PiRate Picks–October 20, 2022

A Fool’s Folly

As we always forewarn every week on this particular feature, do not use this entry as real money wagering reference material. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and this season has been a lot more entertaining to those that like comedies of errors. Last week’s picks went 3-3, which resulted in a minor loss. This week, we go with five selections, all against the spread, and a couple swimming against our normal current. Normally, we are more interested in the numbers than the names on our selections. This week, we are choosing five games where we think our pick has been undervalued. It is not our forte, but then our forte needs reinforcing.

Selection #1: Ball St. -2 1/2 over Eastern Michigan

This goes against everything we look for in making a selection. EMU has been playing hot and cold all season, and they are actually due to be hot this week. However, we think that Ball State is 7 to 10 points better, so we are taking the Cardinals as a short favorite. We considered bringing out the big 10-point teaser play with this game included to make it BSU +7 1/2, but there just weren’t two other games to combine it with to our liking.

Selection #2: Ohio +3 vs. Northern Illinois

We’d like this a lot more at +3 1/2, but we didn’t make the selection when it briefly was that number. Ohio has improved by 10 points since the start of the year, while NIU has been mediocre, and the Huskies are not playing up to their talent level. The MAC East is definitely up for grabs, and the Bobcats are in the mix. We believe Ohio will win this game outright.

Selection #3: Ole Miss + 1 1/2 vs. LSU

The Rebels have not had a lot of success in Baton Rouge, last winning there in 2008. Ole Miss has a chance to win the SEC West with Alabama coming to the Grove in November. LSU is coming off an impressive road win at Florida, and we believe the odds have been moved too many points in the Tigers’ favor based on these perceptions. Ole Miss has lapses in most of their games, but then they find their mark and go on big scoring runs, almost like a basketball team. Our belief here is that LSU might have the lead in the second half, before the Rebels score two or three times to win the game.

Selection #4: Purdue + 2 1/2 vs. Wisconsin

This was the game that had us wait to put our picks out, and it never went to 3 points during the time we isolated on it. This game may be a must-win game for the Badgers’ bowl hopes this year. Losing at Michigan State left UW with a thin margin in the hunt for a 6-6 record. On the other hand, Purdue is now squarely in the Big Ten West race with Illinois and can become bowl eligible with a win. As we said above, this game and pointspread goes against all we normally play, but maybe that’s a good thing in this strange year.

Selection #5: Penn St. -4 vs. Minnesota

Again, this is another against the current play. Normally, we would not consider a 4-point favorite coming off a deflating loss as a playable game. However, in this case, we believe the Nittany Lions might win this game by double digits. They had the third quarter lead at Michigan, and then the Wolverines proved too strong. Minnesota has not yet righted the ship after losing Tanner Morgan for the Purdue game. Morgan’s return didn’t propel the Gophers against surprising Illinois last week. Additionally, Morgan exited last week’s game with a blow to the head, and while we expect him to play this week, he won’t be 100% healthy. This looks like the perfect setting for a James Franklin-coached team to rebound with an impressive win to make next week’s very big game meaningful. Jimmy Frank will not led his team look ahead to the Buckeyes.

PiRate Ratings College Football–October 19-22, 2022

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Appalachian St.	Georgia St.	2.2	4.0	2.2
Georgia Tech	Virginia	-0.2	-0.3	0.1
South Alabama	Troy	0.3	0.2	0.1
Temple	Tulsa	-14.3	-11.9	-16.4
Western Kentucky	UAB	5.0	4.9	5.8
TCU	Kansas St.	6.0	6.0	5.9
Army	Louisiana-Monroe	13.6	13.2	13.4
Miami (Fla.)	Duke	18.2	14.8	19.0
South Carolina	Texas A&M	1.6	0.5	0.7
Rutgers	Indiana	4.1	3.8	3.2
Ohio St.	Iowa	22.7	22.7	25.5
Wake Forest	Boston College	15.9	14.8	17.1
Louisville	Pittsburgh	1.2	1.5	2.0
East Carolina	Central Florida	-7.5	-8.8	-7.8
Liberty	BYU	-9.7	-6.7	-7.8
Navy	Houston	-5.3	-5.1	-5.9
Buffalo	Toledo	-6.3	-5.3	-6.2
Central Michigan	Bowling Green	8.4	10.8	11.4
Kent St.	Akron	16.4	17.8	17.7
Miami (O)	Western Michigan	7.9	9.3	9.1
Ohio	Northern Illinois	-4.6	-2.8	-3.1
James Madison	Marshall	5.3	6.3	9.3
Old Dominion	Georgia Southern	3.7	3.9	2.6
Clemson	Syracuse	12.1	13.0	13.4
Wyoming	Utah St.	-1.3	0.7	-0.6
Colorado St.	Hawaii	11.5	11.2	11.2
New Mexico	Fresno St.	-14.3	-13.4	-15.9
New Mexico St.	San Jose St.	-19.6	-18.2	-21.4
Ball St.	Eastern Michigan	2.7	3.3	3.3
Notre Dame	UNLV	27.1	27.1	27.2
Oregon St.	Colorado	21.7	22.7	23.1
Louisiana Tech	Rice	-2.7	-1.8	-3.8
Stanford	Arizona St.	4.3	2.5	2.3
California	Washington	-6.0	-6.5	-5.8
Oregon	UCLA	6.8	6.1	4.6
UTSA	North Texas	12.3	12.0	11.5
Oklahoma St.	Texas	4.9	4.4	6.3
Alabama	Mississippi St.	16.7	17.0	18.4
LSU	Ole Miss	0.0	1.1	0.7
Baylor	Kansas	13.0	13.1	14.1
Texas Tech	West Virginia	4.8	3.8	5.8
SMU	Cincinnati	-5.2	-5.3	-6.5
Tulane	Memphis	7.6	6.7	7.9
Missouri	Vanderbilt	14.2	14.1	15.1
Texas St.	Southern Miss.	-3.3	-2.5	-2.3
Maryland	Northwestern	20.8	19.8	22.0
Charlotte	Florida Int’l.	18.2	16.6	19.1
Wisconsin	Purdue	0.8	1.1	1.3
Louisiana	Arkansas St.	11.1	9.9	11.6
UTEP	Florida Atlantic	0.7	-0.3	0.9
Air Force	Boise St.	3.5	3.9	3.4
Penn St.	Minnesota	1.7	2.5	1.3
Nevada	San Diego St.	-7.4	-5.5	-7.6

FBS vs. FCS Game

FBS	FCS	PiRate
Tennessee	UT-Martin	40.4

Teams With Byes

Arizona

Arkansas

Auburn

Coastal Carolina

Connecticut

Florida

Florida St.

Georgia

Illinois

Iowa St.

Kentucky

Massachusetts

Michigan

Michigan St.

Middle Tennessee

Nebraska

North Carolina

North Carolina St.

Oklahoma

South Florida

USC

Utah

Virginia Tech

Washington St.

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

Rank	Team	Rating
1	Ohio St.	132.9
2	Georgia	131.7
3	Alabama	129.7
4	Michigan	126.0
5	Tennessee	122.6
6	Clemson	120.1
7	Oklahoma St.	117.9
8	Utah	117.0
9	Minnesota	116.9
10	Penn St.	115.7
11	Texas	115.7
12	Ole Miss	115.6
13	T C U	115.4
14	Mississippi St.	115.3
15	Purdue	114.8
16	Oregon	114.8
17	Arkansas	113.7
18	U S C	113.5
19	NC State	113.3
20	L S U	113.1
21	Baylor	113.1
22	Wisconsin	112.9
23	Kansas St.	112.4
24	Iowa	112.3
25	Florida St.	112.2
26	Maryland	112.0
27	U C L A	111.9
28	Kentucky	111.9
29	Texas A&M	111.9
30	Illinois	111.8
31	Notre Dame	111.0
32	Pittsburgh	110.9
33	Wake Forest	110.8
34	Cincinnati	110.8
35	Oklahoma	110.4
36	UCF	110.4
37	Syracuse	110.3
38	South Carolina	109.8
39	Louisville	109.4
40	Iowa St.	109.3
41	Michigan St.	109.2
42	Miami (Fla.)	109.2
43	Texas Tech	108.6
44	North Carolina	108.3
45	Oregon St.	108.0
46	Washington	107.6
47	BYU	107.3
48	West Virginia	106.8
49	Florida	106.3
50	Auburn	105.2
51	Washington St.	104.0
52	Missouri	103.4
53	Air Force	103.1
54	Tulane	103.0
55	Kansas	102.7
56	Stanford	102.5
57	Arizona St.	102.5
58	Boise St.	102.4
59	Nebraska	102.3
60	SMU	102.1
61	Houston	101.6
62	W. Kentucky	100.3
63	Toledo	99.9
64	East Carolina	99.9
65	Rutgers	99.7
66	Indiana	99.0
67	California	98.4
68	Memphis	98.1
69	U A B	98.1
70	James Madison	97.9
71	Boston College	97.9
72	Fresno St.	97.7
73	U T S A	97.5
74	Virginia	97.2
75	Georgia St.	96.9
76	Appalachian St.	96.8
77	Liberty	96.2
78	San Jose St.	96.1
79	Arizona	95.7
80	Troy	95.4
81	Virginia Tech	95.2
82	Duke	94.9
83	N. Illinois	94.7
84	Tulsa	94.1
85	Northwestern	94.1
86	Georgia Tech	94.1
87	Louisiana	93.6
88	Army	93.5
89	Marshall	93.5
90	South Alabama	93.1
91	Navy	93.1
92	Old Dominion	93.0
93	Coastal Carolina	92.7
94	Ga. Southern	92.1
95	Vanderbilt	91.9
96	USF	91.8
97	Miami (Ohio)	91.8
98	Buffalo	91.5
99	San Diego St.	91.4
100	Central Mich.	91.4
101	Utah St.	91.3
102	Kent St.	89.9
103	Southern Miss.	88.9
104	Ohio	88.7
105	Colorado	88.5
106	North Texas	88.0
107	Wyoming	87.9
108	Florida Atlantic	87.9
109	U N L V	86.9
110	Rice	86.0
111	U T E P	85.8
112	Ball St.	85.6
113	Middle Tennessee	85.6
114	Western Mich.	85.5
115	Arkansas St.	85.2
116	Eastern Mich.	85.0
117	Texas St.	83.8
118	Bowling Green	83.7
119	UL-Monroe	83.1
120	Colorado St.	83.1
121	Nevada	82.0
122	Connecticut	81.2
123	Louisiana Tech	80.8
124	Charlotte	80.2
125	New Mexico	80.2
126	Temple	77.4
127	Hawaii	74.8
128	Akron	74.6
129	New Mexico St.	73.9
130	Massachusetts	70.2
131	Florida Int’l.	64.7

PiRate Ratings By Conference

American Athletic Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Cincinnati	110.6	110.0	111.8	110.8
UCF	109.9	110.7	110.6	110.4
Tulane	103.2	102.7	103.2	103.0
SMU	102.5	101.7	102.2	102.1
Houston	101.8	101.0	101.9	101.6
East Carolina	99.9	99.4	100.3	99.9
Memphis	98.1	98.5	97.8	98.1
Tulsa	94.4	93.7	94.3	94.1
Navy	93.5	92.9	93.0	93.1
USF	92.5	91.3	91.6	91.8
Temple	77.5	79.3	75.4	77.4
AAC	98.5	98.3	98.4	98.4
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Clemson	120.0	120.0	120.4	120.1
NC State	113.9	112.8	113.2	113.3
Florida St.	112.4	112.0	112.2	112.2
Wake Forest	110.8	110.7	110.9	110.8
Syracuse	111.0	110.0	109.9	110.3
Louisville	110.1	109.3	109.0	109.4
Boston College	97.9	98.9	96.8	97.9
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Pittsburgh	111.9	110.8	110.0	110.9
Miami (Fla.)	109.9	108.7	109.0	109.2
North Carolina	108.4	108.6	108.0	108.3
Virginia	98.0	97.9	95.8	97.2
Virginia Tech	95.8	95.9	94.0	95.2
Duke	94.7	96.9	93.0	94.9
Georgia Tech	94.8	94.6	93.0	94.1
ACC	106.4	106.2	105.4	106.0
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oklahoma St.	118.5	117.0	118.1	117.9
Texas	116.6	115.7	114.8	115.7
T C U	116.1	114.8	115.4	115.4
Baylor	113.8	112.6	113.0	113.1
Kansas St.	113.1	111.8	112.4	112.4
Oklahoma	110.9	109.8	110.5	110.4
Iowa St.	109.4	109.2	109.2	109.3
Texas Tech	108.8	107.6	109.4	108.6
West Virginia	107.1	106.8	106.6	106.8
Kansas	103.8	102.5	101.9	102.7
Big 12	111.8	110.8	111.1	111.2
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ohio St.	133.1	131.9	133.8	132.9
Michigan	126.3	125.4	126.2	126.0
Penn St.	116.0	115.8	115.4	115.7
Maryland	112.3	112.1	111.6	112.0
Michigan St.	110.2	109.0	108.5	109.2
Rutgers	101.0	100.0	98.0	99.7
Indiana	99.9	99.2	97.8	99.0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Minnesota	117.3	116.3	117.0	116.9
Purdue	115.6	114.8	114.0	114.8
Wisconsin	113.4	112.9	112.3	112.9
Iowa	113.4	112.2	111.3	112.3
Illinois	111.9	112.5	111.0	111.8
Nebraska	102.9	102.6	101.6	102.3
Northwestern	94.4	95.3	92.6	94.1
Big Ten	112.0	111.4	110.8	111.4
Conference USA
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
W. Kentucky	99.7	99.7	101.6	100.3
U A B	97.7	97.8	98.8	98.1
U T S A	97.6	96.8	97.9	97.5
North Texas	87.8	87.3	88.9	88.0
Florida Atlantic	87.7	88.6	87.3	87.9
Rice	85.9	86.0	86.1	86.0
U T E P	85.9	85.8	85.7	85.8
Middle Tennessee	85.2	85.7	85.8	85.6
Louisiana Tech	80.7	81.7	79.8	80.8
Charlotte	80.1	80.8	79.8	80.2
Florida Int’l.	64.4	66.7	63.1	64.7
CUSA	86.6	87.0	86.8	86.8
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Notre Dame	111.6	109.9	111.6	111.0
BYU	108.0	106.3	107.5	107.3
Liberty	95.3	96.7	96.7	96.2
Army	93.5	93.6	93.5	93.5
Connecticut	81.3	82.4	79.8	81.2
New Mexico St.	73.4	75.3	72.9	73.9
Massachusetts	70.5	71.3	68.8	70.2
Independents	90.5	90.8	90.1	90.5
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Miami (Ohio)	90.5	92.7	92.1	91.8
Buffalo	90.1	92.4	92.0	91.5
Kent St.	89.1	91.0	89.6	89.9
Ohio	87.5	89.6	89.1	88.7
Bowling Green	84.0	83.5	83.5	83.7
Akron	74.7	75.2	73.9	74.6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Toledo	98.9	100.1	100.6	99.9
N. Illinois	94.5	94.9	94.8	94.7
Central Mich.	89.9	91.7	92.5	91.4
Ball St.	85.1	86.3	85.5	85.6
Western Mich.	85.2	85.9	85.5	85.5
Eastern Mich.	84.9	85.4	84.6	85.0
MAC	87.9	89.1	88.6	88.5
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Air Force	102.8	102.7	103.7	103.1
Boise St.	102.4	101.7	103.2	102.4
Utah St.	91.1	91.1	91.7	91.3
Wyoming	86.8	88.8	88.1	87.9
Colorado St.	82.7	83.7	83.0	83.1
New Mexico	80.6	80.7	79.3	80.2
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Fresno St.	97.8	97.1	98.3	97.7
San Jose St.	95.4	96.0	96.9	96.1
San Diego St.	91.6	91.1	91.4	91.4
U N L V	87.4	85.8	87.4	86.9
Nevada	81.7	83.1	81.3	82.0
Hawaii	74.2	75.5	74.9	74.8
MWC	89.5	89.8	89.9	89.7
Pac-12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Utah	116.8	116.1	118.3	117.0
Oregon	115.1	114.5	114.7	114.8
U S C	112.7	113.4	114.3	113.5
U C L A	111.3	111.4	113.1	111.9
Oregon St.	108.1	107.4	108.6	108.0
Washington	107.3	107.6	107.8	107.6
Washington St.	103.6	104.1	104.4	104.0
Stanford	103.6	101.6	102.3	102.5
Arizona St.	102.3	102.1	103.1	102.5
California	98.2	98.1	99.0	98.4
Arizona	95.7	95.6	95.7	95.7
Colorado	89.4	87.7	88.5	88.5
Pac-12	105.3	105.0	105.8	105.4
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Georgia	131.9	130.6	132.7	131.7
Tennessee	122.3	122.4	123.1	122.6
Kentucky	111.4	111.9	112.4	111.9
South Carolina	110.0	109.4	110.1	109.8
Florida	105.8	107.3	105.9	106.3
Missouri	103.4	103.8	102.8	103.4
Vanderbilt	92.2	92.7	90.7	91.9
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Alabama	129.6	128.8	130.7	129.7
Ole Miss	116.5	115.0	115.2	115.6
Mississippi St.	115.9	114.8	115.3	115.3
Arkansas	114.2	112.6	114.3	113.7
L S U	113.5	113.0	112.9	113.1
Texas A&M	111.3	111.9	112.4	111.9
Auburn	106.2	104.7	104.7	105.2
SEC	113.2	112.8	113.1	113.0
Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
James Madison	95.9	97.7	100.2	97.9
Georgia St.	96.4	96.0	98.4	96.9
Appalachian St.	95.6	97.0	97.6	96.8
Marshall	93.1	93.9	93.4	93.5
Old Dominion	92.8	93.1	93.1	93.0
Coastal Carolina	92.0	92.9	93.2	92.7
Ga. Southern	91.7	91.7	93.0	92.1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Troy	94.6	95.3	96.4	95.4
Louisiana	92.9	93.2	94.5	93.6
South Alabama	92.4	93.0	94.0	93.1
Southern Miss.	88.6	89.1	89.1	88.9
Arkansas St.	84.3	85.8	85.4	85.2
Texas St.	82.8	84.2	84.3	83.8
UL-Monroe	82.9	83.4	83.1	83.1
Sun Belt	91.2	91.9	92.6	91.9

Conference Ratings

Rank	Conference	Rating
1	Southeastern	113.0
2	Big Ten	111.4
3	Big 12	111.2
4	Atlantic Coast	106.0
5	Pac-12	105.4
6	American Athletic	98.4
7	Sun Belt	91.9
8	Independents	90.5
9	Mountain West	89.7
10	Mid-American	88.5
11	Conference USA	86.8

This Week’s Bowl Projections

Bowl	Team	Team
Bahamas	UTSA	Buffalo
Cure	Coastal Carolina	BYU
Fenway	Pittsburgh	Central Florida
New Mexico	Rice	Fresno St.
L.A.	Utah	Boise St.
Lending Tree	Ball St.	Marshall
Las Vegas	USC	Mississippi St.
Frisco	Utah St.	Western Kentucky
Myrtle Beach	Middle Tennessee	Appalachian St.
Famous Idaho Potato	Eastern Michigan	San Jose St.
Boca Raton	Georgia Southern	Stanford 5
New Orleans	North Texas	Troy
Armed Forces	Houston	Texas St.
Independence	SMU	Army
Gasparilla	Duke	Washington St.
Hawaii	UTEP	Air Force
Quick Lane	Ohio U	Liberty
Camellia	Toledo	South Alabama
First Responder	UAB	UNLV
Birmingham	Southern Miss.	Old Dominion
Guaranteed Rate	Wisconsin	Wyoming
Military	Louisville 5	Tulane
Liberty	Oklahoma	LSU
Holiday	Syracuse	UCLA
Texas	Kansas	Florida
Pinstripe	Notre Dame	Minnesota
Cheez-It	Miami (Fla.)	Texas
Alamo	Kansas St.	Washington
Duke’s Mayo	Wake Forest	Purdue
Tony the Tiger Sun	North Carolina St.	Oregon St.
Arizona	Miami (O)	San Diego St.
Orange	North Carolina	Alabama
Music City	Maryland	Texas A&M
Sugar	Tennessee	Oklahoma St.
TaxSlayer	Florida St.	South Carolina
Peach	Georgia	TCU
Fiesta	Ohio St.	Clemson
Tampa Bay	Illinois	Kentucky
Citrus	Penn St.	Arkansas
Cotton	Ole Miss	Cincinnati
Rose	Oregon	Michigan
National Championship	Georgia	Ohio St.

“5″ after team name indicates a team with an expected 5-7 record that has a high enough APR score to earn a bowl bid over other 5-7 schools.

PiRate Ratings College Football–October 12-16, 2021

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

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

FBS vs. FCS Game

FBS	FCS	PiRate
Connecticut	Yale	2.5

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

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

PiRate Ratings By Conference

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

Conference Ratings

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

Bowl Projections

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

PiRate Ratings Bracketology

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

First Four Out–Alternates

69 Saint Louis

70 Colorado St.

71 Boise St.

72 Xavier

Potential Bubble Busters: Memphis. Georgetown, and Oregon St.

PiRate Ratings Bracketology

Date	3/8/2021
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Gonzaga	Baylor	Michigan	Illinois
2	Ohio St.	Alabama	Iowa	West Virginia
3	Houston	Arkansas	Kansas	Villanova
4	Purdue	Texas	Oklahoma St.	Florida St.
5	Virginia	Texas Tech	USC	Tennessee
6	Creighton	Colorado	Clemson	Oklahoma
7	Oregon	Missouri	Wisconsin	Florida
8	BYU	LSU	Virginia Tech	Connecticut
9	Rutgers	San Diego St.	Loyola (Chi.)	North Carolina
10	Maryland	St. Bonaventure	UCLA	Louisville
11	Georgia Tech	Michigan St.	VCU	Colorado St.
12	Western Ky.	Toledo	Boise St.	Drake	Wichita St.	Xavier
13	UCSB	Winthrop	Liberty	Colgate
14	UNCG	S. Dakota St.	Morehead St.	Abilene Chr.
15	E. Washington	Georgia St.	Siena	Cleveland St.
16	Northeastern	Bryant	Grand Canyon	Hartford	Norfolk St.	Prairie View A&M

Teams in Bold have secured automatic bids

The Bad Side of the Bubble

69	Ole Miss
70	Syracuse
71	Utah St.
72	Saint Louis
73	Seton Hall
74	SMU
75	St. John’s
76	North Carolina St.

Bracketnomics Tutorial Release Coming This Week!

Until recently, when our breakthrough Sabertooth Baseball Game went viral due to a Facebook post that we still do not know who the benevolent benefactor of great news is, our most popular annual activity here on the PiRate Ratings has been “Bracketnomics.”

For years, we have used technical statistics and other data to isolate the real March Madness contenders from the pretenders and to eliminate certain higher seeds due to their possessing “uh-oh” stats that show them ripe for a quick upset.

We were all set to debut our latest evolution of Bracketnomics last year, until Covidnomics defeated all sports in March of 2020. It gave us extra time to scour our resources and to look for more trends, in addition to the tried and true methods we have used for years.

Coming Friday, we will release our Bracketnomics 2021 Tutorial, so you can have the weekend to look it over and use the information the best way you know how. Please let the best way you know how be a method that involves no financial risk.

The PiRate Ratings personal creation of “R+T” Rating, schedule strength, and the Four Factors still hold considerable importance, but the handicapping of each data point has changed. Other sets of data added to the mix should let you clearly see which teams have the look of past national champions, Final Four participants, and even Cinderella Mid-Majors that might be ready to wear the slipper until there are just eight teams remaining.

Oh, and if you haven’t heard about our advanced analytics tabletop baseball game that went viral over the weekend, you can check it out at our sister site: https://sabertoothbaseball.wordpress.com and order a game at https://sabertooth-baseball.square.site , or click the link in the WordPress site.

PiRate Ratings College Basketball Spreads

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Home	Visitor	Spread
Central Florida	Tulsa	3.4
South Florida	Memphis	-8.4
Pittsburgh	Wake Forest	8.6
Georgia Tech	Duke	2.4
West Virginia	Baylor	-4.2
Iowa St.	Texas	-11.4
Texas Tech	TCU	12.3
Georgetown	Xavier	-2.1
DePaul	Marquette	-2.6
Michigan	Illinois	5.5
Michigan St.	Indiana	-0.1
Purdue	Wisconsin	2.1
Cleveland St.	Purdue Fort Wayne	10.0
Northern Kentucky	Detroit	-0.9
Wright St.	Milwaukee	15.8
Oakland	Youngstown St.	3.0
Buffalo	Akron	5.7
Central Michigan	Toledo	-15.6
Kent St.	Ohio	3.4
Eastern Michigan	Ball St.	-4.7
Northern Illinois	Western Michigan	-2.5
Bowling Green	Miami (O)	5.6
Boise St.	Fresno St.	14.8
Wagner	Merrimack	6.1
South Carolina	Arkansas	-7.5
Alabama	Auburn	10.6
LSU	Vanderbilt	9.8
Ole Miss	Kentucky	1.0
New Mexico St.	UT Rio Grande Valley	6.2

Tuesday Night Must Watch TV

If you were going to choose a weeknight to stay home and watch basketball, this is the penultimate Tuesday night of the regular season. You have multiple excellent games today and tonight.

It all starts with an afternoon game at 2 PM Eastern Time on ESPN3 when Akron visits Buffalo in a key MAC game that will directly affect MAC Tournament seedings.

At 5 PM, West Virginia hosts Baylor on ESPN. After losing at Kansas, the Bears could begin to face a little jeopardy on the 1-seed line with a loss to the Mountaineers, who could move up to a 1-seed if they win out.

The regular season game of the year should have been Gonzaga and Baylor back in December, but that game became a Covid casualty. Tonight’s Michigan-Illinois game in Ann Arbor, at 7 PM on ESPN, could easily be a Final Four preview, as the two Big Ten powers both have the talent and cohesiveness to win four games in March Madness. This game should be as exciting as some of the Duke-North Carolina March games in the past, maybe even more exciting.

The Big Ten festivities don’t end with the biggie in A2. At 8PM on the Big Ten Network, Michigan State hosts Indiana in a must-win game for the Spartans. The Hoosiers have played themselves out of at-large status with too many losses.

At the same time on the ACC Network, Georgia Tech hosts Duke in what in effect is an at-large qualifying game. This is the best Yellow Jacket team in a decade or more, while Duke cannot afford another conference loss and still harbor at-large hopes.

There’s one more really Big game from the Big Ten. At 9PM, Wisconsin visits Purdue in a crucial game for Big Ten Tournament seeding. This game will air on ESPN2.

Finally at 9PM, on ESPN, Ole Miss hosts Kentucky in a must-win game. The Rebels must win tonight, beat Vanderbilt on Saturday, and then advance to the SEC Tournament Championship Game to have an at-large bid possibility.

PiRate Ratings Bracketology

2/19/2021

Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Gonzaga	Baylor	Michigan	Ohio St.
2	Illinois	Alabama	Villanova	Iowa
3	Oklahoma	Virginia	West Virginia	Houston
4	Florida St.	USC	Texas	Texas Tech
5	Kansas	Virginia Tech	Tennessee	Creighton
6	Purdue	Wisconsin	Arkansas	Missouri
7	Rutgers	Colorado	BYU	Oklahoma St.
8	Clemson	Florida	Louisville	LSU
9	Oregon	UCLA	San Diego St.	Indiana
10	Boise St.	Loyola (Chi.)	North Carolina	Seton Hall
11	Minnesota	Colorado St.	Drake	VCU
12	Belmont	Western Ky.	Stanford	St. Bonaventure	Connecticut	Saint Louis
13	Toledo	Winthrop	Colgate	UCSB
14	Wright St.	S.F. Austin	Liberty	UNCG
15	Vermont	S. Dakota St.	Siena	Grand Canyon
16	James Madison	E. Washington	Texas St.	Wagner	Prairie View	N.C. A&T

Last 4 Byes: Seton Hall, Minnesota, Colorado St., Drake

Last 4 In: Stanford, St. Bonaventure, Connecticut, Saint Louis

First 4 Out: Xavier, Maryland, Wichita St., St. John’s

Next 4 Out: Utah St., Ole Miss, Syracuse, Georgia Tech

Note: After careful perusal of the mock top four seeds released a week ago, we have discovered some new tendencies that the Committee gave more weight to than they usually do when there is a lot more interconference play. Thus, expect our bracketology to change a little next week showing seeds in somewhat different order from what they are this week. For instance, we believe that a team like Colgate may be drastically underrated, while a team like 23-1 Belmont may be overrated a bit even after winning their 20th consecutive game last night.

Update College Football TV Schedule For November 14, 2020

Time (ET)	Network	Home	Visitor
12:00 PM	ABC	Michigan St.	Indiana
12:00 PM	FOX	West Virginia	TCU
12:00 PM	ESPN2	Tulane	Army
12:00 PM	ESPN	Virginia Tech	Miami (Fla.)
12:00 PM	FS1	Nebraska	Penn St.
12:00 PM	CBSSN	Marshall	Middle Tenn.
12:00 PM	SECN	Kentucky	Vanderbilt
12:00 PM	ACCN	North Carolina	Wake Forest
1:00 PM	BTN	Rutgers	Illinois
3:30 PM	ABC	Boston College	Notre Dame
3:30 PM	ESPN	Stanford	Colorado
3:30 PM	ESPN2	Houston	S. Florida
3:30 PM	FOX	Arizona	USC
3:30 PM	CBSSN	Western Ky.	Southern Miss.
3:30 PM	ACCN	Virginia	Louisville
4:00 PM	FS1	Texas Tech	Baylor
5:00 PM	BTN	Purdue	Northwestern
7:00 PM	FOX	Washington St.	Oregon
7:00 PM	ESPN	Florida	Arkansas
7:00 PM	ESPN2	Tulsa	SMU
7:30 PM	ABC	Michigan	Wisconsin
7:30 PM	ESPNU	Central Florida	Temple
7:30 PM	SECN	Ole Miss	South Carolina
7:30 PM	ACCN	NC St.	Florida St.
11:00 PM	FS1	Washington	Oregon St.

Saturday’s College Football TV Schedule

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

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

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

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

PiRate Ratings Computer Simulated College Playoffs–Semifinal Round

The Semifinal Round of the 2015-16 PiRate Ratings Computer Simulated Playoffs have been played, and the Final Four has now been whittled down to two.

 

In case you are wondering why Michigan St., Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Stanford are the Final Four teams, this season’s simulation used the Football Championship Series format of 24 teams.  Michigan St. defeated Baylor and Iowa to make it to the semifinals.  Ole Miss defeated Houston, Clemson, and North Carolina, as the Rebels were the #16 seed and had to win a play-in game to make it to the Sweet 16.  Oklahoma defeated Michigan and Ohio St., while Stanford got here by knocking off Florida St. and Alabama.

 

Here are the Final Four Semifinal Results.

Semifinal Round	1	2	3	4	F	FD	Rush	Pass	Total
#16 Ole Miss	3	14	7	3	27	18	129	268	397
#5 Michigan St.	0	7	10	0	17	17	161	158	327
#3 Oklahoma	0	3	21	7	31	22	154	247	401
#7 Stanford	7	6	0	7	20	17	169	158	327

This sets up Simper Bowl IX at Arlington, Texas, next week.  16th-seed Ole Miss will play 3rd-seed Oklahoma.

 

Fear not ye of computer simulation tremors.  Next week, we will run our annual 100 sims on the playoff games–the real ones where that sugar-addicted dude Larry Culpepper will be lurking around somewhere.