Liberty has a secondary bowl agreement with the Cure, but we see that bowl being filled by the regular tie-ins.  Still, this school could make its first bowl appearance, because a lot of Southern bowls are going to need at-large teams.

MAC: This conference uses the work “MACtion” to describe its excitement, but Wacky MAC might be a more accurate theme in the Midwest.  Almost all the craziness is in the West Division, where Ball State has come from out of nowhere to take a commanding lead in the division.  The Cardinals were picked to finish last or second to last by most preseason predictions.  The other team picked to finish last or second to last may be chief competition.  Central Michigan plays Ball State in Muncie in November, and the winner is probably the Division champion.  In the East, Ohio won a big game over Kent State this past Saturday, and the Bobcats need only beat Buffalo to guarantee another East Division crown.  Mainstays at the top, Western Michigan and Toledo, are hurting right now, and Toledo must get quarterback Mitchell Guadagni back from injury, as they have no offense without him.

Mountain West: Boise State is now on the outside looking in for the Cotton Bowl.  The Broncos have two or three more games where the opponent could be talented enough to pin another loss on them.  Utah State hosts BSU in November, and if quarterback Jordan Love is 100% healthy, the Aggies might be the better team.  With Hawaii losing at home to Air Force, the San Diego State-Fresno State winner is going to take the West Division title.  This league will have one or two extra teams to fill at-large bowls, and we believe one of the two will get in.  Wyoming did not get an invitation last year, so the Cowboys could be heading Southeast of Laramie.

Pac-12: Oregon is one play away from being squarely in the Playoff picture, but then the Donner Party was just one mountain away from getting to the Pacific Coast safely.  The Ducks may have seen their hopes dashed by an Auburn snowstorm.  Utah’s loss to USC prevents the Utes from having a chance to make it to the Playoffs.  The only unsure thing in this conference is if California can get to 6-6 without Chase Garbers at QB.

SEC: Georgia looks quite vulnerable all of a sudden.  If the Bulldogs couldn’t pass or score versus South Carolina and Kentucky, how will they do so against Florida and Auburn.  Short of a major quick fix, it would not be shocking if Georgia lost twice more, giving Florida the East title.  With Missouri ineligible, that leaves South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt fighting for two bowl bids.  USC and Vandy have too much to conquer to get to six wins, while Kentucky may have to beat rival Louisville to make it to bowl eligibility.  Tennessee has four winnable games left on their schedule, so for now, we are picking the Vols to sneak in at 6-6.  In the West, we believe Mississippi State is in big trouble and likely headed to 5-7 with Ole Miss.  Arkansas is the #14 team in the league and may finish 0-8.  The SEC is going to come up four to six bowl spots short.

Sunbelt: Appalachian State probably has the best overall shot of going 13-0 from a Group of 5 Conference, but can the Mountaineers jump over a 12-1 AAC champion?  Aside from that, the other news is that this league will have extra bowl eligible teams and should see at least one at-large bid come to the league.

 

Bowl	Conf	Conf	Team	Team
Bahamas	MAC	CUSA	Central Michigan	Marshall
Frisco	AAC	At-large	SMU	[Toledo]
Cure	AAC	SBC	East Carolina	Arkansas St.
New Mexico	CUSA	MWC	Louisiana Tech	Fresno St.
Boca Raton	AAC	MAC	Central Florida	Ball St.
Camellia	MAC	SBC	Western Michigan	Georgia St.
Las Vegas	MWC #1	Pac-12	Boise St.	Washington St.
New Orleans	CUSA	SBC #1	Southern Miss.	Appalachian St.
Gasparilla	AAC	CUSA	Cincinnati	Florida Atlantic
Hawaii	BYU/MWC	AAC	BYU	Navy
Independence	ACC	SEC	Florida St.	[UAB]
Quick Lane	ACC	Big Ten	North Carolina	Indiana
Military	ACC	AAC	Duke	Temple
Pinstripe	ACC	Big Ten	North Carolina St.	Purdue
Texas	Big 12	SEC	Oklahoma St.	Texas A&M
Holiday	Pac-12	Big Ten	Washington	Iowa
Cheez-It	Big 12	Pac-12	Texas Tech	Arizona
Camping World	ACC	Big 12	Pittsburgh	Iowa St.
Cotton	At-large	At-large	Memphis	Penn St.
First Responder	CUSA	Big 12	North Texas	[Hawaii]
Redbox	Pac-12	Big Ten	Arizona St.	Michigan
Music City	SEC	ACC	[Wyoming]	Wake Forest
Orange	ACC	BTen/SEC	Notre Dame	Florida
Belk	ACC	SEC	Virginia Tech	Kentucky
Sun	ACC	Pac-12	Virginia	USC
Liberty	Big 12	SEC	Kansas St.	[Liberty]
Arizona	SBC	MWC	Louisiana	San Diego St.
Alamo	Big 12	Pac-12	Texas	Utah
Citrus	SEC	BTen/ACC	Georgia	Wisconsin
Outback	Big Ten	SEC	Michigan St.	Auburn
Rose	Big Ten	Pac-12	Minnesota	Oregon
Sugar	Big 12	SEC	Baylor	LSU
Birmingham	AAC	SEC	Tulane	[Troy]
Taxslayer/Gator	SEC	Big Ten	Tennessee	Nebraska
Idaho Potato	MAC	MWC	Eastern Michigan	Utah St.
Armed Forces	Big Ten	MWC	[Western Ky.]	Air Force
Dollar General	MAC	SBC	Ohio U	Georgia Southern
FBS PLAYOFFS
Fiesta	Top 4	Top 4	Ohio St.	Oklahoma
Peach	Top 4	Top 4	Alabama	Clemson
Championship	Fiesta	Peach	Ohio St.	Alabama

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate College Football Ratings: October 14, 2019

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Wednesday	October 16
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Troy	South Alabama	22.4	19.7	21.9
Thursday	October 17
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Arkansas St.	Louisiana	-6.5	-6.3	-6.5
Stanford	UCLA	12.6	12.2	13.5
Friday	October 18
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Florida Atlantic	Marshall	6.7	6.8	6.9
Syracuse	Pittsburgh	2.8	2.4	2.5
Northwestern	Ohio St.	-24.8	-24.4	-26.8
Fresno St.	UNLV	15.2	14.2	15.8
Saturday	October 19
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Virginia	Duke	2.0	2.7	2.0
Miami (Fla.)	Georgia Tech	15.9	16.8	16.4
Louisville	Clemson	-31.4	-28.6	-32.2
Georgia St.	Army	-6.7	-5.2	-6.6
Akron	Buffalo	-13.5	-13.7	-15.5
Maryland	Indiana	-0.6	0.3	-0.8
Connecticut	Houston	-24.5	-21.6	-28.3
Wake Forest	Florida St.	1.5	0.8	1.7
Georgia Southern	Coastal Carolina	10.7	8.9	10.5
Bowling Green	Central Michigan	-7.3	-8.2	-8.0
Central Florida	East Carolina	31.5	28.7	32.5
Cincinnati	Tulsa	21.7	19.8	21.7
Boston College	North Carolina St.	2.1	2.2	2.2
Iowa	Purdue	14.5	12.8	15.1
Ohio	Kent St.	7.2	6.2	7.1
Eastern Michigan	Western Michigan	-10.3	-9.1	-10.0
Texas	Kansas	22.5	21.6	23.0
Illinois	Wisconsin	-25.1	-23.9	-26.2
Utah St.	Nevada	19.8	16.8	21.4
BYU	Boise St.	-6.1	-6.0	-7.0
Wyoming	New Mexico	21.2	20.4	22.7
Utah	Arizona St.	16.0	15.3	15.6
Ball St.	Toledo	0.2	-0.5	-0.3
Miami (O)	Northern Illinois	-1.8	-2.6	-2.1
California	Oregon St.	13.6	12.2	15.3
Washington	Oregon	-1.4	-2.0	-1.7
USC	Arizona	10.3	10.9	10.7
Washington St.	Colorado	16.1	15.4	16.5
South Carolina	Florida	-5.4	-4.1	-4.9
Georgia	Kentucky	23.6	23.4	25.6
Kansas St.	TCU	5.8	2.5	5.2
Mississippi St.	LSU	-14.3	-15.7	-9.1
Alabama	Tennessee	32.0	29.1	34.3
Louisiana Tech	Southern Miss.	-0.9	0.6	-1.1
UAB	Old Dominion	12.9	14.3	13.5
Oklahoma	West Virginia	24.3	23.9	24.6
Oklahoma St.	Baylor	0.9	1.3	1.1
Arkansas	Auburn	-20.7	-18.1	-20.7
Ole Miss	Texas A&M	-8.8	-7.7	-7.4
Memphis	Tulane	5.3	4.2	5.0
Virginia Tech	North Carolina	-2.3	-2.2	-3.1
Rutgers	Minnesota	-25.0	-25.1	-25.3
Texas Tech	Iowa St.	-6.7	-7.0	-7.7
Navy	South Florida	5.2	6.8	5.3
Appalachian St.	Louisiana-Monroe	20.2	18.1	19.8
Vanderbilt	Missouri	-18.8	-17.6	-20.5
San Jose St.	San Diego St.	-10.4	-10.1	-10.8
Western Kentucky	Charlotte	8.0	8.5	9.5
North Texas	Middle Tennessee	4.8	5.3	5.7
UTSA	Rice	-3.9	-2.9	-3.5
SMU	Temple	5.6	6.3	5.6
Florida Int’l.	UTEP	27.8	22.9	27.5
Penn St.	Michigan	6.4	7.2	6.5
Hawaii	Air Force	4.0	4.0	2.5

 

This Week’s PiRate Ratings 

Note:  We receive a lot of emails at our sister site asking us how X can be rated ahead of Y when Y beat X in September.  These are not rankings; they are ratings.  They are predictive in nature and not mean to rank the teams based on what they have done earlier in the season.  These ratings try to forecast the next week of games only.  

 

#	Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	Ohio St.	135.3	134.2	136.2	135.2
2	Alabama	135.8	132.5	136.5	134.9
3	Clemson	132.2	129.3	132.9	131.5
4	L S U	128.4	126.1	128.0	127.5
5	Georgia	126.7	124.9	126.9	126.2
6	Wisconsin	124.2	123.9	124.4	124.2
7	Oklahoma	124.4	123.6	124.1	124.0
8	Penn St.	122.5	121.6	122.6	122.3
9	Utah	121.5	120.2	122.0	121.2
10	Florida	122.4	119.4	121.8	121.2
11	Auburn	121.5	119.6	121.1	120.7
12	Notre Dame	120.2	118.5	120.1	119.6
13	Oregon	118.7	118.8	120.0	119.2
14	Michigan	119.1	117.4	119.2	118.6
15	Iowa	118.0	116.1	118.0	117.3
16	Iowa St.	115.7	116.3	115.9	116.0
17	Texas A&M	116.8	115.0	115.3	115.7
18	Missouri	116.4	114.0	116.5	115.6
19	Washington	114.2	113.9	115.3	114.5
20	Michigan St.	114.0	113.2	113.7	113.6
21	Texas	113.3	113.5	113.7	113.5
22	South Carolina	113.9	112.3	113.9	113.4
23	Minnesota	112.4	112.0	111.7	112.0
24	Baylor	112.1	112.2	111.5	111.9
25	Central Florida	111.5	110.6	112.4	111.5
26	Mississipppi St.	111.1	107.4	116.0	111.5
27	Washington St.	110.5	109.5	110.6	110.2
28	Oklahoma St.	110.0	110.5	109.6	110.0
29	Cincinnati	109.0	107.8	109.8	108.9
30	Arizona St.	108.5	107.9	109.4	108.6
31	U S C	108.1	108.8	108.6	108.5
32	Kansas St.	108.2	107.8	107.8	107.9
33	Boise St.	107.5	107.3	108.1	107.6
34	Indiana	108.3	106.8	107.5	107.5
35	Duke	107.7	107.1	107.6	107.5
36	Northwestern	107.5	106.7	106.5	106.9
37	Virginia	106.7	106.8	106.6	106.7
38	Miami (Fla.)	106.4	105.7	107.2	106.4
39	California	106.2	105.9	107.2	106.4
40	T C U	105.3	108.3	105.6	106.4
41	North Carolina	106.0	106.0	107.2	106.4
42	Purdue	106.5	106.3	105.8	106.2
43	Tennessee	106.8	106.4	105.2	106.1
44	Stanford	106.4	105.6	106.2	106.1
45	Texas Tech	106.0	106.3	105.3	105.9
46	Pittsburgh	105.8	105.5	105.9	105.7
47	SMU	105.1	104.9	106.2	105.4
48	Appalachian St.	105.9	104.7	105.5	105.4
49	Syracuse	105.6	105.0	105.4	105.3
50	Kentucky	106.0	104.5	104.3	104.9
51	Ole Miss	105.1	104.2	104.9	104.7
52	Memphis	104.6	104.4	105.1	104.7
53	Florida St.	104.5	104.6	104.5	104.6
54	Utah St.	104.6	103.4	105.6	104.5
55	Maryland	104.7	104.1	103.7	104.2
56	Wake Forest	103.5	102.9	103.8	103.4
57	Nebraska	103.1	103.9	102.5	103.2
58	Tulane	102.3	103.2	103.1	102.9
59	West Virginia	103.2	102.7	102.5	102.8
60	Temple	102.4	101.7	103.6	102.6
61	North Carolina St.	101.3	101.1	101.6	101.3
62	Arizona	100.8	100.9	100.9	100.9
63	Virginia Tech	100.7	100.8	101.1	100.9
64	Boston College	100.5	100.3	100.8	100.5
65	Louisiana	99.8	99.8	99.5	99.7
66	Air Force	98.9	100.3	99.7	99.6
67	Houston	98.0	98.8	100.3	99.0
68	San Diego St.	98.3	100.1	98.3	98.9
69	Hawaii	98.4	99.8	97.7	98.6
70	Wyoming	97.7	99.8	98.2	98.6
71	Western Michigan	98.8	97.7	98.7	98.4
72	BYU	98.4	98.3	98.1	98.3
73	Fresno St.	97.7	98.3	98.0	98.0
74	Arkansas	97.8	98.5	97.3	97.9
75	Louisville	97.9	97.8	97.7	97.8
76	Army	97.4	97.3	96.8	97.2
77	Colorado	97.4	97.1	97.1	97.2
78	U C L A	96.7	96.4	95.7	96.3
79	Illinois	96.1	96.9	95.1	96.1
80	Oregon St.	95.7	96.7	94.9	95.8
81	Southern Miss.	95.8	94.2	96.1	95.4
82	Kansas	93.9	94.9	93.7	94.2
83	Vanderbilt	95.1	93.8	93.5	94.1
84	Navy	93.0	95.6	93.5	94.1
85	Troy	94.2	94.4	93.1	93.9
86	Georgia Southern	94.1	93.5	93.2	93.6
87	Florida Atlantic	93.0	92.6	94.1	93.2
88	Georgia Tech	93.5	91.8	93.8	93.0
89	Ohio	92.9	91.9	93.3	92.7
90	Florida Int’l.	92.5	92.4	92.9	92.6
91	Louisiana Tech	92.4	92.4	92.5	92.4
92	Northern Illinois	92.5	91.6	92.8	92.3
93	Toledo	91.3	91.6	92.0	91.6
94	North Texas	91.3	90.7	92.0	91.3
95	South Florida	90.8	91.8	91.2	91.3
96	Tulsa	90.3	91.1	91.1	90.8
97	Arkansas St.	90.8	91.0	90.5	90.8
98	Western Kentucky	89.8	90.9	91.5	90.7
99	Marshall	89.3	88.8	90.2	89.4
100	Buffalo	88.9	89.3	89.9	89.3
101	Liberty	88.8	90.1	89.1	89.3
102	U A B	88.3	90.2	89.1	89.2
103	Ball St.	89.0	88.6	89.1	88.9
104	Middle Tennessee	89.0	87.9	88.9	88.6
105	Louisiana-Monroe	88.2	89.1	88.2	88.5
106	Georgia St.	88.2	89.6	87.7	88.5
107	Kent St.	88.2	88.2	88.7	88.4
108	Nevada	87.8	89.5	87.2	88.2
109	Miami (Ohio)	88.2	86.5	88.2	87.6
110	Eastern Michigan	85.9	86.1	86.2	86.1
111	Coastal Carolina	86.0	87.1	85.2	86.1
112	San Jose St.	85.4	87.5	85.0	86.0
113	U N L V	85.5	87.1	85.2	85.9
114	Central Michigan	84.8	85.6	85.7	85.3
115	Charlotte	84.4	84.8	84.5	84.6
116	Rutgers	84.9	84.5	83.9	84.4
117	Colorado St.	82.5	86.3	82.8	83.9
118	East Carolina	83.0	84.9	82.9	83.6
119	Texas St.	83.2	84.0	82.8	83.3
120	Rice	80.5	81.9	79.9	80.8
121	New Mexico	79.6	82.4	78.4	80.2
122	New Mexico St.	78.0	80.4	78.3	78.9
123	Old Dominion	78.0	78.4	78.1	78.2
124	South Alabama	74.3	77.2	73.6	75.1
125	Bowling Green	74.9	74.8	75.1	75.0
126	Texas-San Antonio	74.2	76.5	73.9	74.8
127	Akron	72.9	73.1	71.9	72.6
128	Connecticut	71.0	74.6	69.5	71.7
129	U T E P	67.3	72.1	67.9	69.1
130	Massachusetts	62.1	63.9	61.0	62.3

 

PiRate Ratings By Conference

 

American Athletic Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Central Florida	111.5	110.6	112.4	111.5	1-1	4-2
Cincinnati	109.0	107.8	109.8	108.9	2-0	5-1
Temple	102.4	101.7	103.6	102.6	2-0	5-1
South Florida	90.8	91.8	91.2	91.3	1-1	3-3
East Carolina	83.0	84.9	82.9	83.6	0-2	3-3
Connecticut	71.0	74.6	69.5	71.7	0-3	1-5
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
SMU	105.1	104.9	106.2	105.4	2-0	6-0
Memphis	104.6	104.4	105.1	104.7	1-1	5-1
Tulane	102.3	103.2	103.1	102.9	2-0	5-1
Houston	98.0	98.8	100.3	99.0	0-2	2-4
Navy	93.0	95.6	93.5	94.1	2-1	4-1
Tulsa	90.3	91.1	91.1	90.8	0-2	2-4
AAC Averages	96.7	97.5	97.4	97.2
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Clemson	132.2	129.3	132.9	131.5	4-0	6-0
Syracuse	105.6	105.0	105.4	105.3	0-2	3-3
Florida St.	104.5	104.6	104.5	104.6	2-2	3-3
Wake Forest	103.5	102.9	103.8	103.4	1-1	5-1
North Carolina St.	101.3	101.1	101.6	101.3	1-1	4-2
Boston College	100.5	100.3	100.8	100.5	1-2	3-3
Louisville	97.9	97.8	97.7	97.8	2-1	4-2
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Duke	107.7	107.1	107.6	107.5	2-1	4-2
Virginia	106.7	106.8	106.6	106.7	2-1	4-2
Miami (Fla.)	106.4	105.7	107.2	106.4	1-2	3-3
North Carolina	106.0	106.0	107.2	106.4	2-1	3-3
Pittsburgh	105.8	105.5	105.9	105.7	1-1	4-2
Virginia Tech	100.7	100.8	101.1	100.9	2-2	4-2
Georgia Tech	93.5	91.8	93.8	93.0	0-3	1-5
ACC Averages	105.2	104.6	105.4	105.1
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	B12	Overall
Oklahoma	124.4	123.6	124.1	124.0	3-0	6-0
Iowa St.	115.7	116.3	115.9	116.0	2-1	4-2
Texas	113.3	113.5	113.7	113.5	2-1	4-2
Baylor	112.1	112.2	111.5	111.9	3-0	6-0
Oklahoma St.	110.0	110.5	109.6	110.0	1-2	4-2
Kansas St.	108.2	107.8	107.8	107.9	0-2	3-2
T C U	105.3	108.3	105.6	106.4	1-1	3-2
Texas Tech	106.0	106.3	105.3	105.9	1-2	3-3
West Virginia	103.2	102.7	102.5	102.8	1-2	3-3
Kansas	93.9	94.9	93.7	94.2	0-3	2-4
Big 12 Averages	109.2	109.6	109.0	109.3
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Ohio St.	135.3	134.2	136.2	135.2	3-0	6-0
Penn St.	122.5	121.6	122.6	122.3	3-0	6-0
Michigan	119.1	117.4	119.2	118.6	3-1	5-1
Michigan St.	114.0	113.2	113.7	113.6	2-2	4-3
Indiana	108.3	106.8	107.5	107.5	1-2	4-2
Maryland	104.7	104.1	103.7	104.2	1-2	3-3
Rutgers	84.9	84.5	83.9	84.4	0-4	1-5
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Wisconsin	124.2	123.9	124.4	124.2	3-0	6-0
Iowa	118.0	116.1	118.0	117.3	1-2	4-2
Minnesota	112.4	112.0	111.7	112.0	3-0	6-0
Northwestern	107.5	106.7	106.5	106.9	0-3	1-4
Purdue	106.5	106.3	105.8	106.2	1-2	2-4
Nebraska	103.1	103.9	102.5	103.2	2-2	4-3
Illinois	96.1	96.9	95.1	96.1	0-3	2-4
Big Ten Averages	111.2	110.5	110.8	110.8
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Florida Atlantic	93.0	92.6	94.1	93.2	2-0	4-2
Florida Int’l.	92.5	92.4	92.9	92.6	1-2	3-3
Western Kentucky	89.8	90.9	91.5	90.7	3-0	4-2
Marshall	89.3	88.8	90.2	89.4	1-1	3-3
Middle Tennessee	89.0	87.9	88.9	88.6	1-1	2-4
Charlotte	84.4	84.8	84.5	84.6	0-2	2-4
Old Dominion	78.0	78.4	78.1	78.2	0-2	1-5
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Southern Miss.	95.8	94.2	96.1	95.4	2-0	4-2
Louisiana Tech	92.4	92.4	92.5	92.4	2-0	5-1
North Texas	91.3	90.7	92.0	91.3	1-1	2-4
U A B	88.3	90.2	89.1	89.2	2-1	5-1
Rice	80.5	81.9	79.9	80.8	0-2	0-6
Texas-San Antonio	74.2	76.5	73.9	74.8	1-2	2-4
U T E P	67.3	72.1	67.9	69.1	0-2	1-4
CUSA Averages	86.1	86.7	86.5	86.5
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	Conf.	Overall
Notre Dame	120.2	118.5	120.1	119.6	x	5-1
BYU	98.4	98.3	98.1	98.3	x	2-4
Army	97.4	97.3	96.8	97.2	x	3-3
Liberty	88.8	90.1	89.1	89.3	x	4-2
New Mexico St.	78.0	80.4	78.3	78.9	x	0-7
Massachusetts	62.1	63.9	61.0	62.3	x	1-6
Indep. Averages	90.8	91.4	90.6	90.9
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Ohio	92.9	91.9	93.3	92.7	1-1	2-4
Buffalo	88.9	89.3	89.9	89.3	0-2	2-4
Kent St.	88.2	88.2	88.7	88.4	2-0	3-3
Miami (Ohio)	88.2	86.5	88.2	87.6	1-1	2-4
Bowling Green	74.9	74.8	75.1	75.0	1-1	2-4
Akron	72.9	73.1	71.9	72.6	0-2	0-6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Western Michigan	98.8	97.7	98.7	98.4	2-1	4-3
Northern Illinois	92.5	91.6	92.8	92.3	1-1	2-4
Toledo	91.3	91.6	92.0	91.6	1-1	4-2
Ball St.	89.0	88.6	89.1	88.9	2-0	3-3
Eastern Michigan	85.9	86.1	86.2	86.1	0-2	3-3
Central Michigan	84.8	85.6	85.7	85.3	2-1	4-3
MAC Averages	87.4	87.1	87.6	87.4
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Boise St.	107.5	107.3	108.1	107.6	3-0	6-0
Utah St.	104.6	103.4	105.6	104.5	2-0	3-2
Air Force	98.9	100.3	99.7	99.6	2-1	4-2
Wyoming	97.7	99.8	98.2	98.6	1-1	4-2
Colorado St.	82.5	86.3	82.8	83.9	1-2	2-5
New Mexico	79.6	82.4	78.4	80.2	0-2	2-4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
San Diego St.	98.3	100.1	98.3	98.9	2-1	5-1
Hawaii	98.4	99.8	97.7	98.6	1-1	4-2
Fresno St.	97.7	98.3	98.0	98.0	0-1	2-3
Nevada	87.8	89.5	87.2	88.2	1-1	4-2
San Jose St.	85.4	87.5	85.0	86.0	1-2	3-3
U N L V	85.5	87.1	85.2	85.9	1-2	2-4
MWC Averages	93.7	95.1	93.7	94.2
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Oregon	118.7	118.8	120.0	119.2	3-0	5-1
Washington	114.2	113.9	115.3	114.5	2-2	5-2
Washington St.	110.5	109.5	110.6	110.2	0-3	3-3
California	106.2	105.9	107.2	106.4	1-2	4-2
Stanford	106.4	105.6	106.2	106.1	2-2	3-3
Oregon St.	95.7	96.7	94.9	95.8	1-2	2-4
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Utah	121.5	120.2	122.0	121.2	2-1	5-1
Arizona St.	108.5	107.9	109.4	108.6	2-1	5-1
U S C	108.1	108.8	108.6	108.5	2-1	3-3
Arizona	100.8	100.9	100.9	100.9	2-1	4-2
Colorado	97.4	97.1	97.1	97.2	1-2	3-3
U C L A	96.7	96.4	95.7	96.3	1-2	1-5
Pac-12 Averages	107.1	106.8	107.3	107.1
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Georgia	126.7	124.9	126.9	126.2	2-1	5-1
Florida	122.4	119.4	121.8	121.2	4-1	6-1
Missouri	116.4	114.0	116.5	115.6	2-0	5-1
South Carolina	113.9	112.3	113.9	113.4	2-2	3-3
Tennessee	106.8	106.4	105.2	106.1	1-2	2-4
Kentucky	106.0	104.5	104.3	104.9	1-3	3-3
Vanderbilt	95.1	93.8	93.5	94.1	0-3	1-5
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Alabama	135.8	132.5	136.5	134.9	3-0	6-0
L S U	128.4	126.1	128.0	127.5	2-0	6-0
Auburn	121.5	119.6	121.1	120.7	2-1	5-1
Texas A&M	116.8	115.0	115.3	115.7	1-2	3-3
Mississippi St.	111.1	107.4	116.0	111.5	1-2	3-3
Ole Miss	105.1	104.2	104.9	104.7	2-2	3-4
Arkansas	97.8	98.5	97.3	97.9	0-3	2-4
SEC Averages	114.6	112.7	114.4	113.9
Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Appalachian St.	105.9	104.7	105.5	105.4	2-0	5-0
Troy	94.2	94.4	93.1	93.9	0-1	2-3
Georgia Southern	94.1	93.5	93.2	93.6	1-1	2-3
Georgia St.	88.2	89.6	87.7	88.5	2-1	4-2
Coastal Carolina	86.0	87.1	85.2	86.1	0-2	3-3
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Louisiana	99.8	99.8	99.5	99.7	1-1	4-2
Arkansas St.	90.8	91.0	90.5	90.8	1-1	3-3
Louisiana-Monroe	88.2	89.1	88.2	88.5	2-0	3-3
Texas St.	83.2	84.0	82.8	83.3	1-1	2-4
South Alabama	74.3	77.2	73.6	75.1	0-2	1-5
SBC Averages	90.5	91.0	89.9	90.5

 

 

Conference Power Ratings
#	League	Average
1	SEC	113.9
2	BTen	110.8
3	B12	109.3
4	P12	107.1
5	ACC	105.1
6	AAC	97.2
7	MWC	94.2
8	Ind	90.9
9	SUN	90.5
10	MAC	87.4
11	CUSA	86.5

 

Top 5 Group of 5
1	Boise St.
2	SMU
3	Cincinnati
4	Appalachian St.
5	Temple

 

This Week’s Bowl and Playoff Projections

 

Bowl	Conf	Conf	Team	Team
Bahamas	MAC	CUSA	Ball St.	Florida Atlantic
Frisco	AAC	At-large	Navy	[North Texas]
Cure	AAC	SBC	Central Florida	Arkansas St.
New Mexico	CUSA	MWC	Marshall	Fresno St.
Boca Raton	AAC	MAC	Cincinnati	Western Michigan
Camellia	MAC	SBC	Central Michigan	Troy
Las Vegas	MWC #1	Pac-12	San Diego St.	Arizona
New Orleans	CUSA	SBC #1	Southern Miss.	Appalachian St.
Gasparilla	AAC	CUSA	Memphis	UAB
Hawaii	BYU/MWC	AAC	Hawaii	SMU
Independence	ACC	SEC	Florida St.	[Western Kentucky]
Quick Lane	ACC	Big Ten	Louisville	[Buffalo]
Military	ACC	AAC	North Carolina St.	Temple
Pinstripe	ACC	Big Ten	Duke	Michigan St.
Texas	Big 12	SEC	Oklahoma St.	Texas A&M
Holiday	Pac-12	Big Ten	Arizona St.	Michigan
Cheez-It	Big 12	Pac-12	Texas Tech	Washington St.
Camping World	ACC	Big 12	North Carolina	Iowa St.
Cotton	At-large	At-large	Minnesota	Boise St.
First Responder	CUSA	Big 12	Louisiana Tech	[Nevada]
Redbox	Pac-12	Big Ten	Washington	Purdue
Music City	SEC	ACC	[Georgia Southern]	Wake Forest
Orange	ACC	BTen/SEC	Notre Dame	LSU
Belk	ACC	SEC	Pittsburgh	Mississippi St.
Sun	ACC	Pac-12	Virginia	USC
Liberty	Big 12	SEC	Kansas St.	[California]
Arizona	SBC	MWC	Georgia St.	Utah St.
Alamo	Big 12	Pac-12	Baylor	Utah
Citrus	SEC	BTen/ACC	Florida	Iowa
Outback	Big Ten	SEC	Penn St.	Auburn
Rose	Big Ten	Pac-12	Wisconsin	Oregon
Sugar	Big 12	SEC	Texas	Georgia
Birmingham	AAC	SEC	Tulane	[Miami (Fla.]
Taxslayer/Gator	SEC	Big Ten	South Carolina	Indiana
Idaho Potato	MAC	MWC	Kent St.	Wyoming
Armed Forces	Big Ten	MWC	[Florida Int’l.]	Air Force
Dollar General	MAC	SBC	Toledo	Louisiana
FBS PLAYOFFS
Fiesta	Top 4	Top 4	Clemson	Ohio St.
Peach	Top 4	Top 4	Alabama	Oklahoma
Championship	Fiesta	Peach	Ohio St.	Alabama
Teams in [Brackets] are at-large selections

 

Reverse Engineering the NCAA Playoffs

Here is our best estimate as to which teams would have qualified for the Playoffs in the years before there were playoffs.  This covers the PiRate Ratings era (1969-Present)

 

 

2013: Florida St., Auburn, Alabama, Michigan St.

Auburn and Alabama would have met in a rematch

 

2012: Notre Dame, Alabama, Florida, Oregon

Ohio State was 12-0 but ineligible that year

 

2011: LSU, Alabama, Stanford, Oklahoma St.

Andrew Luck versus the Crimson Tide and Les Myles against his old team

 

2010: Auburn, Oregon, TCU, Wisconsin

3, 12-0 teams and a possible Andy Dalton vs. Cam Newton in the Championship Game

 

2009: Alabama, Texas, TCU, Boise St.

All four teams were 12-0.  Nick Saban’s only undefeated team may have been one of his weaker teams at Alabama.  

 

2008: Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Utah

This is a year where an 8-team playoff would have been needed, as there were nine teams that could be considered playoff worthy.  Only Utah was undefeated, and the Utes slaughtered Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

 

2007: Ohio St., LSU, Kansas, Oklahoma

This would have been a difficult year for a Selection Committee with only three deserving teams.  Number four could have been Missouri, Georgia, or USC.

 

2006: Ohio St., Florida, Michigan, Louisville

Ohio State and Michigan were both 11-0 when they met in Columbus.  The Buckeyes’ home field advantage is historically between 3.5 and 4.5 points, and they only won this game by three.  Might Michigan have been a little better that year?  Florida and Michigan in a semifinal game might have set up a rematch of the bitter rivals.

 

2005: USC, Texas, Penn St., Oregon

This was definitely a year where only two teams were needed for playoffs.  It would have been ashamed if either USC or Texas had been upset in a semifinal game, robbing the nation of one of the best Championship Games ever.

 

2004: USC, Oklahoma, Auburn, Utah

All four of these teams were 12-0 at the end of the regular season.  Auburn and Utah were won impressive bowl games, and this would have been one of the best playoff years ever.

 

2003: USC, LSU, Oklahoma, Michigan

The BCS folks got this one wrong by not taking USC that year, and the AP Poll voted USC the national champion over LSU.

 

2002: Miami, Ohio St., Iowa, Georgia

Ohio State and Iowa did not play each other that year, as this pre-dates the Big Ten Championship Game.

 

2001: Miami, Oregon, Nebraska, Illinois

This was another tough year, and it didn’t need a playoff at all, as Miami was clearly 7-10 points better than anybody else in the nation.  Illinois gets the nod over Maryland and Colorado.

 

2000: Oklahoma, Washington, Miami, Florida St.

This was a year where a 6-team tournament, adding Oregon State and Virginia Tech, would have been needed.  Washington was more deserving than Florida State that year.

 

1999: Florida St., Virginia Tech, Nebraska, Kansas St.

The two teams that played for the title were the only legitimate teams that should have played for a title that year.

 

1998: Tennessee, Ohio St., Florida St., Kansas St.

UCLA might have been the best team headed into the final weeks that year, but the Bruins made a mistake playing at Miami to close out the regular season.  They were not ready for the heat and humidity, or the Miami speed.  Ohio State was more deserving of the Championship Game bid than Florida State.

1997: Nebraska, Michigan, Tennessee, Florida St.

Peyton Manning versus Charles Woodson in a battle of the top two Heisman Trophy candidates.  Then, in all likelihood, it would have been Michigan and Nebraska in one of the best Championship Games never to be played.

1996: Florida St., Arizona St., Florida, Ohio St.

John Cooper had two teams that were probably the best in the land, but his Buckeyes always found a way to lay an egg at some point during the season.  This Buckeyes’ team probably would have beaten Florida St. in a semifinal game.

1995: Nebraska, Florida, Tennessee, Northwestern

Florida, Tennessee, and Northwestern could have combined their rosters and still lost to Nebraska by 14 points.  This was the most dominant team of the last 25 years.

1994: Nebraska, Penn St., Alabama, Miami

A 10-0-1 Texas A&M team was on probation that year.  Nebraska and Penn State would have been an incredible game had they played that year.  In those days, the Big Ten champion went to the Rose Bowl, and there was no guarantee that the top two teams would play each other.

1993: Nebraska, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Florida St.

An 11-0 Auburn team may have been the best in the nation that year, but the Tigers were on probation.  Notre Dame’s upset loss at Boston College kept the Irish out of the National Championship Game, allowing a Florida State team that ND beat to sneak in to the Orange Bowl.  The Irish were probably the best team that year.

1992: Alabama, Miami, Texas A&M, Florida St.

One wide field goal attempt against Miami was all that kept Florida State from going undefeated.  Had the ball been true, there would have been four teams with no losses.  It didn’t matter that year, as ‘Bama was clearly  the best team in the nation with the best defense in modern day football (Wisconsin has a chance to take that moniker away this year if they run the table and stop Ohio State’s offense).

1991: Washington, Miami, Florida, Michigan

Washington and Miami needed to meet for the national championship that year.  The PiRate Ratings had Washington rated about two points ahead of Miami that year.

1990: Georgia Tech, Colorado, Texas, Miami

This was one of the toughest years to pick any of the teams.  At 10-2, Miami was probably the best team that year, as they pasted Texas in the Cotton Bowl 46-3, committing more yards in penalties than Texas had in offense.  Miami’s defense would have shut down Georgia Tech in the semifinals, and none of the triple option teams ever had success against the Hurricane defenses of those times.  Colorado’s I-bone would have been shut down.

 

1989: Colorado, Miami, Notre Dame, Michigan

Colorado was the only undefeated team, but they may have been the weakest of these four teams.  A Notre Dame-Michigan title game would have been a good one that year.

 

1988: Notre Dame, West Virginia, Miami, Auburn

This was another tough year to come up with team number four, as five or six other teams could have slid into this spot.  A third-seeded Miami team would have swept both playoff games by double digit margins.  Miami’s only loss that year was at Notre Dame by one point on one of the worst blown calls ever made in a game with championship implications.  Facing 4th down and 7 at the Notre Dame 11 yard line, Hurricane quarterback Steve Walsh threw a pass to receiver Cleveland Gary inside the five yard line.  Gary caught the ball and stretched forward.  The ball hit the goalline before any other part of Gary’s body touched the ground.  Not only did the referees not award Miami a touchdown, they at first called a fumble that was recovered by Notre Dame, after the ball was dropped just after Gary pounded it on the goalline.  Then to make a second mistake, the referees said it wasn’t a fumble and then gave the ball to Notre Dame on downs, when Miami only needed to get to the four yard line.  Miami would have beaten Notre Dame in a rematch by 14-17 points that year.

I heard a funny quip on sports radio the Monday after that game.  The host said that the referees, O’Brien, O’Malley, O’Sullivan, Kelly, Murphy,  and Ryan, decided that the goalline can cause a fumble.

 

1987: Miami, Oklahoma, Florida St., Syracuse

This was another one of those wide right years for Florida State in a one-point loss to Miami.  These two rivals would have most likely played for the title that year.

 

1986: Miami, Penn St., Oklahoma, Michigan

This would have been an interesting playoff, especially the Miami-Michigan game.  Bo Schembechler’s defense would have given Vinny Testaverde similar fits to the one Penn State gave him in the real Championship Game.  It might have been Penn State and Michigan playing for the title.

 

1985: Penn St., Oklahoma, Iowa, Miami

Florida at 9-1-1 might have been the best team at the end of the year, but the Gators were on probation.  This would have been a fairly even season with three close playoff games.

 

1984: Washington, Oklahoma, South Carolina, BYU

Yes, BYU was the real national champion that year, but they won it only because this was a down year in the major conferences.  Washington would have quickly dismissed BYU in the semifinals, while Oklahoma would have edged South Carolina.  Florida was on probation for the first of two years and went 9-1-1.  The Gators were probably the best team in the nation by the end of November, slaughtering ranked Georgia, Auburn, and Florida State teams by a combined 78-20.

 

1983: Nebraska, Texas, Auburn, Illinois

The actual national champion Miami would not have been invited to the Playoffs that year.  Illinois beat three top 10 teams that year by a combined 66-19 score.  10-1 Auburn only lost to 11-0 Texas.  Nebraska might have had trouble facing Illinois’s passing game since the Cornhuskers did not face a passing offense like this in the Big 8.  Texas beat three top 10 teams during the season and held opponents to less than 10 points per game.  This should have been an interesting Playoff season.

 

1982: Georgia, Penn St., SMU, Nebraska

SMU wasn’t yet on probation, even though this team was the one with all the violations.  The Pony Express would have given Penn State a tough game, while Georgia and Nebraska should have been a close one as well.  Any of the four teams could have won the title.  Nebraska’s lone loss was at Penn State by a field goal.

 

1981: Clemson, Georgia, Pittsburgh, Alabama

The two best teams in the nation that year were Clemson and Pittsburgh.  The Panthers were cruising along as the number one team and had a 10-0 record when they hosted Penn State in the regular season finale.  After scoring two quick touchdowns to take a 14-0 lead on the Nittany Lions.  Pitt outgained Penn State by more than 140 yards in the first quarter, and it looked like this would be a blowout win for the top-rated team.  Then, Penn State woke up and went on a scoring tear like Army in the World War II years, scoring 48 points in the last three quarters on a Pitt team that had given up just 92 points in its first ten games.  Poor Dan Marino–always a bridesmaid and never a bride. 

 

1980: Georgia, Pittsburgh, Florida St., Baylor

Hershel Walker would have rolled over Baylor in the semifinals, setting up an interesting championship game against either Pitt or FSU.  

 

1979: Alabama, Ohio State, USC, Florida St.

All four of these teams went unbeaten (USC had a tie), and this would have been an interesting playoff for sure.  This Alabama team got through the year unscathed against a rather weak schedule.  USC was probably the best team in the nation that year.  The Trojans were stacked with talent.  Both Charles White and Marcus Allen were the featured backs out of the I-formation.  Paul McDonald was one of the best passing quarterbacks the Trojans had up to that time.  Brad Budde was the best offensive lineman in the nation that year.  The USC secondary might have been the best one in college football history with Ronnie Lott, Dennis Smith, Jeff Fisher, Herb Ward, and Joey Browner.

 

1978: USC, Alabama, Oklahoma, Penn St.

Penn State was the only undefeated team that year, but their schedule included a lot of easy wins.  USC won at Alabama and were probably the best team in the nation that year.

 

1977: Texas, Michigan, Alabama, Oklahoma

Actual National Champion Notre Dame would not have made the Playoffs in a year where at least eight if not 12 teams were worthy.  Michigan appeared to be the superior team in the land for the second consecutive year, but the Wolverines came up short for the second year in a row.  Alabama probably had the best team at the end of the regular season, and the Tide won at Number 1 USC earlier in the year.  

 

1976: Pittsburgh, Michigan, USC, Georgia

Johnny Majors had Tony Dorsett as his tailback, and TD was nearly unstoppable.  Throw in a stingy defense that intercepted a lot of passes and recovered a lot of fumbles, and the Panthers would have probably won this Playoffs with ease.  When on their game, Michigan was good enough to play on an even level with Pitt, but up to this point in his career, no Bo Schembechler-coached team had won its final game of the year.

 

1975: Ohio St., Alabama, Oklahoma, Arizona St.

Ohio State was undefeated with Heisman Trophy running back Archie Griffin and bulldozer Pete Johnson both topping 1,000 yards rushing.  Unlike many of Woody Hayes’ teams, this one had a decent passing attack with Cornelius Greene passing to Brian Baschnagel.  The Buckeyes beat four ranked teams in the regular season by a combined 100-29 score.  However, by the end of November, Alabama was clearly the best team in the nation.  An early stumble to open the season at Missouri, a school that pulled off several major upsets during this era, pushed the Tide out to sea.  Bear’s boys were unstoppable after that loss.  Alabama gave up just 46 points after that loss in week one, winning 10 games with ease.  Washington coach Don James after losing to ‘Bama 52-0 said they were the best team he had ever seen as a coach or player.

 

1974: Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, USC

Oklahoma was the clear cut best team in the nation, but the Sooners were on probation this year.  OU would have easily beaten any of these four teams that year.  These four that weren’t on probation would have played three close games with USC likely coming out on top.

 

 

1973: Notre Dame, Alabama, Penn St., Ohio St.

This was one of the most incredible years in college football history.  Left out in this equation is a 10-0-1 Michigan team that tied 9-0-1 Ohio State but lost their quarterback for the season in the Big Game.

This group of four could have played this tournament a dozen times and each team might have won it three times each.  Our PiRate Ratings had Ohio State the number one team after the bowls that year.

 

1972: USC, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio St.

This was a time when the “haves” had a lot more than the “have nots,” and thus as many as 10 teams had playoff-worthy resumes.  In the end, it really didn’t matter this season, because USC was the best team in the nation by at least a touchdown over Oklahoma and more than 10 points over anybody else.  This was the best West Coast team ever. It had two future NFL quarterbacks in Mike Rae and Pat Haden.  Fullback Sam “Bam” Cunnigham blocked for Anthony Davis, while a trio of star receivers, Lynn Swann, J.K. McKay, and Charles Young, forced defenses to play three and four deep in the secondary.

 

1971: Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, Michigan

The 1971 Nebraska team ranks as the all-time best team in PiRate Ratings’ history (1969 to present).  The 1971 Oklahoma team ranks as one of the 10 best in PiRate Ratings’ history.  These two teams were so far ahead of the rest of the nation.  Oklahoma would have beaten Alabama by at least three touchdowns, while Nebraska would have likely beaten Michigan by a score like 31-0.  The rematch for the National Championship might have been the best one ever had there been Playoffs back then.

1970: Ohio St., Texas, Nebraska, Arizona St.

Arizona State didn’t get any respect in 1970, but this undefeated team might have been strong enough to knock off Ohio State.  The schedule was suspect, but if you look at the roster, it was stocked with future NFL players.  Notre Dame and Tennessee were equally qualified to make the Playoffs this year, and a Committee might have given the edge to the Fighting Irish with Joe Theismann at quarterback.

 

1969: Penn St., Texas, Arkansas, USC

This is the year that the PiRate Ratings were born (although not named the PiRate Ratings until 2001).  It was because so  many teams were really good this season that I started making ratings.   If ever a season needed a 12-team Playoff, this is the one.  A case could have been made for 16 teams that year.  

If you ask me, Penn State would have won the title had there been Playoffs.  This Nittany Lion defense and special teams were among the best ever, as they scored or set up more points than they allowed.  When your number two and number three running backs are future All-pros Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell, and when your starting quarterback went undefeated for his entire football career (Youth league to College), how can you deny this 11-0 team that finished the 1969 season riding a 22-game winning streak and 30 game unbeaten streak?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For Monday, March 4, 2019

March 4, 2019

Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Duke	Gonzaga	Virginia	Kentucky
2	Tennessee	Michigan	North Carolina	Michigan St.
3	Houston	LSU	Purdue	Texas Tech
4	Kansas	Marquette	Wisconsin	Florida St.
5	Kansas St.	Virginia Tech	Nevada	Iowa St.
6	Maryland	Mississippi St.	Cincinnati	Villanova
7	Buffalo	Louisville	Baylor	Iowa
8	Auburn	Wofford	Syracuse	Washington
9	Ole Miss	Virginia Commonwealth	Florida	St. John’s
10	TCU	Texas	Central Florida	Ohio St.
11	Oklahoma	Alabama	Minnesota	Seton Hall
12	North Carolina St./Temple	Arizona St./Utah St.	Belmont	Lipscomb
13	New Mexico St.	Old Dominion	Vermont	Hofstra
14	UC-irvine	Yale	South Dakota St.	Texas St.
15	Montana	Colgate	Drake	Wright St.
16	Campbell	Sam Houston St.	Norfolk St./St. Francis (PA)	Siena/Texas Southern
Last 4 In	North Carolina St.	Arizona St.	Utah St.	Temple
Last 4 Bye	Oklahoma	Alabama	Minnesota	Seton Hall
First 4 Out	Clemson	Indiana	Georgetown	Furman
Next 4 Out	Murray St.	Nebraska	Xavier	Saint Mary’s

 

Bids By Conference	Bids
ACC	8
Big Ten	8
Big 12	8
SEC	8
AAC	4
Big East	4
MWC	2
Pac-12	2
One-Bid Leagues	24

 

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For Friday, March 1, 2019

March 1, 2019

Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Gonzaga	Virginia	Kentucky	Duke
2	Michigan St.	North Carolina	Tennessee	Michigan
3	Houston	Purdue	LSU	Texas Tech
4	Kansas	Virginia Tech	Marquette	Nevada
5	Kansas St.	Iowa St.	Florida St.	Mississippi St.
6	Maryland	Wisconsin	Baylor	Villanova
7	Wofford	Cincinnati	Louisville	Buffalo
8	Ohio St.	Florida	Syracuse	Iowa
9	St. John’s	Washington	Auburn	Oklahoma
10	Ole Miss	TCU	North Carolina St.	Virginia Commonwealth
11	Central Florida	Texas	Utah St.	Temple
12	Alabama/Seton Hall	Clemson/Minnesota	Belmont	Lipscomb
13	New Mexico St.	Hofstra	Yale	Vermont
14	Old Dominion	South Dakota St.	UC-Irvine	Montana
15	Texas St.	Radford	Drake	Wright St.
16	Colgate	Sam Houston	Texas Sou./St. Francis (PA)	Siena/Norfolk St.

 

Last 4 In	Alabama	Clemson	Minnesota	Seton Hall
Last 4 Bye	Central Florida	Texas	Utah St.	Temple
First 4 Out	Arizona St.	Butler	Georgetown	Furman
Next 4 Out	UNC Greensboro	Dayton	Murray St.	Memphis

 

Bids By Conference	Bids
ACC	9
Big Ten	8
Big 12	8
SEC	8
AAC	4
Big East	4
MWC	2
One-Bid Leagues	25

 

Note: We expect a school other than Washington will win the Pac-12 Conference Tournament and thus allow two Pac-12 teams to go to the NCAA Tournament.  For now, Arizona State has played itself outside the at-large pool after a short stay in the last four in.

We also believe there is a decent chance that a school other than Buffalo might win the MAC Championship.  If this happens, then the MAC will get two teams in the field.

Wofford is most likely going to get in the field whether or not they earn the automatic bid from the Southern Conference.  Should UNC-Greensboro, Furman, or East Tennessee State win the SoCon Tournament over Wofford, then we believe the Terriers will get an at-large bid, giving this league its first ever multi-bid season.

The Ohio Valley Conference could get consideration for two teams if Belmont and Murray State keep winning and meet in the Championship Game of the OVC Tournament.

Should the nearly impossible happen, and Gonzaga loses in the West Coast Conference Tournament, then the WCC will get two bids.  Saint Mary’s could strengthen its at-large hopes if they upset Gonzaga Saturday night.