The PiRates Are Hard At Work For Football Season

Hello Mates.

This is the head PiRate telling you that we have set sail and are on our way out to the green sea, otherwise known as the Football Field.

We have already begun to update our college football ratings for the 2018 season.  We have a unique way of updating our ratings from the end of the previous season to the beginning of the new season.  We have point values assigned to every starting and backup position on offense and defense plus an overall rating for the components of special teams.

For instance, as it should be obvious, the Quarterback is the most important position in college football.  So, we take special care in determining how many points better or worse each of the 130 teams is in week one compared to their final game of the year before by adding or subtracting points based on the QB.  We look at certain analytics data, just like baseball teams look at advanced statistics.  We actually have our own version of WAR for college football.  Instead of Batting, Fielding, and Pitching WAR, we have offense, defense, and special teams WAR, only instead of putting the final numbers into wins above average, we use points per game above average.  In the PiRate Ratings, a rating of 100.0 is average.  If a quarterback is worth 6.3 points better than an average QB, then before we look at the reserves, a team that is totally average at every other position would begin the season at 106.3 for this particular piece of the ratings’ puzzle.  If a quarterback has been determined to be 3.8 points below average, it would reduce the average team from 100.0 to 96.2.

On offense, the receiving corps is the next most important part of the equation, while the offensive line and running back corps are equal in importance as the last two parts.

Defensively, we look at all three units as they play against the run and the pass.  Stopping the pass is more important these days than stopping the run.  Interceptions, Passes Broken Up, Sacks, and Hurries are all parts of the Pass defense stats we look at.  We also have special ratings for nose guards that have the responsibility of taking up space and keeping blockers away from the linebackers, as these heroes of the trenches rarely show up in box scores, until one of the behemoths gets injured, and his replacement prevents the star will linebacker from making his usual 14 tackles with 2 for loss.

We have an intangible part of this equation as well.  Say a team has a change in coaches.  The old coach was a spread option or flexbone disciple, while the new coach is an air raid disciple.  It’s going to take 2-4 years to fully implement the changes, as that five foot nine inch triple option QB is not going to work as a dropback passer.

Another example in an intangible is the team that had 9 key injuries the year before, and 8 of the 9 return at 100% after missing parts or all of the year before.

In 2018, there will be a case where a potential all-star junior quarterback will transfer from one Power 5 school to another and be immediately eligible.  This will have major effects on his new team, much more than if he were the top incoming freshman in the nation.  This QB has already proven himself in a power conference, while the top incoming freshman only proved himself in Georgia high school action.  There is a difference as deep as the Grand Canyon in comparing the two, even though the incoming freshman might eventually become the next John Elway.  The seasoned starter showed what he could do when he passed for close to 350 yards against Auburn, while the freshman threw for 220 yards against Troup County High School.

This is just one piece of a 5-prong process.  We rate each team against every other team using 5 different processes.  Once we are done, we use three different algorithms to come up with a PiRate, Mean, and Bias rating for each of the 130 teams.  The PiRate and Bias differ by very little, so they will frequently be highly correlated, while the Mean rating is somewhat different than the other two, because it takes the equally-weighted average of the five ratings, while the other two apply heavier weights to some of the five components.  Because they share the exact same weighting of the prong we showed you above, these two tend to stay correlated.

We know we have a lot of advanced mathematicians reading our blog, and we are grateful for your patronage.  We try to make this more analytically dominated than you might get from other sports rating sites and even break down the fourth wall from time to time to show you what we do.

If you are not a math fan and just love football, then fear not.  We still hope to have computer ratings that are as accurate as possible, and we still will make fools of ourselves weekly to issue free picks that you can then take and gift to Las Vegas if you are foolish enough to not realize that these picks are worth exactly what you pay for them.

We have 10 weeks to go.  With a lot of late night work, we hope to have the ratings ready for you in 9 weeks max.

Thanks,

The Captain

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PiRate Ratings NFL Forecast For Week 4: September 28-October 2, 2017

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Totals
Green Bay	Chicago	10.8	11.4	10.6	46
Miami (London)	New Orleans	-3.0	-1.8	-3.6	52
New England	Carolina	9.5	10.8	9.1	49
Dallas	LA Rams	15.7	14.6	15.8	44
Minnesota	Detroit	1.1	0.4	1.4	43
Houston	Tennessee	-0.1	0.1	-0.1	41
N. Y. Jets	Jacksonville	-2.5	-3.2	-2.5	43
Cleveland	Cincinnati	-1.2	-1.3	-1.0	37
Baltimore	Pittsburgh	-1.5	-1.7	-0.8	41
Atlanta	Buffalo	10.3	9.5	10.4	53
Tampa Bay	N. Y. Giants	3.7	2.8	4.5	38
LA Chargers	Philadelphia	1.8	2.5	0.9	48
Arizona	San Francisco	10.1	10.6	10.0	49
Denver	Oakland	2.2	1.1	2.7	46
Seattle	Indianapolis	9.1	8.9	8.7	44
Kansas City	Washington	8.1	8.5	8.2	47

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

Current NFL PiRate Ratings
A F C
East	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals
New England	105.7	106.4	105.5	105.8	24
Buffalo	98.6	99.0	99.0	98.9	22
Miami	97.6	97.7	97.1	97.5	21
N. Y. Jets	92.9	92.5	92.9	92.8	19
North	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals
Pittsburgh	104.6	105.0	104.3	104.7	22
Baltimore	101.2	101.3	101.5	101.3	19
Cincinnati	97.6	98.0	97.6	97.8	16
Cleveland	94.4	94.8	94.7	94.6	21
South	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals
Tennessee	101.2	101.3	100.7	101.1	25
Houston	98.1	98.4	97.7	98.1	16
Jacksonville	98.0	98.2	97.9	98.0	24
Indianapolis	95.4	95.7	95.1	95.4	25
West	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals
Kansas City	105.5	105.6	106.0	105.7	21
Oakland	104.3	104.8	104.0	104.4	26
Denver	103.5	102.8	103.8	103.4	20
LA Chargers	99.5	99.1	99.4	99.3	25
N F C
East	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals
Dallas	104.2	103.3	104.3	104.0	24
Philadelphia	101.2	100.1	102.0	101.1	23
Washington	100.4	100.1	100.8	100.4	26
N.Y. Giants	99.4	99.6	99.1	99.4	15
North	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals
Detroit	102.4	103.2	102.4	102.7	24
Green Bay	102.6	103.3	102.1	102.7	26
Minnesota	100.5	100.6	100.8	100.6	19
Chicago	94.2	94.5	94.0	94.2	20
South	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals
Atlanta	105.9	105.5	106.4	105.9	31
New Orleans	100.6	99.5	100.8	100.3	31
Tampa Bay	100.2	99.4	100.6	100.1	23
Carolina	99.2	98.5	99.3	99.0	25
West	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Avg	Totals
Seattle	101.0	101.1	100.3	100.8	19
Arizona	99.4	99.6	99.1	99.4	24
San Francisco	92.2	92.1	92.1	92.1	25
LA Rams	91.5	91.7	91.5	91.6	20

Our Official Statement on the Current Situation in the NFL

Neither side is right and neither side is wrong.  There is too much black and white in this world, and this is no different.  Life should not be an either or situation on everything that exists, but the human race has not evolved enough to get past this fact.

The problem is that neither side understands tactfulness, maturity, diplomacy, and statesmanship.  Maybe, consultants have advised the two factions to reduce the problem to childlike fighting, and that is sad if the populace can only understand issues when reduced to a childlike mentality.

Nevertheless, the problem is that an entertaining three-hour escape from the stress of the real world has now been altered into just another stressful afternoon.  The 6 members of the PiRate Ratings have decided that the situation has eliminated the needed escape that  NFL Football provided us–up to 56 years for our oldest contributor.  Thus, on Sunday, none of us attended or viewed a game.  Tickets went unused at Lambeau Field, LP Field, and U.S. Bank Stadium.  A fouth stadium, Firstenergy in Cleveland, will join this list this week.  As best as we can estimate, this is the first time since sometime in 1963 that at least once of us has failed to watch an NFL game.

We have received more emails than we can respond to this week, and we will refrain from giving out the email address for now, because it will take a couple weeks to reply to all of them.  But, it is obvious that you our reader are more than likely to stop watching and attending than to watch or attend.  Actually, we have yet to receive an email in support of the players, and we can only surmise that some of you that did not send us a message are still watching.

Feel free to comment in the comment section of this entry.  If you refrain from profanity and comment in a civil and intelligent manner, your comment will be accepted.  We will censor any profanity or below-the-belt comments.  We are a scientific/mathematic website more interested in the numbers than the individuals on either side of this issue.

For those that have not seen this unaltered, here are the exact words of the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Why The Ratings Drop Does Matter

We have heard  many apologists proclaim that the drastic TV ratings drop had little or nothing to do with the current situation between the two opposing sides.  We have seen excuses such as “The Emmy Awards aired opposite SNF,” and “It was Oprah’s Debut on 60 Minutes.”

There is one telltale sign that tends to make us believe these apologies are off the mark.  While the ratings for the football games have dropped off the table, the ratings for the pre-game shows are actually up.  People are tuning in to the pre-game in greater numbers and then switching channels or turning the TV off before the kickoff.  This is a definite sign that the league has alienated a large number of fans, or maybe we should say former fans.  Turning the channel or turning off the TV in the middle of a time slot is considered a bigger deal than doing so at the top or bottom of the hour when programs change.  As a former journalist in radio and television, our founder understands the implications in local news when the ratings change during the weather segment or sports segment.

 

2017 Mountain West Conference Preview

In past years, the Mountain West Conference preview has come several days later.  We preview the conferences in reverse order of their overall power rating, and the MWC starts the 2017 season at its lowest rank in many years.  Part of that reason is that the one power program, Boise State, is not so powerful these days.  The Broncos are still very much a contender to win the Mountain Division and play in the league championship game, but they are not a prohibitive favorite, nor are they the regular favorite.

Last year, five teams competed for the Mountain Division title, while San Diego State cruised to the West Division title with no competition.  It should be more of the same formula this year, as the MWC Championship Game is starting to look like the Aztec Invitational Tournament.

Here is how the MWC Media picked the races in the preseason.

Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
#	Team	1st Pl.	Total
1	Boise St.	21	161
2	Colorado St.	6	135
3	Wyoming	1	114
4	Air Force	0	82
5	New Mexico	0	68
6	Utah St.	0	28
West Divsion
#	Team	1st Pl.	Total
1	San Diego St.	28	168
2	Hawaii	0	135
3	UNLV	0	105
4	Nevada	0	79
5	San Jose St.	0	54
6	Fresno St.	0	47

The Preseason PiRate, Mean, and Bias Ratings agree with SDSU being the clear cut favorite in the West, but they do not agree with the Mountain Division pick.  It looks like a three-team race in this division.

Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Colo. State	101.3	100.5	101.2	101.0
Wyoming	99.0	96.4	97.8	97.7
Boise St.	98.4	96.6	97.6	97.5
New Mexico	92.8	93.3	93.7	93.3
Air Force	91.5	92.2	91.8	91.8
Utah St.	87.7	86.7	86.9	87.1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
San Diego St.	99.7	100.7	101.3	100.6
Hawaii	88.8	90.8	88.6	89.4
U N L V	85.3	88.5	85.7	86.5
San Jose St.	86.2	85.5	85.5	85.7
Fresno St.	85.6	84.2	85.7	85.2
Nevada	83.0	86.9	85.3	85.0
MWC Averages	91.6	91.9	91.8	91.7

This is our not-so-scientific look at the projected standings and bowl projections.

Mountain West Conference Projected Standings
Mountain Division	Conference	Overall	Bowl
Wyoming	7-1	9-4	Idaho Potato
Colorado St.	7-1	9-3	Hawaii
Boise St.	6-2	8-4	Arizona
New Mexico	4-4	6-6	New Mexico
Air Force	3-5	5-7
Utah St.	1-7	2-10
West Division	Conference	Overall	Bowl
San Diego St.	6-2	9-4	Las Vegas
Hawaii	3-5	5-7
UNLV	3-5	4-8
Nevada	2-6	3-9
Fresno St.	2-6	3-9
San Jose St.	2-6	3-10
San Diego St. to Win MWC Championship Game

Coming tomorrow: The Sun Belt Conference had always been the lowest rated league each preseason since its inception, but we thought that had changed this year.  Not only did we believe that the SBC moved out of the basement, they climbed up to second best Group of 5 conference.  At first, we believed it was due to a trio of exceptionally strong teams, but then we realized what happened.  It was our mistake.  We forgot to divide the total rating by 12 and divided by 11.  Coastal Carolina joined the league as a full member, and our people did not change the formula until it was too late to change the order of the previews.  We apologize for the error.

 

To make up for this, here is a fun, two-part trivia question for you.  The answers will come in the following previews.

A. Name the four pairs of FBS football schools that play their home games in stadiums less than 10 miles apart.

B. Name the three pairs of FBS football schools  that play their home games in stadiums less than 15 miles apart and are also conference rivals.

Remember, these are FBS schools only.  One hint–there will be one fewer pair that qualify after this season.

2017 Mid-American Conference Preview

Today, the PiRate Ratings kicks off its annual college football conference previews with the Mid-American Conference.  Last year, the MAC was a sneaky little league.  Very few so-called experts picked this league to produce the automatic New Year’s 6 Bowl participant, but when Western Michigan ran the table in the regular season, and then the Broncos beat Ohio in the MAC title game, it was WMU that ventured down to Jerry World to play in the Cotton Bowl.

There is a slight chance that this league could produce the special Group of 5 team again this season, but we won’t expect it this time around.  Not only is there no overpowering team in this league. the schedule for the best team just won’t allow for an undefeated season and most likely not a one-loss season.

2017 looks to be the year where college football begins to look more and more like the NFL, and the teams with experienced and talented quarterbacks, quick receivers, quick defensive backs, and above-average linemen in that order will dominate the land.  It is certainly true in this league, where the top two QBs belong to the two teams we are picking to win the divisional races–Logan Woodside at Toledo and Gus Ragland at Miami of Ohio.

Because the Poinsettia Bowl went bust, there is one less bowl game this season.  The MAC figures to be the league that suffers the most from this cancellation.  We believe there will be two bowl eligible teams in the league that do not receive bowl bids.  At least, we do not foresee a 5-7 team having to fill in as an at-large, at least until another bowl replaces the defunct Poinsettia.  There could be one set for Wrigley Field in Chicago in the future, and that most assuredly would be good news for this league.

Here is how the MAC Media picked the teams to finish the season.

MAC East Division
#	Team	1st Pl.	Total	Champ.
1	Ohio U	11	131	0
2	Miami (O)	12	129	1
3	Bowling Green	1	88	1
4	Akron	0	79	0
5	Buffalo	0	41	0
6	Kent St.	0	36	0
MAC West Division
#	Team	1st Pl.	Total	Champ.
1	Toledo	22	142	21
2	Western Michigan	1	107	1
3	Northern Illinois	1	89	0
4	Eastern Michigan	0	74	0
5	Central Michigan	0	62	0
6	Ball St.	0	30	0

The PiRate, Mean, and Bias Ratings differ slightly, but not all that much.  Remember that the PiRate Ratings are really only predictive for the next week’s schedule, and they cannot be used to look forward past that week.  Because, we set certain factors into each teams’ future to account for depth or lack thereof, these ratings can change even if a team wins by the exact amount predicted.

Here are the PiRate, Mean, and Bias Ratings for the pre-season

Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Miami (O)	94.3	96.6	96.8	95.9
Ohio U	90.3	92.0	91.2	91.2
Akron	84.3	88.5	84.5	85.8
Kent St.	83.7	85.3	84.9	84.6
Bowling Green	82.4	82.6	83.7	82.9
Buffalo	79.7	83.7	81.6	81.7
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Western Michigan	102.1	98.4	103.8	101.4
Toledo	99.3	99.1	100.9	99.8
Eastern Michigan	93.5	93.1	93.6	93.4
Central Michigan	90.4	90.6	90.8	90.6
Northern Illinois	85.7	85.8	85.9	85.8
Ball St.	78.2	80.5	79.7	79.5
MAC Averages	88.7	89.7	89.8	89.4

This is our not so scientific attempt to predict the won-loss records and bowl projections.  As we stated above, our ratings do not look past the next week’s schedule.

Mid-American Conference Projected Standings
Team	Conference	Overall	Bowl
East Division
Miami (O)	6-2	9-4	Camellia
Ohio U	5-3	8-4	Idaho Potato
Akron	4-4	5-7
Kent St.	2-6	3-9
Bowling Green	2-6	3-9
Buffalo	2-6	3-9
West Division
Toledo	8-0	11-2	Bahamas
Western Michigan	6-2	8-4	Dollar General
Eastern Michigan	5-3	6-6	eligible
Central Michigan	5-3	6-6	eligible
Northern Illinois	2-6	4-8
Ball St.	1-7	3-9
Toledo to win MAC Title Game

Coming tomorrow–Conference USA

 

 

 

 

 

2017 College Football Season Previews Premiere Tuesday, August 15

Ahoy, Mateys!  Come aboard the PiRate Ship for the 2017-18 College Football Season.  The PiRates have set sail for the season, and we hope we sail on smooth waters all year.

Beginning, Tuesday, August 15, 2017, in the afternoon in the Eastern Daylight Time Zone (after 18 Hours GMT), we will commence with the first of our conference previews for the season, previewing one new conference per day.  As usual, we will begin with the lowest rated conference and continue until we conclude the previews with the top-rated conference.  You may or may not be surprised this year, but there are some changes in the lower end and the upper end of the conference ratings.  For the first time since its inception, the Sun Belt Conference does not tally the lowest overall score.  This year, that dubious distinction befalls Conference USA, and it is CUSA that will be our first preview. EDIT: Our Apologies to CUSA.  It is the Mid-American Conference that came up with the lowest league average, so look for the MAC Preview on Tuesday.

Here is a proposed schedule for our website for the 2017-18 sports season 

Tuesdays: Updated Retrodictive and Predictive Ratings & Spreads for the upcoming College Week

Wednesdays: Updated NFL Ratings and Spreads for the upcoming NFL Week.

Thursdays: Our infamous Money Line Parlay Selections (JUST FOR FUN).

Fridays: Tentatively, we are hoping to bring back our historic Pro Football Simulations this season.  We are looking at simulating an NFL Season using the best teams for 14 franchises between 1950 and 1975.  The 14 NFL teams in existence in 1965 will be used, and we will use the rules from that season, culminating with the NFL Championship Game (and maybe the Playoff Bowl).

Check back Tuesday afternoon (EDT) for the first preview of the PiRate Season.

As usual, our ratings will be part of the Prediction Tracker and the Massey Football Ranking Composite

http://thepredictiontracker.com/

http://www.masseyratings.com/cf/compare.htm

The PiRate Ratings Are Hard At Work

Welcome back gridiron fans.  The PiRates are back at sea working hard on getting their treasure for the 2017-18 season.

There will be a few tweaks to the formulas this season as we refine our ratings to make them as accurate as possible, and we are excited about it.

Tweak #1: Our first tweak involves increasing the alteration of each college football teams’ rate of adjustment as it applies to depth concerns.  If a team is stacked two-deep with talent, they should be able to endure a long, hard season.  But, if the team is only good in their starting lineup, and they lack the depth, they will weaken as the season goes on.  Consider two teams, State and Tech.  State and Tech are about equal in talent in their starting lineups, and on August 25, they are exactly the same in power rating.  For the sake of argument, let’s say they both look like 9-3 teams in a power 5 conference and have identical ratings of 118.0.

In the month of September, State and Tech both go 4-0 over similar competition, and their statistics show that they are still basically the same in talent and results.  Both teams ratings go up, but State’s go up a tad more than Tech’s, due to the depth issue.  Through four games, it won’t be all that much, and now on the First Monday in October, State is now 122.5, and Tech is 121.8.

In October, State and Tech both go 3-1 to sit at 7-1 with four games to go.  Both teams have lost some key players by now, but State has plugged in able second-teamers to fill the spots, while Tech has been forced to go with talent not up to Power 5 conference standards.  State’s wins have been a little easier, and their loss was much closer than Tech’s wins and loss.  Now, State has a rating of 123.1, while Tech has fallen a bit to 119.5.

In November, State finishes strong, going 3-1 to finish the regular season at 10-2.  Tech falters going 1-3 to finish 8-4.

We see this every year.  We believe we can factor in this depth issue into our ratings before the season begins, and we can adjust the rate of adjustment during the season as a team sees key players leave the lineup.  It also works in reverse; a team may have a blessing of several new underclassmen beginning to contribute.

Look at Georgia in 1980.  Hershel Walker was a true freshman.  In the second half of the season opener against Tennessee, Coach Vince Dooley inserted Walker into the game with the Bulldogs trailing by double-digits, and Walker turned the game around in his first 10 carries.  Georgia won the game, and Walker led the Bulldogs to an undefeated National Championship.  Had this new twist of our ratings been in effect then, The Bulldogs might have improved by an unprecedented 10 points between game one and game two.  As it was then, it took several weeks until Georgia’s rating really reflected their power, all because of one freshman.

This can just as easily happen to an average team that loses a couple of key players.  There have been instances when a team has lost a dozen key players by the end of October.  If it is Alabama, the Crimson Tide might be five points weaker than they would have been with the dozen players still healthy.  But, if it is Iowa State, the Cyclones might be 15 points weaker with the loss of these dozen players.

Going back to the unexpected bonanza, what if a team has five or six redshirt freshmen that have displaced upperclassmen in the starting lineup?  Obviously, this team must now be better talent-wise if starters have been replaced  (unless the coach has thrown in the towel on the season and is looking to the future).  What started as a so-so season may continue as a better season because the surprising advancement of the freshmen has made this team a touchdown better than it was earlier in the season.

The PiRate Ratings will adjust for this during the season by increasing or decreasing the adjustment rate of the teams after each Saturday.  Because the PiRate Ratings always show a total average of 100.0, that means teams might lose ground in the ratings after a good game, because other teams now earn more bonus for their play on the field.  It will be a work in progress, but in the end, we believe it will lead to more accurate ratings.

 

Tweak #2: Our basketball ratings have always been Four Factors-based.  We have three different algorithms using the Four Factors Data.  Football also has its factors.  In fact, in football, there are five factors.  They are, in order of importance: Explosiveness, Efficiency, Field Position, Finishing Drives, and Turnovers.   You can find excellent content online about these factors–some explain in detail like a thesis, while others give you a quick outline.

For our purposes, we have changed how we use the box scores of the games in our updating formula.  We will look more at Explosiveness and Efficiency when we update the teams’ ratings every week.  Additionally, we will keep an unpublished running score on how consistent teams are in being able to move the ball and stop the movement of the other team.  Which leads us to our big breakthrough for 2017-18.

Big Breakthrough

Have you ever noticed that over the course of an era, a team may celebrate a national championship or conference championship when they appear to not be as good as prior teams or soon see future teams that look better but do not win the championship?  You have probably seen that a really good team goes 10-2 or 11-1 and demolishes most of their opponents but suffered a terrible upset.  Then, that team runs the table but wins most of their games by nice amounts but by no means blowouts.

Think of a team that wins 55-17 and 38-10 or something similar for most of the season and then falls 31-27 to a mediocre team.  This team leads the nation in total offense or scoring defense, but they always fall a game short of the accomplishment.  But, then along comes a season where this school wins 31-20, 27-14 or something similar and runs the table.  They finish well down in total offense and near the top in scoring defense, but they go undefeated.

We have seen this happen multiple times in the last 30 years.  The dominating team is not as consistent as the team that went undefeated, and in three out of 10 games, the less consistent power may be two touchdowns better than the undefeated champion.  However, 70% of the time, the undefeated champion will be better than the dominating team.

The PiRates have tried to assign value or lack of value to the consistency of a team, but this is something that takes a good sampling of games.  This adjustment will be used in November after all teams have played 2/3 of their regular season schedule.  By then, we should have a grasp of what teams are staying consistent, and what teams are all over the map.  We will not adjust their ratings, because you never know if your inconsistent team will deviate 14 points above their rating or 14 points below.  What we will do is search for consistency when we select our Money Line plays.  We might be crazy, because we are coming off two consecutive profitable Money Line seasons (just for fun and not real wagering), so we might be cutting off our noses to spite our faces.

Enjoy your summer.  Football season will be here before you know it.  The PiRates are actually ahead of schedule this year with their college football updates, and we should have enough time to expand our preseason coverage this year.

Questions & Answers

Hello rabid basketball fans.  We will be issuing our bracket selections and Red-White-Blue Ratings in about 2 hours or less, and we remind you to refer back to the primer we sent out yesterday if you want to understand what our numbers mean.

We try our hardest to answer all of your comments and emails, but in the last 48 hours, we have received more than we can respond to without stopping everything we are doing.  Many of you have asked the same or similar questions, so we are going to answer the most popular ones here.  We are sorry if we cannot personally reply to all of you.

Question:Will you have your ratings available for the NCAA Tournament?

Answer: Yes!  We will issue Red-White-Blue Ratings for every NCAA Tournament game.  Whether or not it is picked up by the Prediction Tracker, we do not know.  It appears to be an issue with our formatting being picked up by their scanner.

 

Question: Do your bracket picking criteria and your point spread ratings account for injuries to players?

Answer: Yes and no.  We do not have a mathematical formula to reduce a team’s talent level for injuries, but we do apply that after the fact and include that in our intangibles to lower the rating for the team in question.  Obviously, this year, Oregon and Xavier will see their ratings lowered more than anybody else.  Also, in the Big Dance, we add a little to the ratings of teams that had a player step up in the last 10 games, because these teams can become sleepers.

 

Question: What is the difference in your three ratings?  Do they use different data?

Answer: We have three ratings in case you did not know.  We call them Red, White, and Blue, because we are patriotic PiRates.  All three of the ratings rely on the exact same Four Factors (see yesterday’s post if you are unaware) as well as other intangible factors like strength of schedule, home court advantage, visiting team disadvantage when playing on the road, and other data.

The difference in the three ratings comes from how much weight we assign to each factor.  The Red and White ratings use very similar data points and thus should not vary all that much, especially later in the season.  The Blue rating is more of a renegade and it sometimes misbehaves when compared to the other two ratings.

 

Question: Why don’t you issue ratings for every Division 1 college basketball game rather than just choose a few conferences and then only issue spreads on the weekends?

Answer: This is the most asked question from our readers.  There is one easy answer to this question.  We do not issue spreads for every game because we do not have the time to do so.  Unlike our football ratings which almost update themselves, our basketball ratings must be made from scratch after every game played.  We have to input all the statistics for each team when we issue the spreads on the game.  Because we have found that third party websites are not 100% accurate when they publish team stats, we go to each team’s homepage and get the stats from their official statbook.  It takes about 8 to 9 minutes to retrieve the stats for each game we rate.  Since there are 351 Division 1 teams playing games 7 days a week, you can see where it would take a contingent of about 20-25 volunteers to gather the information.

Once the stats are retrieved, the Captain runs them through the algorithms to get the spreads on each game.  For this reason, we can only issue basketball spreads for weekend games between the top 5 conferences plus a other top 25 teams like Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s.

 

Question: What is your past in the media?

Answer: Two of us on the PiRate ship have pasts in the commercial media.  The Captain’s better half enjoyed a career as a radio host in Wisconsin with a cult following on her late night time slot.

The Captain spent time in print, radio, and television as a sports announcer, play-by-play announcer, and color analyst.

Some of the wenches helping out have heavily-followed podcasts and Youtube sites in a different genre.

 

Question: Who are your favorite teams?

Answer: The one’s we pick to win.  Our goal is to be accurate and not favor one team over another due to partiality.

 

Question: Will you have baseball coverage in the future?

Answer: This is not possible at the current time, as our Captain serves as a metric specialist in professional baseball.  It would imply that he is revealing privileged information able to be seen by rivals of his employer.

 

Thank you for your patronage.  Look for our bracket selections and ratings for the First Four games in just a couple hours.

PiRate Ratings College Basketball Preview For December 29, 2016

Welcome to the PiRate Ratings’ return to college basketball coverage.  There are changes in the numbers this season, and we are excited to debut our annual Red-White-and-Blue Ratings for the 2016-17 college basketball season.

First, we have tweaked our Blue formula algorithm this year by giving a little more emphasis to true shooting percentage and the complimentary defensive metric in limiting shooting percentage.  In recent seasons, turnover margin has begun to mean a little bit less than it did a decade ago, and there are fewer truly dominant rebounding teams out there.  So, the college game for the time being is all about making shots and preventing the other team from making shots.  It sounds silly, as that should be all that matters (hitting baskets and stopping the other team from making them), but turnovers and rebounds gives teams more opportunities to take shots and make shots, while reducing the number of opportunities teams give to their opponents.  Rebounding and turnover rates are still vital, as we merely reduced the percentage of the total contribution by a couple basis points.

Next up, we plan on totally revising our NCAA  Tournament Bracketology data this season.  Our old formula has been performing with mediocre results in recent years, and we have decided to go 80% Four Factors and 20% PiRate Criteria this season and see what happens.  The R+T factor will still be part of our presentation, as it is still very effective at weeding out pretenders from contenders.

Until the Big Dance, we will concentrate our efforts on conference games and big non-conference games between teams from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC.  Because we have to input the stats for every team for every game, it is not possible to do this for every Division I game.  But, because all we need for our ratings are the current updated stats, we can always rate any game, thus, if we want to rate a Missouri Valley Conference big game, we can add it to the slate.

Additionally, following the New Year’s, expect our chosen selections to run just one day a week, most likely Friday, and it will include that weekend’s games.  We will also provide commentary on the entire division, as we tend to receive a lot of readership when we report on the low-major and mid-major conferences.

Let’s get started with this week’s pre-New Year’s report.

PiRate Top 10

thru games of 12/28/16

1. Villanova
2. Virginia
3. Duke
4. West Virginia
5. Kansas
6. Baylor
7. North Carolina
8. Louisville
9. Wisconsin
10. Kentucky

ACC

1. Virginia
2. Duke
3. North Carolina
4. Louisville
5. Florida St.
6. Clemson
7. Notre Dame
8. Miami
9. Virginia Tech
10. Syracuse
11. Wake Forest
12. Pittsburgh
13. North Carolina St.
14. Georgia Tech
15. Boston College

This league is so loaded this year that #13 North Carolina State is strong enough to compete for the SEC Championship.  Only the bottom two are considered out of the running for an NCAA  Tournament bid.

Big East

1. Villanova
2. Butler
3. Xavier
4. Creighton
5. Marquette
6. Seton Hall
7. Georgetown
8. Providence
9. St. John’s
10. DePaul

Until they lose, reigning national champion Villanova rules the roost in the league and nationally.  The Wildcats had a close one last night against the cellar dweller, but one game does not knock them off their perch, as long as it is a win.  As of today, it looks like five teams would make the Dance.

Big Ten

1. Wisconsin
2. Purdue
3. Michigan
4. Indiana
5. Northwestern
6. Ohio St.
7. Maryland
8. Minnesota
9. Michigan St.
10. Iowa
11. Illinois
12. Nebraska
13. Penn St.
14. Rutgers

It looks like Northwestern is in line to finally make it to the Big Dance.  A strong 12-2 start for the Wildcats needs only a winning conference record and one conference tournament win to get that elusive bid.

Big 12

1. West Virginia
2. Kansas
3. Baylor
4. Texas Tech
5. Kansas St.
6. Iowa St.
7. TCU
8. Oklahoma St.
9. Oklahoma
10. Texas

Yes, the Longhorns and Sooners bring up the rear as conference play is set to begin.  The other 8 teams look to be NCAA Tournament bound as of today with the top 3 teams the equal of the top three in the ACC.

Pac-12

1. UCLA
2. Arizona
3. Oregon
4. USC
5. Colorado
6. California
7. Utah
8. Stanford
9. Washington
10. Arizona St.
11. Oregon St.
12. Washington St.

Even with UCLA’s last second loss at Oregon, the Bruins stay atop the Pac-12 standings.  This league looks like a 4 or 5-bid league as of now.

SEC

1. Kentucky
2. Florida
3. South Carolina
4. Texas A&M
5. Arkansas
6. Georgia
7. Ole Miss
8. Alabama
9. Tennessee
10. Vanderbilt
11. Auburn
12. LSU
13. Mississippi St.
14. Missouri

Kentucky and Florida rank well ahead of the other dozen in this league this year.  South Carolina, Texas A&M, Arkansas, and Georgia sit on a separate shelf above the remaining eight teams.  This could be as little as a two-bid league but no more than a four-bid league as of now.

Low and Mid-Major Teams in the mix for at-large bids

It is getting more difficult to label Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s as Mid-Major teams.  The two WCC powers are both in our top 25 teams this week.

Cincinnati out of the American Conference is really a power team, even though the AAC has lost some prestige.  SMU is in the same boat, but the Mustangs need to do a little more work to be a for sure at-large team this year.

Wichita State has earned the same privilege as Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s.  The Shockers belong in the list of at-large possibles.

The only real low-major team in consideration for a possible at-large bid would be UNC-Wilmington from the Colonial Athletic Association.  UNCW has the talent to get to the Sweet 16, and they scared the daylights out of Duke in the NCAA Tournament last year.

This Week’s Selections

Normally, this would be a list for Saturday/Sunday games, but due to the New Year’s Holiday, we are beginning with a list of Thursday games.  Once again, we will concentrate only on the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC conference games, as well as any games among highly ranked teams.

Each Rating is derived from the Four Factors with separate algorithmic equations.  An explanation of the Four Factors follows below.

Games Scheduled for:	Thursday, December 29, 2016
Home	Visitor	Red	White	Blue
Texas A&M	Tennessee	8	11	9
Auburn	Georgia	1	2	-3
Ole Miss	Kentucky	-12	-7	-8
LSU	Vanderbilt	2	5	-3
Arkansas	Florida	-1	-4	-7
St. John’s	Butler	-6	-8	-11
Gonzaga	Pepperdine	25	24	28
Loyola Marymount	Saint Mary’s	-10	-11	-14

The Four Factors in basketball are:

1. Effective Field Goal Percentage
2. Turnover Rate
3. Offensive Rebounding Rate
4. Free Throw Rate

These factors apply to both offense and defense, so in effect each team has Eight Factors.

Effective Field Goal Percentage

[FG +(0.5*3pt)]/FGA (expressed as a percentage)

Where FG is field goals made, 3pt is 3-point shots made, and FGA is field goal attempts

If a team makes 25 of 55 field goals and sinks 6 three-pointers, their EFG% is:

[25+(0.5*6)]/55 = 50.9% or 50.9

Turnover Rate

TOV/[FGA+(0.475*FTA)+TOV] (expressed as a percentage)

Where TOV is turnovers, FGA is Field Goal Attempts, and FTA is Free Throw Attempts

If a team commits 12 turnovers, takes 55 field goal attempts and 23 free throw attempts, their turnover rate is:

12/[55+(.475*23)+12]=15.4%

Offensive Rebounding %

OR/(OR+Opponents DR) (expressed as a percentage)

Where OR is offensive rebounds and DR is defensive rebounds

If a team gets 8 offensive rebounds, and their opponents get 26 defensive rebounds, their Offensive Rebounding % is:

8/(8+26) = 23.5%

Free Throw Rate

Basketball analytics gurus differ on how to rate this stat.  We align with those that favor free throws made per 100 possessions.

FT/[FGA+(0.475*FTA)+TOV-OR] (expressed as a percentage)

Where FT is Free throws made, FGA is field goal attempts, TOV is turnovers, and OR is offensive rebounds

If a team made 17 out of 23 free throw attempts with 55 field goal attempts, 12 turnovers, and 8 offensive rebounds, their FT Rate is:

17/[55+(0.475*23)+12-8] = 24.3%

The Red, White, and Blue Ratings use these statistics (both offensively and defensively) for the first 8 parts of the equation.  Part Number 9 is Strength of Schedule, and each rating adjusts a little differently for this.  Part Number 10 is Home Court Advantage (as well as occasional away from home disadvantage for teams that play much worse away from home than at home).

These 10 parts are then put through three separate algorithms to come up with three different ratings.  The difference in the ratings is the spread for the game.

 

College Football Ratings & Spreads For September 22-24, 2016

What an incredible college football week has just passed!  We told you last week that it could be the best September slate of college football games in years, and it lived up to the hype.

Guess what?  This weekend won’t exactly be chopped liver.  There are some excellent games on tap, and more conference games will be played this week.

First, some information about you guys and dolls.  We asked you to go to our sister site at http://www.piratings.webs.com and tell us who your favorite college and NFL teams happened to be.  We have received dozens of replies so far, and a pattern has developed.

Among the colleges mentioned, a large majority of you are Big Ten fans.  The number one school mentioned so far, and by quite a large margin, is Ohio State.  Number two surprised us, as we expected that an SEC school or six would be among the top ones you fine folks follow.  No SEC team received more than three votes, and that three belongs to Florida.  Number two behind the Buckeyes was their arch-rival Michigan, and in distant third place was the other Big Ten East biggie, Michigan State.

The NFL followed suit with upper Midwest fan support.  In a close race so far, Cleveland, Green Bay, and Chicago rank one-two-three.

It could be that the PiRate Ratings have a lot of upper Midwest support.  There are ties to Ohio State in a minor way, much less than the ties to Wisconsin, but it is there.  However, we expected a lot more SEC support, and it just didn’t come.  Wherefore art thou Alabama, Tennessee, LSU, Georgia, and Aggie fans?

Okay, now to get down to business.  We will obviously comment on the 3 Big Ten schools first today, and then include other games of interest that you might want to follow this week.

Ohio St.

The Buckeyes get a well-timed week off after picking up the biggest win of the NCAA season against the Sooners in Norman.  Their next two games are home contests against Rutgers and Indiana, so Urban Meyer’s team will be 5-0 when they head up to Camp Randall Stadium on October 15.

The stats are intimidating to any future opponent: 56.7 points per game to 12.3 points allowed per game; 306 yards per game rushing to just 103 allowed per game; a total yards per game average of 545 to 279; the defense has intercepted nine passes in three games; and if that isn’t enough riches, the Buckeyes have the best kicking game in the nation so far with a 50+ yard punt average and a 47+ yard net punt average to go with perfect 100% accuracy on PATs and field goals.

Michigan

The Wolverines spotted improved Colorado a quick two touchdown lead before getting down to business and posting an impressive 17-point win at the Big House.  Penn State comes to Ann Arbor this week, after the Nittany Lions held off a pesky Temple team.  The Maize and Blue defense and special teams have scored or set up more points than they have allowed with interception returns, punt returns, and three blocked kicks so far.  At one time, in 1969, Penn State’s defense and special teams scored or set up more points than the defense allowed for the entire season.  That Penn State team finished undefeated, and if this Michigan team can continue to replicate that great 1969 Penn State team, there is no reason to think the Wolverines cannot run the table–at least head to the Giant Horseshoe at 11-0.  How much would another 11-0 vs. 11-0 matchup cost to purchase a ticket on the street this time?  Prices were highly inflated in 2006, when these two teams were undefeated and ranked 1-2.

As for this week, We don’t think James Franklin’s Nittany Lions will roar much.  They might hold Michigan under 40 points, but can they score more than 17?

 

Michigan St.

The Spartans looked like a different team between game one against Furman and game two against Notre Dame.  Now MSU hosts a Wisconsin team that must have overlooked Georgia State last week, but even overlooking the Panthers, UW should have won by 30.  Sparty’s defense held Notre Dame’s rushing game at bay all night, and a repeat performance against the Badgers will mean a double-digit win.  For the record, we do not believe they will stop the UW rush like they stopped the Notre Dame running game.

Tyler O’Connor looked like a pro prospect at times against the Irish secondary.  His one interception came on a deflection, and if you remove that deflection, he had a night Connor Cook would have been proud of.  Look for MSU to win another tight game by less than a touchdown.  The last three times these schools have played, the margins were all under a TD.

Other Games of Interest

Thursday Night:

Clemson at Georgia Tech

The CU win at Auburn does not look all that impressive after Texas A&M looked better in their win at Jordan-Hare.  The narrow win over Troy could not be erased by the slaughter over the FCS school that was so unprepared to play a Power 5 team, that their kick returner handed the Tigers a touchdown by tossing it to the back judge without downing the ball.  This Clemson team has started to resemble the Florida State team of 2014.  That FSU team was considerably weaker than the 2013 champion, but they still made it to the playoffs.  We are not sure this CU team is playoff worthy, but they have time to right the ship.

Georgia Tech is 3-0 and looks like a defensive juggernaut in the process.  However, a closer look shows their defensive performance has come against three teams that would have trouble scoring in 11 on 0 practice drills.  Tech’s next three games could see a reverse in defensive performance.  Still, the Yellow Jackets are mighty tough to prepare for, and when you take away two days of preparation, it could make this a rather interesting game to watch.

Saturday

Florida at Tennessee

Butch Jones’ legacy in Knoxville is like an almost finished book.  The one major chapter of his mystery novel is the one where you find out who did it.  If Florida did it, ole Butch may not get a chance to write the sequel.

Florida has won 11 straight games in this series.  The average score in this streak has been 29-16, although the last two have both been decided by a single point.  The Gators are going to have to make due with Austin Appleby at quarterback after starter Luke Del Rio injured his knee on a cheap shot tackle by North Texas.  Appleby would become the second former Purdue quarterback to start a game for an SEC team in the last two weeks (Danny Etling @ LSU).  After replacing Del Rio, Appleby completed passes of 11 and 19 yards against the Mean Green in his four attempts.  At Purdue, Appleby had a tendency to force throws where he should not have passed, and his interception rate was  4%, about 45% higher than the QB that sent him packing from West Lafayette.

Josh Dobbs has not been what he was expected to be this year.  It looks like the coaching staff has put a governor on his scrambling and is not calling for Dobbs to keep the ball on many designed running plays.  That might change this week, as the Vols need to pull out all the stops to move the ball against Geoff Collins’ defense.

Tennessee is not without major losses due to injury, and it affects a trio of excellent starting defensive players.  All-American punt returner and very good cornerback Cameron Sutton will be out for several weeks. All-SEC weakside linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin should be able to play, but he will be far from 100%, and the Vols are hurting depthwise here, as middle linebacker Darrin Kirkland and backup hybrid linebacker/safety Quarte Sapp will miss the game.

Expect a low-scoring, hard-fought game that comes down to the final few minutes.

Arkansas vs. Texas A&M in Arlington, TX (Dallas Cowboys Stadium)–The Southwest Classic

What can these two former Southwest Conference rivals do for a second encore after the last two games in Jerryworld went to overtime?  The Aggies won both games, and it would not surprise us again if the game was still to be decided late in the fourth quarter.  Arkansas has not beaten A&M since the Aggies joined the SEC.

Both teams have big wins already this year.  Arkansas won at TCU, while A&M topped UCLA, so they have been tested, and we expect a quality game from both sides.  It was hoped that Austin Allen would be able to approach his graduated brother Brandon’s stats at quarterback, but through three games, little brother has greatly surpassed expectations.  Add to this fact that running back Rawleigh Williams has done an admirable job replacing Alex Collins.  It has been the Razorback defense that has not quite lived up to expectations.

As for the Aggies, Kevin Sumlin has dealth with his critics in recent years since Johnny Manziel left College Station, and most of that criticism has come from subsequently weaker offenses year over year.  We may ask these critics why a 44-31 win is better than a 29-16 win?  This Aggie team can play defense, as most defenses led by legendary guru John Chavis tend to do.  Against Josh Rosen and UCLA, the Aggie defense produced five sacks and three interceptions.  Auburn tried to throw short, and A&M didn’t give up yards after the catch.

Arkansas will try to combine pounding the ball up the gut with vertical passes to Keon Hatcher combined with spreading the field and finding Drew Morgan, tight end Jeremy Sprinkle, and Dominique Reed.

Stanford at UCLA

The must-win games continue to allow Stanford a chance to stay in the playoff hunt.  A win over USC at home was just fine.  A win at UCLA and by a larger margin than the Bruins fell at Texas A&M, gives the Cardinal the much-needed ammunition to fight against the Clemson’s, Louisville’s, and Houston’s.  SU must run the table against a weaker Pac-12 slate, and a win at the Rose Bowl Saturday night pumps up their resume.  A loss, and it’s all up to Washington and Arizona State to carry the Pac-12 banner.

Boise St. at Oregon St.

The Broncos are now in a multi-team battle with South Florida, Houston, Memphis, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Toledo, and San Diego State for the NY6 Bowl Bid.  For that matter, throw in a surprising Army team into this mix and don’t eliminate the other two service academies just yet.

This game is Boise’s best resume builder for the rest of the season, even though the Beavers are at the bottom of the Pac-12.  It is almost required that BSU wins this game by at least 17 points, or they might have to be the last remaining undefeated team in December.

 

Here are this week’s PiRate Ratings

PiRate Ratings–Predictive
#	Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	Alabama	131.1	123.6	130.9	128.5
2	Louisville	127.9	121.7	128.1	125.9
3	Ohio St.	122.9	122.2	124.4	123.2
4	LSU	124.0	118.3	123.0	121.8
5	Michigan	121.9	119.8	122.5	121.4
6	Tennessee	121.8	117.1	121.8	120.2
7	Oklahoma	120.0	117.3	119.9	119.1
8	Clemson	122.2	113.9	120.7	118.9
9	Stanford	121.4	114.2	120.3	118.6
10	Washington	121.0	113.2	121.1	118.4
11	Miami	120.1	112.8	120.0	117.6
12	Houston	115.5	113.6	117.7	115.6
13	Oklahoma St.	115.3	116.3	115.1	115.6
14	Florida St.	117.9	110.6	116.8	115.1
15	North Carolina	117.2	110.5	116.9	114.9
16	Virginia Tech	114.5	114.1	114.8	114.5
17	Texas A&M	114.8	113.8	114.8	114.5
18	Pittsburgh	115.9	111.4	115.0	114.1
19	Iowa	115.1	112.0	114.8	114.0
20	Auburn	113.9	112.4	113.8	113.4
21	Mississippi St.	114.4	111.7	113.7	113.3
22	Notre Dame	114.9	111.2	113.6	113.2
23	Florida	112.6	116.3	110.8	113.2
24	Michigan St.	113.5	112.5	111.7	112.6
25	Texas	112.1	113.6	111.2	112.3
26	TCU	111.9	113.5	111.5	112.3
27	USC	114.3	109.9	111.6	111.9
28	Oregon	112.3	111.0	111.5	111.6
29	Arkansas	113.7	108.8	111.0	111.2
30	South Florida	111.6	109.0	112.8	111.1
31	Ole Miss	113.6	107.1	112.4	111.0
32	Georgia	111.0	111.1	110.9	111.0
33	UCLA	111.4	110.4	111.0	110.9
34	Baylor	110.4	110.5	111.5	110.8
35	Nebraska	111.8	108.4	111.9	110.7
36	Wisconsin	111.1	109.0	111.7	110.6
37	Georgia Tech	111.0	107.2	110.4	109.5
38	Boise St.	108.0	109.4	110.3	109.2
39	Colorado	110.1	105.6	110.6	108.8
40	Utah	110.8	105.1	108.7	108.2
41	Kansas St.	107.2	110.2	107.1	108.2
42	BYU	110.3	103.6	109.7	107.9
43	Penn St.	107.2	109.0	105.9	107.4
44	Arizona St.	107.5	108.1	106.3	107.3
45	West Virginia	107.2	106.6	106.8	106.9
46	Western Michigan	106.8	104.8	108.6	106.7
47	Washington St.	107.6	104.8	107.5	106.7
48	North Carolina St.	106.9	104.7	106.3	106.0
49	San Diego St.	105.8	102.9	108.2	105.7
50	Minnesota	105.1	103.1	104.8	104.3
51	Central Michigan	103.0	105.7	104.2	104.3
52	Northwestern	106.4	101.2	104.8	104.1
53	Texas Tech	105.5	103.3	103.4	104.1
54	Toledo	104.2	102.8	105.2	104.1
55	Missouri	104.1	103.3	103.9	103.8
56	Indiana	101.8	106.3	101.4	103.2
57	Arizona	104.3	102.0	103.1	103.1
58	Cincinnati	101.9	102.5	102.6	102.4
59	Maryland	101.4	105.0	99.2	101.9
60	Memphis	103.7	99.6	102.0	101.8
61	California	105.0	96.6	102.7	101.4
62	Air Force	100.9	101.3	101.4	101.2
63	Wake Forest	101.8	99.5	100.9	100.8
64	Tulsa	99.7	102.0	100.4	100.7
65	Vanderbilt	102.5	98.3	101.0	100.6
66	South Carolina	100.9	99.9	100.4	100.4
67	Boston College	100.5	99.5	100.0	100.0
68	Temple	99.9	99.6	100.3	100.0
69	Western Kentucky	100.8	96.4	102.0	99.7
70	Syracuse	101.4	97.6	99.2	99.4
71	Virginia	100.4	97.4	99.7	99.2
72	Duke	99.0	99.8	97.3	98.7
73	Navy	98.8	98.7	98.3	98.6
74	Appalachian St.	97.7	96.4	99.8	98.0
75	Army	93.8	102.0	97.1	97.6
76	Connecticut	97.5	95.3	97.7	96.9
77	Rutgers	98.0	95.5	96.4	96.7
78	Purdue	97.6	95.2	96.6	96.5
79	Illinois	97.6	94.3	96.6	96.2
80	East Carolina	95.1	97.2	95.5	95.9
81	Oregon St.	98.4	93.6	95.8	95.9
82	Kentucky	94.9	97.5	93.6	95.3
83	Ohio	91.5	100.1	92.5	94.7
84	Utah St.	93.9	96.7	93.5	94.7
85	Middle Tennessee	94.0	95.3	94.5	94.6
86	Iowa St.	95.0	94.7	93.8	94.5
87	Northern Illinois	93.7	94.9	94.4	94.3
88	Southern Mississippi	93.8	93.7	94.8	94.1
89	New Mexico	92.2	95.2	93.0	93.5
90	Nevada	91.6	95.1	92.8	93.2
91	SMU	92.6	91.8	91.9	92.1
92	Georgia Southern	91.3	91.3	93.6	92.1
93	UNLV	89.8	94.2	89.9	91.3
94	Troy	88.6	93.6	90.5	90.9
95	Louisiana Tech	89.8	92.0	90.9	90.9
96	Marshall	88.7	93.1	90.5	90.8
97	Arkansas St.	88.7	90.7	90.2	89.9
98	San Jose St.	89.8	89.8	90.0	89.9
99	Akron	86.7	93.1	88.1	89.3
100	Bowling Green	89.7	88.5	89.1	89.1
101	Central Florida	88.2	90.6	88.2	89.0
102	Colorado St.	86.0	88.7	86.5	87.1
103	Ball St.	85.9	87.9	86.8	86.9
104	Kansas	85.0	92.5	82.3	86.6
105	Tulane	85.5	88.6	85.7	86.6
106	Old Dominion	85.4	88.3	85.7	86.5
107	Kent St.	84.1	85.8	84.3	84.8
108	Rice	81.8	89.6	81.8	84.4
109	Miami (O)	83.6	84.4	84.7	84.2
110	Wyoming	83.9	83.6	84.1	83.9
111	Georgia St.	81.5	86.6	83.2	83.8
112	Florida Atlantic	81.7	85.1	83.3	83.4
113	UTSA	79.6	87.5	82.1	83.1
114	South Alabama	80.0	87.6	81.4	83.0
115	Florida International	80.2	87.1	80.9	82.7
116	Massachusetts	79.5	87.5	81.0	82.7
117	Eastern Michigan	79.9	85.1	80.8	81.9
118	Fresno St.	80.5	84.6	80.1	81.7
119	Buffalo	77.8	86.6	79.0	81.2
120	UL-Lafayette	75.8	84.4	77.7	79.3
121	Idaho	76.0	81.8	77.3	78.4
122	New Mexico St.	75.4	78.0	76.2	76.5
123	Hawaii	77.1	75.8	76.2	76.4
124	North Texas	74.6	77.0	74.6	75.4
125	UTEP	72.3	76.7	73.8	74.3
126	Charlotte	70.5	77.7	71.6	73.3
127	Texas St.	71.6	72.7	72.8	72.4
128	UL-Monroe	70.1	75.2	70.7	72.0

 

PiRate Retrodictive
#	Team
1	Alabama
2	Ohio St.
3	Clemson
4	Houston
5	Michigan
6	Tennessee
7	Stanford
8	Washington
9	Louisville
10	Arkansas
11	Texas A&M
12	Wisconsin
13	Baylor
14	LSU
15	Florida St.
16	Georgia
17	Michigan St.
18	Utah
19	Florida
20	Oklahoma
21	Nebraska
22	Miami (Fla)
23	San Diego St.
24	Ole Miss
25	South Florida
26	Toledo
27	Western Michigan
28	North Carolina
29	Iowa
30	Oregon
31	Boise St.
32	West Virginia
33	TCU
34	Navy
35	UCLA
36	Central Michigan
37	Notre Dame
38	Arizona St.
39	Oklahoma St.
40	Virginia Tech
41	Memphis
42	California
43	USC
44	Georgia Tech
45	Western Kentucky
46	Auburn
47	Pittsburgh
48	Georgia Southern
49	Texas
50	Minnesota
51	Texas Tech
52	Colorado
53	Penn St.
54	BYU
55	Kansas St.
56	Air Force
57	Indiana
58	Washington St.
59	Mississippi St.
60	Maryland
61	Wake Forest
62	North Carolina St.
63	Cincinnati
64	Army
65	South Carolina
66	Arizona
67	Tulsa
68	Akron
69	Missouri
70	Utah St.
71	Appalachian St.
72	Northwestern
73	East Carolina
74	Troy
75	Southern Miss.
76	Temple
77	Marshall
78	Louisiana Tech
79	Nevada
80	Colorado St.
81	Vanderbilt
82	Middle Tennessee
83	Rutgers
84	Connecticut
85	Ohio
86	Duke
87	Bowling Green
88	Ball St.
89	SMU
90	Kentucky
91	Arkansas St.
92	Boston College
93	Syracuse
94	Illinois
95	Texas St.
96	Purdue
97	Oregon St.
98	San Jose St.
99	Wyoming
100	UL-Lafayette
101	Virginia
102	UTEP
103	Idaho
104	South Alabama
105	Northern Illinois
106	Tulane
107	New Mexico
108	Central Florida
109	Fresno St.
110	Iowa St.
111	UNLV
112	Old Dominion
113	Florida Atlantic
114	Rice
115	New Mexico St.
116	Kansas
117	Georgia St.
118	Massachusetts
119	UTSA
120	Eastern Michigan
121	Kent St.
122	Hawaii
123	UL-Monroe
124	Miami (O)
125	Buffalo
126	Florida Int’l.
127	Charlotte
128	North Texas

 

PiRate Ratings By Conference

American Athletic Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
South Florida	111.6	109.0	112.8	111.1
Cincinnati	101.9	102.5	102.6	102.4
Temple	99.9	99.6	100.3	100.0
Connecticut	97.5	95.3	97.7	96.9
East Carolina	95.1	97.2	95.5	95.9
Central Florida	88.2	90.6	88.2	89.0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Houston	115.5	113.6	117.7	115.6
Memphis	103.7	99.6	102.0	101.8
Tulsa	99.7	102.0	100.4	100.7
Navy	98.8	98.7	98.3	98.6
SMU	92.6	91.8	91.9	92.1
Tulane	85.5	88.6	85.7	86.6
AAC Averages	99.2	99.1	99.4	99.2
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Louisville	127.9	121.7	128.1	125.9
Clemson	122.2	113.9	120.7	118.9
Florida St.	117.9	110.6	116.8	115.1
North Carolina St.	106.9	104.7	106.3	106.0
Wake Forest	101.8	99.5	100.9	100.8
Boston College	100.5	99.5	100.0	100.0
Syracuse	101.4	97.6	99.2	99.4
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Miami	120.1	112.8	120.0	117.6
North Carolina	117.2	110.5	116.9	114.9
Virginia Tech	114.5	114.1	114.8	114.5
Pittsburgh	115.9	111.4	115.0	114.1
Georgia Tech	111.0	107.2	110.4	109.5
Virginia	100.4	97.4	99.7	99.2
Duke	99.0	99.8	97.3	98.7
ACC Averages	111.2	107.2	110.4	109.6
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oklahoma	120.0	117.3	119.9	119.1
Oklahoma St.	115.3	116.3	115.1	115.6
Texas	112.1	113.6	111.2	112.3
TCU	111.9	113.5	111.5	112.3
Baylor	110.4	110.5	111.5	110.8
Kansas St.	107.2	110.2	107.1	108.2
West Virginia	107.2	106.6	106.8	106.9
Texas Tech	105.5	103.3	103.4	104.1
Iowa St.	95.0	94.7	93.8	94.5
Kansas	85.0	92.5	82.3	86.6
Big 12 Averages	107.0	107.9	106.3	107.0
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ohio St.	122.9	122.2	124.4	123.2
Michigan	121.9	119.8	122.5	121.4
Michigan St.	113.5	112.5	111.7	112.6
Penn St.	107.2	109.0	105.9	107.4
Indiana	101.8	106.3	101.4	103.2
Maryland	101.4	105.0	99.2	101.9
Rutgers	98.0	95.5	96.4	96.7
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Iowa	115.1	112.0	114.8	114.0
Nebraska	111.8	108.4	111.9	110.7
Wisconsin	111.1	109.0	111.7	110.6
Minnesota	105.1	103.1	104.8	104.3
Northwestern	106.4	101.2	104.8	104.1
Purdue	97.6	95.2	96.6	96.5
Illinois	97.6	94.3	96.6	96.2
Big Ten Averages	108.0	106.7	107.3	107.3
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Western Kentucky	100.8	96.4	102.0	99.7
Middle Tennessee	94.0	95.3	94.5	94.6
Marshall	88.7	93.1	90.5	90.8
Old Dominion	85.4	88.3	85.7	86.5
Florida Atlantic	81.7	85.1	83.3	83.4
Florida International	80.2	87.1	80.9	82.7
Charlotte	70.5	77.7	71.6	73.3
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Southern Mississippi	93.8	93.7	94.8	94.1
Louisiana Tech	89.8	92.0	90.9	90.9
Rice	81.8	89.6	81.8	84.4
UTSA	79.6	87.5	82.1	83.1
North Texas	74.6	77.0	74.6	75.4
UTEP	72.3	76.7	73.8	74.3
CUSA Averages	84.1	87.7	85.1	85.6
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Notre Dame	114.9	111.2	113.6	113.2
BYU	110.3	103.6	109.7	107.9
Army	93.8	102.0	97.1	97.6
Massachusetts	79.5	87.5	81.0	82.7
Independents Averages	99.6	101.1	100.4	100.4
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ohio	91.5	100.1	92.5	94.7
Akron	86.7	93.1	88.1	89.3
Bowling Green	89.7	88.5	89.1	89.1
Kent St.	84.1	85.8	84.3	84.8
Miami (O)	83.6	84.4	84.7	84.2
Buffalo	77.8	86.6	79.0	81.2
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Western Michigan	106.8	104.8	108.6	106.7
Central Michigan	103.0	105.7	104.2	104.3
Toledo	104.2	102.8	105.2	104.1
Northern Illinois	93.7	94.9	94.4	94.3
Ball St.	85.9	87.9	86.8	86.9
Eastern Michigan	79.9	85.1	80.8	81.9
MAC Averages	90.6	93.3	91.5	91.8
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Boise St.	108.0	109.4	110.3	109.2
Air Force	100.9	101.3	101.4	101.2
Utah St.	93.9	96.7	93.5	94.7
New Mexico	92.2	95.2	93.0	93.5
Colorado St.	86.0	88.7	86.5	87.1
Wyoming	83.9	83.6	84.1	83.9
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
San Diego St.	105.8	102.9	108.2	105.7
Nevada	91.6	95.1	92.8	93.2
UNLV	89.8	94.2	89.9	91.3
San Jose St.	89.8	89.8	90.0	89.9
Fresno St.	80.5	84.6	80.1	81.7
Hawaii	77.1	75.8	76.2	76.4
MWC Averages	91.6	93.2	92.2	92.3
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Stanford	121.4	114.2	120.3	118.6
Washington	121.0	113.2	121.1	118.4
Oregon	112.3	111.0	111.5	111.6
Washington St.	107.6	104.8	107.5	106.7
California	105.0	96.6	102.7	101.4
Oregon St.	98.4	93.6	95.8	95.9
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
USC	114.3	109.9	111.6	111.9
UCLA	111.4	110.4	111.0	110.9
Colorado	110.1	105.6	110.6	108.8
Utah	110.8	105.1	108.7	108.2
Arizona St.	107.5	108.1	106.3	107.3
Arizona	104.3	102.0	103.1	103.1
Pac-12 Averages	110.3	106.2	109.2	108.6
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Tennessee	121.8	117.1	121.8	120.2
Florida	112.6	116.3	110.8	113.2
Georgia	111.0	111.1	110.9	111.0
Missouri	104.1	103.3	103.9	103.8
Vanderbilt	102.5	98.3	101.0	100.6
South Carolina	100.9	99.9	100.4	100.4
Kentucky	94.9	97.5	93.6	95.3
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Alabama	131.1	123.6	130.9	128.5
LSU	124.0	118.3	123.0	121.8
Texas A&M	114.8	113.8	114.8	114.5
Auburn	113.9	112.4	113.8	113.4
Mississippi St.	114.4	111.7	113.7	113.3
Arkansas	113.7	108.8	111.0	111.2
Ole Miss	113.6	107.1	112.4	111.0
SEC Averages	112.4	110.0	111.6	111.3
Sunbelt Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Appalachian St.	97.7	96.4	99.8	98.0
Georgia Southern	91.3	91.3	93.6	92.1
Troy	88.6	93.6	90.5	90.9
Arkansas St.	88.7	90.7	90.2	89.9
Georgia St.	81.5	86.6	83.2	83.8
South Alabama	80.0	87.6	81.4	83.0
UL-Lafayette	75.8	84.4	77.7	79.3
Idaho	76.0	81.8	77.3	78.4
New Mexico St.	75.4	78.0	76.2	76.5
Texas St.	71.6	72.7	72.8	72.4
UL-Monroe	70.1	75.2	70.7	72.0
Sun Belt Averages	81.5	85.3	83.0	83.3

 

PiRate Ratings By Conference
#	League	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	SEC	112.4	110.0	111.6	111.3
2	ACC	111.2	107.2	110.4	109.6
3	Pac-12	110.3	106.2	109.2	108.6
4	Big Ten	108.0	106.7	107.3	107.3
5	Big 12	107.0	107.9	106.3	107.0
6	Independents	99.6	101.1	100.4	100.4
7	AAC	99.2	99.1	99.4	99.2
8	MWC	91.6	93.2	92.2	92.3
9	MAC	90.6	93.3	91.5	91.8
10	CUSA	84.1	87.7	85.1	85.6
11	Sun Belt	81.5	85.3	83.0	83.3

This Week’s Spreads

Thursday, September 22		PiRate	Mean	Bias
Georgia Tech	Clemson	-8.2	-3.7	-7.3
Friday, September 23		PiRate	Mean	Bias
Eastern Michigan	Wyoming	-1.0	4.5	-0.3
Utah	USC	-0.5	-1.8	0.1
Saturday, September 24		PiRate	Mean	Bias
Akron	Appalachian St.	-8.0	-0.3	-8.7
Buffalo	Army	-14.0	-13.4	-16.1
Cincinnati	Miami (O)	20.8	20.6	20.4
Connecticut	Syracuse	-1.9	-0.3	0.5
Indiana	Wake Forest	3.0	9.8	3.5
Kentucky	South Carolina	-3.0	0.6	-3.8
Michigan	Penn St.	17.7	13.8	19.6
Michigan St.	Wisconsin	5.4	6.5	3.0
North Carolina	Pittsburgh	4.3	2.1	4.9
Purdue	Nevada	9.0	3.1	6.8
South Florida	Florida St.	-3.8	0.9	-1.5
Temple	Charlotte	31.9	24.4	31.2
Tennessee	Florida	12.2	3.8	14.0
Virginia	Central Michigan	0.4	-5.3	-1.5
Virginia Tech	East Carolina	22.4	19.9	22.3
West Virginia (N)	BYU	-0.1	6.0	0.1
Western Michigan	Georgia Southern	18.5	16.5	18.0
Iowa St.	San Jose St.	8.2	7.9	6.8
Old Dominion	UTSA	8.3	3.3	6.1
Rutgers	Iowa	-14.1	-13.5	-15.4
Alabama	Kent St.	50.0	40.8	49.6
Auburn	LSU	-7.1	-2.9	-6.2
Baylor	Oklahoma St.	-1.9	-2.8	-0.6
Minnesota	Colorado St.	22.1	17.4	21.3
Ole Miss	Georgia	5.6	-1.0	4.5
Texas A&M (N)	Arkansas	1.1	5.0	3.8
Tulane	UL-Lafayette	11.7	6.2	10.0
Memphis	Bowling Green	17.0	14.1	15.9
Troy	New Mexico St.	16.2	18.6	17.3
Utah St.	Air Force	-4.0	-1.6	-4.9
Arizona	Washington	-13.7	-8.2	-15.0
Arizona St.	California	5.5	14.5	6.6
Oregon	Colorado	5.2	8.4	3.9
Oregon St.	Boise St.	-6.6	-12.8	-11.5
UCLA	Stanford	-7.0	-0.8	-6.3
Massachusetts	Mississippi St.	-32.4	-21.7	-30.2
Notre Dame	Duke	18.9	14.4	19.3
Western Kentucky	Vanderbilt	1.3	1.1	4.0
Fresno St.	Tulsa	-16.2	-14.4	-17.3
Florida Atlantic	Ball St.	-1.2	0.2	-0.5
Rice	North Texas	9.7	15.1	9.7
Texas St.	Houston	-41.9	-38.9	-42.9
Florida Int’l.	Central Florida	-6.0	-1.5	-5.3
Middle Tennessee	Louisiana Tech	6.7	5.8	6.1
Northwestern	Nebraska	-2.4	-4.2	-4.1
Marshall	Louisville	-36.4	-26.1	-35.1
SMU	TCU	-17.3	-19.7	-17.6
UTEP	Southern Miss.	-18.5	-14.0	-18.0
UNLV	Idaho	16.8	15.4	15.6

FBS vs. FCS	Week 4
Home	Visitor	PiRate
Boston College	Wagner	36
Ohio	Gardner-Webb	30
Missouri	Delaware St.	45
South Alabama	Nicholls St.	19
Arkansas St.	Central Arkansas	21
Northern Illinois	Western Illinois	13
Kansas St.	Missouri St.	42

 

 

 

College Football Ratings & Spreads For September 15-17, 2016

The Best Schedule in a September Saturday in Years

This will be a week for college football fanatics to arrange their schedules to be glued to your viewing devices.  Forget mowing that lawn; the groceries can be shopped for Friday after work.  Tell your spouses that their honey-do list for this Saturday must be postponed, and let them know that the buckaroos at the PiRate Ratings have ordered you to do research this week.

This week’s schedule of games might even be better on the whole than rivalry weeks at the end of the season.  Let’s look at some of the great offerings, and by great, we don’t necessarily mean top 10 teams facing off against each other.  There are even great games among the bottom 30 teams.

Actually, the festivities commence Thursday night, when Houston visits Cincinnati.  This is somewhat of a trap game for the Cougars.  It is their first road game, and it comes against a solid but not spectacular conference foe.  Cincinnati began the season with a lackluster victory over a cream puff, and then won at Purdue last week.  The Bearcats are just talented enough to play their best game of the season and upset Houston.  It should be a great game with a good deal of scoring.

 

On Friday night, in what looks like a possible blowout, Rice hosts Baylor.  At one time, when both teams were Southwest Conference members, this was a huge rivalry game, not unlike Texas and Arkansas.  Baylor has won the last seven times these teams have faced off, with the last Owl win coming in the old SWC days in 1992.  Baylor put up 70 points on Rice last year in Waco, and even thought the Bears are several touchdowns stronger, this game might be interesting for awhile.

 

Now to Saturday, when the fun continues in bunches.

12 Noon Eastern Time

ABC: Florida State at Louisville

Don’t be surprised if the home team Cardinals pull the upset here.  Coach Bobby Petrino has built an offense at UL that could end the season averaging north of 50 points per game.  The defense is not Top 5 tough like other teams, but we are not sure that Florida State’s defense is ready to win it a championship either.  In a shootout, the better gunman usually wins, and Louisville has the better sharpshooter.  This one could be a 45-41 affair, and it is a 50-50 game in our opinion.  The PiRate Ratings are 100% in agreement with the winner.  See below.

Big Ten Network: Temple at Penn State

Coach James Franklin has felt that seat start to warm up in not so Happy Valley.  Losing to rival Pitt is not great, but losing for a second season to Temple could add some gas to that flame under the seat.  Temple imploded against Army, and then the Owls could not stop the option.  They righted the ship last week, and Penn State better play mistake-free ball and not give TU any gift points.

12:30 PM

ACC Network: Vanderbilt at Georgia Tech

Why is this game so important?  Both teams need this game to stay in the bowl chase this early in the season.  Georgia Tech pulled out a last-second win against Boston College in Dublin, Ireland, in week one.  The Yellow Jackets looked much better this past weekend, but they only played FCS Mercer.  This week, they face a coach that earned his job by stopping the read option, and Coach Derek Mason of Vanderbilt probably knows how to stop the spread option like his Stanford defenses did against Marcus Mariota’s Oregon offense.

The problem is that Vanderbilt’s offense is as weak as Boston College’s offense, and the Commodores may have trouble reaching 14 points in this game.  A 17-14 game would not be a shocker, although we believe that both teams will improve on the attack side after two so-so performances.  We believe the game could be won by less than a touchdown, with Tech having a 60% chance and Vanderbilt a 40% chance of winning.

3:30 PM

Big  Ten Network: Colorado at Michigan

Could it be that Coach Mike MacIntyre has turned the Buffalo program around?  After blowing out rival Colorado State at Invesco Field in week one, CU toyed with Idaho State in week two.  Sure, these are not quality opponents, but in recent years, CU might have gone 1-1 against these teams.

Playing at the Big House against a tough group of Wolverines is probably too much for the Buffs to take on, but it could be a very interesting game if CU does not turn the ball over.

 

WatchESPN App: South Florida at Syracuse

This will be an interesting contest with a team in Syracuse that might throw 50-60 passes and run off 100 scrimmage plays in a game before the season ends, and a South Florida team that plays the Stanford-Michigan smashmouth offense.  USF might be the one team that can derail Houston if the two meet in the AAC Championship Game, and the Bulls just might be a dark horse contender for the New Year’s 6 Bowl.  However, Coach Dino Babers has the ‘Cuse playing well above their level of 2015, and The Orangemen could just as easily end USF’s hopes for playing on January 2.

 

ABC: Oregon at Nebraska

Call this game a playoff eliminator.  The loser can win out and still miss the playoffs, while the winner stays alive with the hope that a 13-0 season will get them to Atlanta or Glendale, AZ.  Coach Mike Riley certainly knows Oregon well, having coached at Oregon State so long, but then Mark Helfrich knows a lot about what Riley’s teams do.  So, it should come down to which team executes its game plan better.  The Huskers can be an extra touchdown better in Lincoln than on a neutral field, and Oregon has not been a giant killer on the road in recent years.

 

CBS Sports Network: San Diego State at Northern Illinois

Northern Illinois is off to its worst start in years at 0-2, while SDSU is 2-0.  Why would we call this a game worth watching?  First, NIU’s first two games were road games, and the Huskies have a 31-2 home record in the last six years.  They won’t bend or break at Huskie Stadium.

Rocky Long may have the best team he’s ever coached in his career this season.  San Diego State has a decent chance of running the table in the regular season for the first time since 1969, when Dennis Shaw ran the Air Coryell offense to perfection.  The Aztecs have a couple of roadblock road games with trips to Dekalb this week and then to South Alabama in two weeks.  If they can get through these games unscathed, then you can add another prime contender with Houston, South Florida, Boise State, and maybe another MAC team for the NY6 Bowl bid.

 

CBS: Alabama at Ole Miss

Ole Miss is the one team that doesn’t back down to the Crimson Tide.  The Rebels have beaten ‘Bama in back-to-back years.  When has a team beaten Alabama three years in a row, when the Tide was not going through a rough patch where they did not stay in the Top 10?  It’s never been done when Alabama finished in the Top 10 all three seasons.  The closest was the 1967-68-69 seasons when Tennessee beat the Tide, but in 1969, Alabama had declined and would finish 6-5.

Ole Miss blew an excellent opportunity to make this a game between two Top 10 teams, when turnovers cost them a big lead against Florida State.  We believe the Rebels can play a mistake-free game this week and still lose by up to three touchdowns.  If a rebuilding reloading Tide team can go into Oxford and win big, we could be looking at another dynasty in Tuscaloosa like the Crimson fans saw in the early 1960’s and most of the 1970’s.

7:00 PM

ESPN: Texas A&M at Auburn

This one can be called the hot seat avoidance game.  The losing coach is going to begin to be in a bit of trouble.  How do we rate Auburn’s close loss to Clemson at Jordan-Hare Stadium, after Troy went to CU and lost by the same amount of points?  Auburn handled Arkansas State with ease, but ASU lost at home to Toledo in week one.  This becomes a put up or shut up game for War Eagle Nation.

Texas A&M has a quality win over UCLA, plus a no extra knowledge learned win over a very weak Prairie View team.  This is the Aggies’ first road game, and it comes in a tough place to win, but they won by a field goal the last time they came here.  We expect a hard-fought, close game.

 

ESPN2: Mississippi State at LSU

The loser will be 0-1 in the SEC and 1-2 overall, and they can look forward to hoping for an Outback Bowl bid at the max.  If the winner has maroon jerseys, then there will be less smiles in the LSU coaching office come Sunday Morning.  Les Miles is on the hottest of hot seats at the present time, and a home loss to a team that lost to South Alabama might be enough to make his dismissal inevitable.

Then, there is the health of star back Leonard Fournette, who missed the Jacksonville State game Saturday night.  Fournette is expected back in practice tomorrow, but he still suffers from the effects of the ankle injury.  And, there is the little matter of who will start at quarterback for the Tigers.  Former Purdue starter Danny Etling started 6 of 8 for 100 yards after replacing ineffective Brandon Harris in the second quarter.  However, he was 0 of 6 in the second half.

 

ESPN3: Navy at Tulane

How in the world could we select this game as one that could be a must watch affair?  Okay, first we did say this was a week for football fanatics, so give us a tad bit of slack here.  This actually should be a very interesting and fun game to watch, so consider giving it a few minutes time early in the evening.

Tulane’s first-year coach Willie Fritz came from Georgia Southern.  This Green Wave squad was not expected to do much in year one, as Fritz began the process of turning a former Pro-style offense into his unique form of multiple option offense, similar but different from the Navy/Georgia Tech style of spread option or inverted wishbone.  In week one, TU went to Wake Forest and held their own in a defensive struggle.  The Green Wave almost pulled off the upset, and after Wake knocked off Duke last week, this loss in Winston-Salem looks better than it did on opening night.  TU then handled Southern with ease, this time doing it with a breakout true freshman quarterback in Johnathan Brantley, who ran the option like a seasoned veteran.

Besides having two option teams going at each other, this is an American Athletic Conference game and an intra-division one to boot.  It should be a fun retro match that resembles the Oklahoma-Texas games of the early 1970s.

 

7:30 PM

NBC: Michigan State at Notre Dame

Neither team has looked as good as expected to this point, although Michigan State has only played one game, and the Spartans have had an extra week to prepare.  You know the old adage, that a team improves the most between its first and second game, and having two weeks to improve should make Sparty a live road ‘dog.

If you are around 60 years of age or older, you know how great this rivalry has been.  You saw the 1966 game that ended in a 10-10 tie, where both teams finished the season at 9-0-1.  Expect the score to pass 20 total points sometime in the second quarter.

Fox Sports: Ohio State at Oklahoma

Now this is how top teams should schedule!  If there were automatic NCAA Playoff bids to each of the Power 5 Conference Champions with three at-large bids to be awarded, then you would see more games like this instead of Big U vs. Northwest Southeastern Tech.

An Oklahoma loss means the Sooners can only expect a Sugar Bowl bid if they win the Big 12 Conference.  An Ohio State win in Norman could be enough to move the Buckeyes up to Number One in the nation, even if Alabama wins at Ole Miss.  Ohio State has started its first two games slowly, and a repeat at Memorial Stadium could be impossible to rally to victory if they get down by double-digits.

The key in this one is how much Oklahoma’s pass defense has improved since week one.  If J. T. Barrett can exploit the OU secondary for a deep pass for a touchdown, the Buckeyes’ running game might be able to get untracked and put up 250 yards on the Sooners.

We expect a game with more than 70 points scored, and wouldn’t this be an excellent night for a handful of overtimes?

8:00 PM

ABC: USC at Stanford

USC faces two separate extra troubles this week.  First, the home Cardinal had an extra week to prepare after besting a decent Kansas State team in week one.  Second, Stanford knows what Alabama did to the Trojans on a neutral field.  They know that to be given serious credibility, they cannot beat USC by a field goal or touchdown and get it.  They have to win this one by double digits to get any respect.

USC is not chopped liver.  The Trojans have played in the Rose Bowl in a season in which the national champ embarrassed them.  Look back at 1966, when USC lost to Notre Dame 51-0, yet made it to the Rose Bowl.

If truth be told, the Trojans are not 46 points weaker than Alabama.  If they played again, they might only lose by 24-28 points.  Stanford better be on guard, because the Trojans seek the same respect that Stanford believes they must earn.  Expect a good game on the Farm Saturday night.

10:30 PM

ESPN: Texas at California

This one is all about the Longhorns venturing out of the Lone Star State.  Cal is rebuilding and will be lucky to win five games this year, while Texas is trying to return to greatness.  The Longhorns have holes in their defense, and Cal has an offense capable of scoring a lot of points.  The key is how well the Texas offense will fare on foreign soil, even against a very porous defense.  If you wake up Sunday morning and see that Coach Charlie Strong’s team hung half a hundred on the Bears, then UT could easily be 4-0 when the Red River Shootout takes place in Dallas.  A win there, and it would be quite possible to see a path to 12-0 for the ‘Horns.

 

Here are this week’s PiRate Ratings

 

PiRate Ratings
#	Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	Alabama	131.9	124.3	131.9	129.4
2	Tennessee	124.8	120.1	124.8	123.2
3	LSU	124.6	118.7	123.7	122.3
4	Oklahoma	122.7	119.5	122.5	121.6
5	Louisville	123.4	117.2	123.6	121.4
6	Michigan	121.6	119.7	122.2	121.2
7	Ohio St.	120.1	119.9	121.7	120.6
8	Florida St.	122.9	115.6	121.8	120.1
9	Clemson	121.9	113.6	120.4	118.6
10	Washington	121.1	113.3	121.2	118.5
11	Stanford	120.5	113.1	119.4	117.7
12	Oklahoma St.	114.9	116.4	114.7	115.3
13	Auburn	115.7	113.9	115.8	115.1
14	North Carolina	117.1	110.4	116.8	114.8
15	Iowa	115.9	112.8	115.6	114.8
16	Notre Dame	116.4	112.4	115.3	114.7
17	Texas	113.7	116.7	113.7	114.7
18	Miami	117.5	109.5	116.8	114.6
19	Pittsburgh	116.3	111.3	115.4	114.3
20	Houston	113.9	111.8	115.9	113.9
21	Florida	112.9	116.6	111.1	113.5
22	Wisconsin	113.9	111.5	114.7	113.4
23	Mississippi St.	114.1	111.6	113.3	113.0
24	USC	115.2	111.0	112.5	112.9
25	TCU	111.7	113.6	111.5	112.3
26	Oregon	112.8	111.7	111.8	112.1
27	Texas A&M	112.4	111.7	112.2	112.1
28	Georgia	111.3	111.4	111.2	111.3
29	Michigan St.	111.9	111.2	109.9	111.0
30	Virginia Tech	111.0	110.6	111.3	111.0
31	Arkansas	113.1	108.2	110.4	110.6
32	UCLA	110.9	110.5	110.4	110.6
33	Baylor	110.3	110.0	111.4	110.6
34	Ole Miss	113.1	106.7	111.7	110.5
35	Nebraska	111.5	107.9	111.8	110.4
36	South Florida	110.1	107.6	111.5	109.7
37	Arizona St.	109.3	109.6	108.3	109.1
38	Boise St.	107.7	109.1	110.0	108.9
39	Colorado	110.3	105.6	110.8	108.9
40	BYU	110.8	103.5	110.3	108.2
41	Utah	111.0	104.9	108.6	108.2
42	Penn St.	107.6	109.5	106.0	107.7
43	Georgia Tech	108.2	104.5	107.6	106.8
44	West Virginia	107.0	106.4	106.6	106.7
45	North Carolina St.	106.7	104.2	106.0	105.6
46	Washington St.	106.5	103.4	106.3	105.4
47	San Diego St.	105.2	101.9	107.6	104.9
48	Kansas St.	103.9	107.2	103.5	104.9
49	Texas Tech	105.8	103.4	103.6	104.3
50	Western Michigan	104.2	102.4	106.1	104.2
51	Minnesota	104.9	102.9	104.6	104.1
52	Vanderbilt	105.8	101.5	104.3	103.9
53	Northwestern	106.2	100.7	104.6	103.8
54	Boston College	104.3	103.3	103.8	103.8
55	Cincinnati	103.1	103.9	104.0	103.7
56	Central Michigan	102.2	105.0	103.4	103.5
57	Missouri	103.8	103.0	103.6	103.5
58	Arizona	104.6	102.2	103.6	103.5
59	Indiana	101.6	106.1	101.2	103.0
60	Maryland	102.4	106.0	100.2	102.9
61	Toledo	103.0	101.4	103.9	102.8
62	Air Force	100.6	101.0	101.1	100.9
63	Syracuse	102.9	99.0	100.5	100.8
64	Wake Forest	101.7	99.4	100.8	100.7
65	South Carolina	101.1	100.0	100.6	100.6
66	Tulsa	99.5	101.8	100.2	100.5
67	Appalachian St.	99.8	99.2	102.5	100.5
68	Western Kentucky	101.4	96.6	102.8	100.3
69	Memphis	102.3	97.4	100.4	100.1
70	Temple	99.5	99.1	100.2	99.6
71	Virginia	100.7	97.6	100.0	99.4
72	California	103.8	93.9	100.6	99.4
73	Duke	99.2	100.3	97.5	99.0
74	Navy	99.0	98.7	98.5	98.8
75	Illinois	99.8	96.3	98.7	98.3
76	Rutgers	98.2	95.2	96.3	96.6
77	Connecticut	97.2	95.1	97.4	96.6
78	Purdue	97.6	95.2	96.6	96.5
79	Oregon St.	98.3	93.5	95.7	95.8
80	East Carolina	94.9	97.1	95.3	95.8
81	Kentucky	95.4	97.7	93.7	95.6
82	Southern Mississippi	95.2	94.5	96.2	95.3
83	Marshall	93.2	97.6	95.0	95.3
84	Northern Illinois	94.0	95.6	94.7	94.8
85	Georgia Southern	93.8	93.5	96.3	94.6
86	Iowa St.	95.2	94.6	93.8	94.5
87	Utah St.	93.3	96.3	92.6	94.1
88	New Mexico	92.0	95.5	93.1	93.6
89	Middle Tennessee	92.2	94.1	92.5	92.9
90	Army	88.7	96.9	92.0	92.5
91	Nevada	91.1	94.1	92.1	92.5
92	Ohio	89.2	97.8	90.2	92.4
93	SMU	92.5	91.7	91.8	92.0
94	UNLV	90.5	94.8	90.6	92.0
95	Bowling Green	92.0	90.2	91.6	91.3
96	Arkansas St.	89.6	91.4	91.4	90.8
97	Louisiana Tech	89.5	91.9	90.7	90.7
98	San Jose St.	89.6	90.0	90.1	89.9
99	Troy	86.9	92.5	88.8	89.4
100	Kansas	86.4	94.7	83.9	88.4
101	Central Florida	87.2	89.6	87.2	88.0
102	Old Dominion	85.6	88.8	86.0	86.8
103	Colorado St.	85.7	88.4	86.2	86.8
104	Florida Atlantic	85.0	88.1	86.9	86.7
105	Tulane	85.3	88.6	85.5	86.5
106	Ball St.	85.5	87.5	86.4	86.5
107	Akron	83.2	89.6	84.6	85.8
108	Rice	81.9	90.1	81.9	84.6
109	Kent St.	83.9	85.6	84.1	84.6
110	Wyoming	83.7	83.4	83.9	83.7
111	Miami (O)	83.0	84.2	83.9	83.7
112	South Alabama	80.5	87.9	81.9	83.4
113	Florida International	80.6	87.4	81.4	83.1
114	Fresno St.	81.6	85.9	81.3	82.9
115	Massachusetts	79.1	87.2	80.5	82.3
116	Buffalo	78.3	87.6	79.7	81.9
117	UTSA	78.3	86.5	80.6	81.8
118	Georgia St.	78.7	84.1	80.2	81.0
119	Eastern Michigan	78.2	83.4	79.1	80.2
120	Idaho	77.6	83.7	79.0	80.1
121	UL-Lafayette	75.3	84.1	77.2	78.9
122	UTEP	76.3	80.7	77.8	78.3
123	New Mexico St.	74.9	77.8	76.1	76.3
124	Hawaii	76.8	75.6	75.7	76.0
125	North Texas	74.8	77.2	74.8	75.6
126	Charlotte	72.2	79.4	73.3	75.0
127	Texas St.	72.1	73.2	73.3	72.9
128	UL-Monroe	67.6	73.0	68.0	69.5

Ratings By Conference

American Athletic Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
South Florida	110.1	107.6	111.5	109.7
Cincinnati	103.1	103.9	104.0	103.7
Temple	99.5	99.1	100.2	99.6
Connecticut	97.2	95.1	97.4	96.6
East Carolina	94.9	97.1	95.3	95.8
Central Florida	87.2	89.6	87.2	88.0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Houston	113.9	111.8	115.9	113.9
Tulsa	99.5	101.8	100.2	100.5
Memphis	102.3	97.4	100.4	100.1
Navy	99.0	98.7	98.5	98.8
SMU	92.5	91.7	91.8	92.0
Tulane	85.3	88.6	85.5	86.5
AAC Averages	98.7	98.6	99.0	98.8
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Louisville	123.4	117.2	123.6	121.4
Florida St.	122.9	115.6	121.8	120.1
Clemson	121.9	113.6	120.4	118.6
North Carolina St.	106.7	104.2	106.0	105.6
Boston College	104.3	103.3	103.8	103.8
Syracuse	102.9	99.0	100.5	100.8
Wake Forest	101.7	99.4	100.8	100.7
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
North Carolina	117.1	110.4	116.8	114.8
Miami	117.5	109.5	116.8	114.6
Pittsburgh	116.3	111.3	115.4	114.3
Virginia Tech	111.0	110.6	111.3	111.0
Georgia Tech	108.2	104.5	107.6	106.8
Virginia	100.7	97.6	100.0	99.4
Duke	99.2	100.3	97.5	99.0
ACC Averages	111.0	106.9	110.2	109.4
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oklahoma	122.7	119.5	122.5	121.6
Oklahoma St.	114.9	116.4	114.7	115.3
Texas	113.7	116.7	113.7	114.7
TCU	111.7	113.6	111.5	112.3
Baylor	110.3	110.0	111.4	110.6
West Virginia	107.0	106.4	106.6	106.7
Kansas St.	103.9	107.2	103.5	104.9
Texas Tech	105.8	103.4	103.6	104.3
Iowa St.	95.2	94.6	93.8	94.5
Kansas	86.4	94.7	83.9	88.4
Big 12 Averages	107.2	108.3	106.5	107.3
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Michigan	121.6	119.7	122.2	121.2
Ohio St.	120.1	119.9	121.7	120.6
Michigan St.	111.9	111.2	109.9	111.0
Penn St.	107.6	109.5	106.0	107.7
Indiana	101.6	106.1	101.2	103.0
Maryland	102.4	106.0	100.2	102.9
Rutgers	98.2	95.2	96.3	96.6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Iowa	115.9	112.8	115.6	114.8
Wisconsin	113.9	111.5	114.7	113.4
Nebraska	111.5	107.9	111.8	110.4
Minnesota	104.9	102.9	104.6	104.1
Northwestern	106.2	100.7	104.6	103.8
Illinois	99.8	96.3	98.7	98.3
Purdue	97.6	95.2	96.6	96.5
Big Ten Averages	108.1	106.8	107.4	107.4
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Western Kentucky	101.4	96.6	102.8	100.3
Marshall	93.2	97.6	95.0	95.3
Middle Tennessee	92.2	94.1	92.5	92.9
Old Dominion	85.6	88.8	86.0	86.8
Florida Atlantic	85.0	88.1	86.9	86.7
Florida International	80.6	87.4	81.4	83.1
Charlotte	72.2	79.4	73.3	75.0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Southern Mississippi	95.2	94.5	96.2	95.3
Louisiana Tech	89.5	91.9	90.7	90.7
Rice	81.9	90.1	81.9	84.6
UTSA	78.3	86.5	80.6	81.8
UTEP	76.3	80.7	77.8	78.3
North Texas	74.8	77.2	74.8	75.6
CUSA Averages	85.1	88.7	86.2	86.7
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Notre Dame	116.4	112.4	115.3	114.7
BYU	110.8	103.5	110.3	108.2
Army	88.7	96.9	92.0	92.5
Massachusetts	79.1	87.2	80.5	82.3
Independents Averages	98.8	100.0	99.5	99.4
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ohio	89.2	97.8	90.2	92.4
Bowling Green	92.0	90.2	91.6	91.3
Akron	83.2	89.6	84.6	85.8
Kent St.	83.9	85.6	84.1	84.6
Miami (O)	83.0	84.2	83.9	83.7
Buffalo	78.3	87.6	79.7	81.9
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Western Michigan	104.2	102.4	106.1	104.2
Central Michigan	102.2	105.0	103.4	103.5
Toledo	103.0	101.4	103.9	102.8
Northern Illinois	94.0	95.6	94.7	94.8
Ball St.	85.5	87.5	86.4	86.5
Eastern Michigan	78.2	83.4	79.1	80.2
MAC Averages	89.7	92.5	90.6	91.0
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Boise St.	107.7	109.1	110.0	108.9
Air Force	100.6	101.0	101.1	100.9
Utah St.	93.3	96.3	92.6	94.1
New Mexico	92.0	95.5	93.1	93.6
Colorado St.	85.7	88.4	86.2	86.8
Wyoming	83.7	83.4	83.9	83.7
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
San Diego St.	105.2	101.9	107.6	104.9
Nevada	91.1	94.1	92.1	92.5
UNLV	90.5	94.8	90.6	92.0
San Jose St.	89.6	90.0	90.1	89.9
Fresno St.	81.6	85.9	81.3	82.9
Hawaii	76.8	75.6	75.7	76.0
MWC Averages	91.5	93.0	92.0	92.2
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Washington	121.1	113.3	121.2	118.5
Stanford	120.5	113.1	119.4	117.7
Oregon	112.8	111.7	111.8	112.1
Washington St.	106.5	103.4	106.3	105.4
California	103.8	93.9	100.6	99.4
Oregon St.	98.3	93.5	95.7	95.8
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
USC	115.2	111.0	112.5	112.9
UCLA	110.9	110.5	110.4	110.6
Arizona St.	109.3	109.6	108.3	109.1
Colorado	110.3	105.6	110.8	108.9
Utah	111.0	104.9	108.6	108.2
Arizona	104.6	102.2	103.6	103.5
Pac-12 Averages	110.4	106.1	109.1	108.5
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Tennessee	124.8	120.1	124.8	123.2
Florida	112.9	116.6	111.1	113.5
Georgia	111.3	111.4	111.2	111.3
Vanderbilt	105.8	101.5	104.3	103.9
Missouri	103.8	103.0	103.6	103.5
South Carolina	101.1	100.0	100.6	100.6
Kentucky	95.4	97.7	93.7	95.6
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Alabama	131.9	124.3	131.9	129.4
LSU	124.6	118.7	123.7	122.3
Auburn	115.7	113.9	115.8	115.1
Mississippi St.	114.1	111.6	113.3	113.0
Texas A&M	112.4	111.7	112.2	112.1
Arkansas	113.1	108.2	110.4	110.6
Ole Miss	113.1	106.7	111.7	110.5
SEC Averages	112.9	110.4	112.0	111.8
Sunbelt Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Appalachian St.	99.8	99.2	102.5	100.5
Georgia Southern	93.8	93.5	96.3	94.6
Arkansas St.	89.6	91.4	91.4	90.8
Troy	86.9	92.5	88.8	89.4
South Alabama	80.5	87.9	81.9	83.4
Georgia St.	78.7	84.1	80.2	81.0
Idaho	77.6	83.7	79.0	80.1
UL-Lafayette	75.3	84.1	77.2	78.9
New Mexico St.	74.9	77.8	76.1	76.3
Texas St.	72.1	73.2	73.3	72.9
UL-Monroe	67.6	73.0	68.0	69.5
Sun Belt Averages	81.5	85.5	83.2	83.4

 

 

PiRate Ratings By Conference
#	League	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	SEC	112.9	110.4	112.0	111.8
2	ACC	111.0	106.9	110.2	109.4
3	Pac-12	110.4	106.1	109.1	108.5
4	Big Ten	108.1	106.8	107.4	107.4
5	Big 12	107.2	108.3	106.5	107.3
6	Independents	98.8	100.0	99.5	99.4
7	AAC	98.7	98.6	99.0	98.8
8	MWC	91.5	93.0	92.0	92.2
9	MAC	89.7	92.5	90.6	91.0
10	CUSA	85.1	88.7	86.2	86.7
11	Sun Belt	81.5	85.5	83.2	83.4

 

 

PiRate Retrodictive
#	Team
1	Alabama
2	Ohio St.
3	Florida St.
4	Clemson
5	Tennessee
6	Michigan
7	Wisconsin
8	Washington
9	Houston
10	Stanford
11	Arkansas
12	Louisville
13	Texas A&M
14	Oklahoma
15	Iowa
16	Texas
17	Baylor
18	LSU
19	Utah
20	Georgia
21	Florida
22	Michigan St.
23	Ole Miss
24	Oregon
25	Nebraska
26	Notre Dame
27	Pittsburgh
28	Miami (Fla.)
29	Arizona St.
30	North Carolina
31	USC
32	Boise St.
33	West Virginia
34	TCU
35	Auburn
36	San Diego St.
37	UCLA
38	Toledo
39	Western Michigan
40	Navy
41	BYU
42	South Florida
43	Colorado
44	Georgia Tech
45	Western Kentucky
46	Oklahoma St.
47	Appalachian St.
48	Georgia Southern
49	Minnesota
50	Cincinnati
51	Mississippi St.
52	Virginia Tech
53	California
54	Penn St.
55	Texas Tech
56	Central Michigan
57	Indiana
58	East Carolina
59	Southern Miss.
60	Memphis
61	Wake Forest
62	Marshall
63	Air Force
64	North Carolina St.
65	Maryland
66	Army
67	Missouri
68	Kansas St.
69	South Carolina
70	Tulsa
71	Washington St.
72	Arizona
73	Louisiana Tech
74	Temple
75	Duke
76	Northwestern
77	Vanderbilt
78	Boston College
79	Illinois
80	South Alabama
81	Bowling Green
82	Syracuse
83	Utah St.
84	Akron
85	Ohio
86	Rutgers
87	Colorado St.
88	Arkansas St.
89	Troy
90	Connecticut
91	MTSU
92	Kentucky
93	Texas St.
94	Purdue
95	SMU
96	Nevada
97	San Jose St.
98	UTEP
99	Oregon St.
100	Wyoming
101	Idaho
102	Virginia
103	Ball St.
104	Iowa St.
105	Central Florida
106	Northern Illinois
107	Fresno St.
108	New Mexico
109	Florida Atlantic
110	UNLV
111	UL-Lafayette
112	Tulane
113	New Mexico St.
114	Kansas
115	Old Dominion
116	Rice
117	Georgia St.
118	Massachusetts
119	UTSA
120	Charlotte
121	Hawaii
122	UL-Monroe
123	Florida Int’l.
124	North Texas
125	Buffalo
126	Eastern Michigan
127	Miami (O)
128	Kent St.

 

This Week’s Spreads

Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Thursday, September 15
Cincinnati	Houston	-7.8	-4.9	-8.9
Friday, September 16
Rice	Baylor	-26.4	-17.9	-27.5
Utah St.	Arkansas St.	7.2	8.4	4.7
UTSA	Arizona St.	-28.5	-20.6	-25.2
Saturday, September 17
Appalachian St.	Miami (Fla.)	-14.7	-7.3	-11.3
Louisville	Florida St.	3.5	4.6	4.8
Penn St.	Temple	10.1	12.4	7.8
Rutgers	New Mexico	9.2	2.7	5.2
Tennessee	Ohio	38.6	25.3	37.6
Memphis	Kansas	18.9	5.7	19.5
TCU	Iowa St.	19.5	22.0	20.7
Wisconsin	Georgia St.	38.2	30.4	37.5
Bowling Green	Middle Tennessee	2.3	-1.4	1.6
Marshall	Akron	13.0	11.0	13.4
Georgia Tech	Vanderbilt	5.4	6.0	6.3
Connecticut	Virginia	-0.5	0.5	0.4
Washington St.	Idaho	31.4	22.2	29.8
Kansas St.	Florida Atlantic	21.9	22.1	19.6
Central Michigan	UNLV	14.7	13.2	15.8
Toledo	Fresno St.	24.4	18.5	25.6
Massachusetts	Florida Int’l.	1.0	2.3	1.6
Miami (O)	Western Kentucky	-16.4	-10.4	-16.9
Michigan	Colorado	14.3	17.1	14.4
Syracuse	South Florida	-4.2	-5.6	-8.0
Virginia Tech	Boston College	9.7	10.3	10.5
Nebraska	Oregon	1.7	-0.8	3.0
Northern Illinois	San Diego St.	-8.2	-3.0	-9.9
Oklahoma St.	Pittsburgh	1.6	8.1	2.3
Ole Miss	Alabama	-15.8	-14.6	-17.2
Kentucky	New Mexico St.	23.5	22.9	20.6
South Carolina	East Carolina	8.7	5.4	7.8
Illinois	Western Michigan	-1.4	-3.1	-4.4
Charlotte	Eastern Michigan	-4.0	-2.0	-3.8
North Carolina St.	Old Dominion	23.6	17.9	22.5
Georgia Southern	UL-Monroe	28.7	23.0	30.8
Auburn	Texas A&M	6.3	5.2	6.6
LSU	Mississippi St.	13.5	10.1	13.4
Southern Miss.	Troy	10.8	4.5	9.9
Texas Tech	Louisiana Tech	19.3	14.5	15.9
UTEP	Army	-9.4	-13.2	-11.2
Central Florida	Maryland	-12.2	-13.4	-10.0
Tulane	Navy	-11.2	-7.6	-10.5
UL-Lafayette	South Alabama	-3.2	-1.8	-2.7
Florida	North Texas	41.1	42.4	39.3
Notre Dame	Michigan St.	7.5	4.2	8.4
Arkansas	Texas St.	44.0	38.0	40.1
Missouri	Georgia	-4.5	-5.4	-4.6
Oklahoma	Ohio St.	5.6	2.6	3.8
Northwestern	Duke	9.5	2.9	9.6
Stanford	USC	8.3	5.1	9.9
Nevada	Buffalo	16.3	10.0	15.9
BYU	UCLA	2.9	-4.0	2.9
California	Texas	-6.9	-19.8	-10.1
San Jose St.	Utah	-18.9	-12.4	-16.0
Arizona	Hawaii	31.3	30.1	31.4

 

FBS versus FCS Teams–PiRate Estimated Spread

FBS vs. FCS	Week 3
Home	Visitor	PiRate
Clemson	South Carolina St.	47
Iowa	North Dakota St.	19
Tulsa	N. C. A&T	25
Ball St.	Eastern Kentucky	15
Kent St.	Monmouth	11
North Carolina	James Madison	26
Colorado St.	Northern Colorado	21
Wyoming	UC-Davis	11
Oregon St.	Idaho St.	25
Wake Forest	Delaware	23
SMU	Liberty	11
Washington	Portland St.	42