PiRate Ratings Picks For October 10-14, 2019

Yuck, Yuck, Yuck, I want more luck!  That’s a saying that goes back to the 1960’s, when a certain PiRate Captain was in school trying to impress this really cute blonde-haired, blue-eyed tomboy classmate.  It so happened that she and he were outside on the playground, and he was trying to teach her how to hit foul shots on the basketball goal.  She kept barely missing on those foul shots, when he made this little ditty up as it came to mind.  And, voila!  The pretty girl made three shots in a row.  The rest is history.  In the 1970’s, This girl would go on to become the star of her high school basketball team, setting the all-time single-season and career scoring marks.  She then enjoyed a four-year career as a starting guard for a Division 1 college team, playing in the NCAA Tournament.

 

The Captain figured it wouldn’t hurt to repeat that mantra in hopes that it would turn around the recent misfortunes of the PiRate Ratings.  The ratings in recent weeks have been just barely missing.

How much do you pay for these selections?  Remember, you usually get what you pay for, and that’s what these selections have been worth this season.  So, let’s hope we get more luck this week.

Without further adieu, here are the selections you should avoid like the plague.

 

PiRate Rating Selections

 

10-point Teasers, 3-game parlays

 

#1

Pick	Opponent	Spread
Syracuse	NC St.	+14.5
Virginia	Miami	+12.5
New Mexico	Colorado St.	+13.5

 

 

#2

Pick	Opponent	Spread
Indiana	Rutgers	+38
Navy	Tulsa	+11
Texas	Oklahoma	+21.5

 

 

#3

Pick	Opponent	Spread
Temple	Memphis	+16
Nebraska	Minnesota	+17.5
Boise St.	Hawaii	-1.5

 

 

#4

Pick	Opponent	Spread
Eastern Michigan	Ball St.	+9
Central Michigan	New Mexico St.	Pk
Arizona St.	Washington St.	+11

 

 

#5

Pick	Opponent	Spread
Oregon St.	Utah	+23.5
Ole Miss	Missouri	+22
Ohio	Northern Illinois	+3.5

 

 

#6

Pick	Opponent	Spread
Baylor	Texas Tech	-1
Vanderbilt	UNLV	-4.5
Wisconsin	Michigan St.	-0.5

 

 

#7

Pick	Opponent	Spread
Florida	LSU	+23.5
Nevada	San Jose St.	+8
Alabama	Texas A&M	-6.5

 

 

#8

Pick	Opponent	Spread
Florida Atlantic	Middle Tenn.	-0.5
UAB	UTSA	-2
Notre Dame	USC	-1

 

 

#9

Pick	Opponent	Spread
New England	N.Y. Jets	-6.5
Baltimore	Cincinnati	-1
Cleveland	Seattle	+12

 

 

#10

Pick	Opponent	Spread
New Orleans	Jacksonville	+11.5
Miami	Washington	+13.5
Arizona	Atlanta	+12.5

 

 

#11

Pick	Opponent	Spread
Denver	Tennessee	+7.5
Detroit	Green Bay	+14.5
Carolina	Tampa Bay	+8

 

 

Davey19  Selections

 

Pick	Opponent	Spread
UL-Monroe	Texas St.	-3
Virginia	Miami (Fla.)	+2.5
Colorado	Oregon	+21.5
Illinois	Michigan	+22.5
Nebraska	Minnesota	+8
Arkansas	Kentucky	+7
Air Force	Fresno St.	-3

Coming Friday–We will issue three money line selections, one an outright upset winner currently listed at +200, and two parlays.

 

 

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PiRate College Football Ratings: October 7, 2019

This Week’s PiRate Rating Spreads

 

October 9 to	October 12
Wednesday	October 9
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Louisiana	Appalchian St.	-2.1	-0.5	-1.6
Thursday	October 10
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Texas St.	Louisiana-Monroe	-1.5	-1.3	-1.5
North Carolina St.	Syracuse	-3.0	-2.7	-2.9
Friday	October 11
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Miami (Fla.)	Virginia	1.0	0.0	1.5
New Mexico	Colorado St.	3.6	2.8	2.5
Oregon	Colorado	19.6	19.8	20.8
Saturday	October 5
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Indiana	Rutgers	24.6	23.7	24.7
Bowling Green	Toledo	-20.9	-21.7	-22.2
Illinois	Michigan	-20.3	-17.6	-21.7
Wake Forest	Louisville	10.8	10.5	11.9
Tulsa	Navy	5.1	3.1	5.8
Texas (n)	Oklahoma	-11.7	-10.6	-11.4
Temple	Memphis	-0.2	-1.3	-0.2
Minnesota	Nebraska	8.5	6.9	8.0
Duke	Georgia Tech	16.9	18.3	16.7
Coastal Carolina	Georgia St.	1.2	1.1	1.3
Purdue	Maryland	-0.8	-0.5	-0.8
West Virginia	Iowa St.	-6.4	-7.5	-7.1
Boise St.	Hawaii	12.0	9.8	13.1
Eastern Michigan	Ball St.	0.0	0.8	0.6
Marshall	Old Dominion	14.1	12.9	14.7
Central Michigan	New Mexico St.	10.1	8.5	10.7
Arizona St.	Washington St.	0.6	1.0	1.3
Oregon St.	Utah	-17.7	-15.0	-18.8
Arizona	Washington	-6.7	-6.0	-7.4
Missouri	Ole Miss	14.5	12.9	15.2
Georgia	South Carolina	19.2	19.3	20.1
Tennessee	Mississippi St.	-5.2	-1.5	-11.9
Akron	Kent St.	-11.5	-11.2	-12.6
Ohio	Northern Illinois	3.8	3.9	4.5
Kentucky	Arkansas	12.1	9.7	11.1
Baylor	Texas Tech	9.7	9.8	10.5
Western Michigan	Miami (O)	12.5	13.2	12.0
South Florida	BYU	-7.2	-6.1	-6.9
Houston	Cincinnati	-7.2	-4.7	-4.9
Tulane	Connecticut	32.1	28.8	34.3
Vanderbilt	UNLV	20.0	16.8	18.9
Wisconsin	Michigan St.	6.6	6.9	6.7
LSU	Florida	8.3	8.7	8.1
Nevada	San Jose St.	5.6	5.2	5.5
Texas A&M	Alabama	-15.8	-13.9	-18.0
Florida Atlantic	Middle Tennessee	6.0	6.5	6.8
UTSA	UAB	-10.7	-10.1	-11.5
Southern Miss.	North Texas	4.8	3.4	4.0
Western Kentucky	Army	-8.9	-8.0	-6.9
Florida Int’l.	Charlotte	7.8	7.0	7.6
Louisiana Tech	Massachusetts	29.6	27.4	30.4
Air Force	Fresno St.	0.9	1.7	1.2
Notre Dame	USC	16.8	14.3	16.6
Clemson	Florida St.	30.7	27.3	31.4
Iowa	Penn St.	-1.1	-2.0	-0.8
San Diego St.	Wyoming	3.3	3.1	2.7
FBS vs. FCS
Virginia Tech	Rhode Island	22.0

 

 

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

 

PiRate Ratings
#	Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	Ohio St.	135.0	133.9	135.9	134.9
2	Alabama	135.7	132.2	136.4	134.7
3	Clemson	132.2	129.1	132.9	131.4
4	Georgia	128.6	126.9	129.1	128.2
5	L S U	128.0	125.6	127.4	127.0
6	Oklahoma	124.7	123.9	124.6	124.4
7	Penn St.	122.4	121.5	122.3	122.1
8	Florida	122.8	119.9	122.4	121.7
9	Notre Dame	121.1	119.3	121.2	120.5
10	Auburn	121.2	119.3	120.8	120.4
11	Wisconsin	120.5	120.1	120.5	120.4
12	Michigan	119.4	117.6	119.7	118.9
13	Utah	118.7	117.2	119.1	118.3
14	Iowa	118.4	116.5	118.6	117.8
15	Michigan St.	116.9	116.2	116.8	116.6
16	Oregon	116.2	116.2	117.3	116.6
17	Missouri	116.6	114.2	116.9	115.9
18	Texas A&M	116.9	115.3	115.4	115.9
19	Iowa St.	114.0	114.6	114.1	114.2
20	Mississippi St.	112.9	109.0	117.9	113.3
21	Texas	113.0	113.2	113.2	113.1
22	Baylor	112.7	112.9	112.4	112.7
23	Washington	112.2	111.8	113.2	112.4
24	South Carolina	112.3	110.6	112.0	111.6
25	Central Florida	111.2	110.3	112.1	111.2
26	Washington St.	110.9	109.9	111.0	110.6
27	Minnesota	110.5	109.9	109.6	110.0
28	Oklahoma St.	109.7	110.2	109.3	109.7
29	Arizona St.	108.4	107.8	109.3	108.5
30	Cincinnati	108.6	107.1	109.0	108.2
31	Virginia	107.8	108.0	107.9	107.9
32	Kansas St.	107.9	107.5	107.5	107.6
33	U S C	107.2	108.0	107.5	107.6
34	Duke	107.6	107.1	107.5	107.4
35	Maryland	107.8	107.3	107.0	107.4
36	Indiana	107.8	106.3	106.9	107.0
37	Boise St.	106.7	106.2	107.2	106.7
38	Northwestern	107.2	106.4	106.2	106.6
39	Syracuse	106.7	106.2	106.7	106.5
40	California	105.9	105.6	106.9	106.1
41	T C U	105.0	108.0	105.3	106.1
42	North Carolina	105.7	105.7	106.9	106.1
43	Stanford	106.1	105.3	105.9	105.8
44	Miami (Fla.)	105.8	105.0	106.4	105.7
45	Kentucky	106.6	105.0	105.0	105.5
46	Pittsburgh	105.5	105.2	105.6	105.4
47	Memphis	105.0	105.0	105.8	105.3
48	Nebraska	105.0	106.0	104.6	105.2
49	Texas Tech	105.4	105.6	104.4	105.1
50	SMU	104.8	104.6	105.9	105.1
51	Appalachian St.	105.4	104.0	104.8	104.7
52	Wake Forest	104.7	104.2	105.3	104.7
53	Ole Miss	105.1	104.2	104.7	104.7
54	Florida St.	104.5	104.8	104.5	104.6
55	West Virginia	104.6	104.1	104.0	104.2
56	Utah St.	104.3	103.1	105.3	104.2
57	Tennessee	104.7	104.5	103.0	104.1
58	Purdue	104.1	103.8	103.2	103.7
59	Arizona	102.6	102.8	102.8	102.7
60	Tulane	101.6	102.2	102.3	102.0
61	Temple	101.7	100.8	102.6	101.7
62	Virginia Tech	100.9	101.0	101.3	101.1
63	North Carolina St.	100.7	100.4	100.8	100.6
64	Louisiana	100.3	100.5	100.2	100.3
65	Boston College	100.2	100.0	100.5	100.2
66	Army	99.9	99.9	99.4	99.8
67	Houston	98.4	99.5	101.1	99.6
68	BYU	99.7	99.6	99.6	99.6
69	Hawaii	99.2	100.9	98.6	99.6
70	Fresno St.	99.2	99.8	99.6	99.5
71	Colorado	99.6	99.4	99.5	99.5
72	Vanderbilt	99.8	98.3	98.3	98.8
73	San Diego St.	98.2	100.0	98.1	98.8
74	Wyoming	97.8	99.9	98.4	98.7
75	Oregon St.	98.0	99.2	97.3	98.2
76	Western Michigan	98.5	97.4	98.2	98.0
77	Air Force	97.1	98.5	97.8	97.8
78	Arkansas	97.5	98.3	96.9	97.6
79	Louisville	96.4	96.2	95.9	96.1
80	Illinois	96.1	97.0	94.9	96.0
81	U C L A	96.4	96.1	95.4	96.0
82	Toledo	94.6	95.1	95.7	95.1
83	Southern Miss.	94.6	92.8	94.7	94.0
84	Kansas	93.6	94.6	93.4	93.9
85	Troy	94.0	94.2	92.9	93.7
86	Tulsa	93.1	93.8	94.1	93.7
87	Ohio	93.6	92.7	94.3	93.6
88	Georgia Southern	93.9	93.3	93.0	93.4
89	Georgia Tech	93.6	91.8	93.9	93.1
90	North Texas	92.8	92.4	93.7	93.0
91	Florida Atlantic	92.5	92.0	93.4	92.6
92	Northern Illinois	92.3	91.3	92.3	92.0
93	Navy	90.5	93.2	90.8	91.5
94	Louisiana Tech	91.2	91.0	91.1	91.1
95	Florida Int’l.	90.8	90.6	91.0	90.8
96	Arkansas St.	90.6	90.8	90.3	90.6
97	South Florida	89.5	90.5	89.7	89.9
98	Marshall	89.3	88.7	90.2	89.4
99	Middle Tennessee	89.5	88.5	89.6	89.2
100	Buffalo	88.7	89.1	89.7	89.1
101	Liberty	88.6	89.9	88.9	89.1
102	Western Kentucky	88.0	89.0	89.6	88.8
103	U A B	87.8	89.6	88.5	88.7
104	Ball St.	88.7	88.2	88.6	88.5
105	Nevada	87.9	89.6	87.3	88.3
106	Miami (Ohio)	88.5	86.8	88.7	88.0
107	Louisiana-Monroe	87.7	88.5	87.5	87.9
108	Georgia St.	87.5	88.8	86.8	87.7
109	Kent St.	87.3	87.2	87.6	87.4
110	Coastal Carolina	86.7	87.9	86.1	86.9
111	Eastern Michigan	86.2	86.5	86.7	86.5
112	Charlotte	86.1	86.6	86.4	86.4
113	San Jose St.	85.3	87.4	84.8	85.8
114	Rutgers	86.1	85.7	85.2	85.7
115	Central Michigan	84.6	85.4	85.3	85.1
116	Texas St.	83.7	84.6	83.5	83.9
117	East Carolina	82.7	84.6	82.6	83.3
118	U N L V	82.3	84.1	81.9	82.8
119	New Mexico	81.8	84.6	80.7	82.4
120	Colorado St.	80.6	84.4	80.8	81.9
121	Rice	80.3	81.7	79.7	80.6
122	Old Dominion	78.3	78.8	78.4	78.5
123	New Mexico St.	77.5	79.9	77.6	78.3
124	Texas-San Antonio	74.7	77.1	74.5	75.4
125	South Alabama	74.1	77.0	73.4	74.9
126	Akron	73.8	74.1	73.0	73.6
127	Connecticut	72.0	75.9	70.6	72.8
128	Bowling Green	72.1	71.8	71.9	72.0
129	U T E P	67.1	71.9	67.7	68.9
130	Massachusetts	64.6	66.6	63.7	65.0

 

 

PiRate Ratings By Conference

 

American Athletic Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Central Florida	111.2	110.3	112.1	111.2	1-1	4-2
Cincinnati	108.6	107.1	109.0	108.2	1-0	4-1
Temple	101.7	100.8	102.6	101.7	1-0	4-1
South Florida	89.5	90.5	89.7	89.9	1-1	2-3
East Carolina	82.7	84.6	82.6	83.3	0-2	3-3
Connecticut	72.0	75.9	70.6	72.8	0-2	1-4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Memphis	105.0	105.0	105.8	105.3	1-0	5-0
SMU	104.8	104.6	105.9	105.1	2-0	6-0
Tulane	101.6	102.2	102.3	102.0	1-0	4-1
Houston	98.4	99.5	101.1	99.6	0-1	2-3
Tulsa	93.1	93.8	94.1	93.7	0-1	2-3
Navy	90.5	93.2	90.8	91.5	1-1	3-1
AAC Averages	96.6	97.3	97.2	97.0
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Clemson	132.2	129.1	132.9	131.4	3-0	5-0
Syracuse	106.7	106.2	106.7	106.5	0-1	3-2
Wake Forest	104.7	104.2	105.3	104.7	1-0	5-0
Florida St.	104.5	104.8	104.5	104.6	2-1	3-2
North Carolina St.	100.7	100.4	100.8	100.6	0-1	3-2
Boston College	100.2	100.0	100.5	100.2	1-2	3-3
Louisville	96.4	96.2	95.9	96.1	1-1	3-2
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Virginia	107.8	108.0	107.9	107.9	2-0	4-1
Duke	107.6	107.1	107.5	107.4	1-1	3-2
North Carolina	105.7	105.7	106.9	106.1	2-1	3-3
Miami (Fla.)	105.8	105.0	106.4	105.7	0-2	2-3
Pittsburgh	105.5	105.2	105.6	105.4	1-1	4-2
Virginia Tech	100.9	101.0	101.3	101.1	1-2	3-2
Georgia Tech	93.6	91.8	93.9	93.1	0-2	1-4
ACC Averages	105.2	104.6	105.4	105.1
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	B12	Overall
Oklahoma	124.7	123.9	124.6	124.4	2-0	5-0
Iowa St.	114.0	114.6	114.1	114.2	1-1	3-2
Texas	113.0	113.2	113.2	113.1	2-0	4-1
Baylor	112.7	112.9	112.4	112.7	2-0	5-0
Oklahoma St.	109.7	110.2	109.3	109.7	1-2	4-2
Kansas St.	107.9	107.5	107.5	107.6	0-2	3-2
T C U	105.0	108.0	105.3	106.1	1-1	3-2
Texas Tech	105.4	105.6	104.4	105.1	1-1	3-2
West Virginia	104.6	104.1	104.0	104.2	1-1	3-2
Kansas	93.6	94.6	93.4	93.9	0-3	2-4
Big 12 Averages	109.1	109.5	108.8	109.1
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Ohio St.	135.0	133.9	135.9	134.9	3-0	6-0
Penn St.	122.4	121.5	122.3	122.1	2-0	5-0
Michigan	119.4	117.6	119.7	118.9	2-1	4-1
Michigan St.	116.9	116.2	116.8	116.6	2-1	4-2
Maryland	107.8	107.3	107.0	107.4	1-1	3-2
Indiana	107.8	106.3	106.9	107.0	0-2	3-2
Rutgers	86.1	85.7	85.2	85.7	0-3	1-4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Wisconsin	120.5	120.1	120.5	120.4	2-0	5-0
Iowa	118.4	116.5	118.6	117.8	1-1	4-1
Minnesota	110.5	109.9	109.6	110.0	2-0	5-0
Northwestern	107.2	106.4	106.2	106.6	0-3	1-4
Nebraska	105.0	106.0	104.6	105.2	2-1	4-2
Purdue	104.1	103.8	103.2	103.7	0-2	1-4
Illinois	96.1	97.0	94.9	96.0	0-2	2-3
Big Ten Averages	111.2	110.6	110.8	110.9
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Florida Atlantic	92.5	92.0	93.4	92.6	1-0	3-2
Florida Int’l.	90.8	90.6	91.0	90.8	0-2	2-3
Marshall	89.3	88.7	90.2	89.4	0-1	2-3
Middle Tennessee	89.5	88.5	89.6	89.2	1-0	2-3
Western Kentucky	88.0	89.0	89.6	88.8	3-0	3-2
Charlotte	86.1	86.6	86.4	86.4	0-1	2-3
Old Dominion	78.3	78.8	78.4	78.5	0-1	1-4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Southern Miss.	94.6	92.8	94.7	94.0	1-0	3-2
North Texas	92.8	92.4	93.7	93.0	1-0	2-3
Louisiana Tech	91.2	91.0	91.1	91.1	2-0	4-1
U A B	87.8	89.6	88.5	88.7	1-1	4-1
Rice	80.3	81.7	79.7	80.6	0-2	0-6
Texas-San Antonio	74.7	77.1	74.5	75.4	1-1	2-3
U T E P	67.1	71.9	67.7	68.9	0-2	1-4
CUSA Averages	85.9	86.5	86.3	86.2
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	Conf.	Overall
Notre Dame	121.1	119.3	121.2	120.5	x	4-1
Army	99.9	99.9	99.4	99.8	x	3-2
BYU	99.7	99.6	99.6	99.6	x	2-3
Liberty	88.6	89.9	88.9	89.1	x	4-2
New Mexico St.	77.5	79.9	77.6	78.3	x	0-6
Massachusetts	64.6	66.6	63.7	65.0	x	1-5
Indep. Averages	91.9	92.5	91.7	92.0
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Ohio	93.6	92.7	94.3	93.6	1-0	2-3
Buffalo	88.7	89.1	89.7	89.1	0-2	2-4
Miami (Ohio)	88.5	86.8	88.7	88.0	1-0	2-3
Kent St.	87.3	87.2	87.6	87.4	1-0	2-3
Akron	73.8	74.1	73.0	73.6	0-1	0-5
Bowling Green	72.1	71.8	71.9	72.0	0-1	1-4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Western Michigan	98.5	97.4	98.2	98.0	1-1	3-3
Toledo	94.6	95.1	95.7	95.1	1-0	4-1
Northern Illinois	92.3	91.3	92.3	92.0	0-1	1-4
Ball St.	88.7	88.2	88.6	88.5	1-0	2-3
Eastern Michigan	86.2	86.5	86.7	86.5	0-1	3-2
Central Michigan	84.6	85.4	85.3	85.1	2-1	3-3
MAC Averages	87.4	87.1	87.7	87.4
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Boise St.	106.7	106.2	107.2	106.7	2-0	5-0
Utah St.	104.3	103.1	105.3	104.2	2-0	3-2
Wyoming	97.8	99.9	98.4	98.7	1-0	4-1
Air Force	97.1	98.5	97.8	97.8	1-1	3-2
New Mexico	81.8	84.6	80.7	82.4	0-1	2-3
Colorado St.	80.6	84.4	80.8	81.9	0-2	1-5
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Hawaii	99.2	100.9	98.6	99.6	1-0	4-1
Fresno St.	99.2	99.8	99.6	99.5	0-0	2-2
San Diego St.	98.2	100.0	98.1	98.8	1-1	4-1
Nevada	87.9	89.6	87.3	88.3	0-1	3-2
San Jose St.	85.3	87.4	84.8	85.8	1-1	3-2
U N L V	82.3	84.1	81.9	82.8	0-2	1-4
MWC Averages	93.4	94.9	93.4	93.9
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Oregon	116.2	116.2	117.3	116.6	2-0	4-1
Washington	112.2	111.8	113.2	112.4	1-2	4-2
Washington St.	110.9	109.9	111.0	110.6	0-2	3-2
California	105.9	105.6	106.9	106.1	1-2	4-2
Stanford	106.1	105.3	105.9	105.8	2-2	3-3
Oregon St.	98.0	99.2	97.3	98.2	1-1	2-3
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Utah	118.7	117.2	119.1	118.3	1-1	4-1
Arizona St.	108.4	107.8	109.3	108.5	1-1	4-1
U S C	107.2	108.0	107.5	107.6	2-1	3-2
Arizona	102.6	102.8	102.8	102.7	2-0	4-1
Colorado	99.6	99.4	99.5	99.5	1-1	3-2
U C L A	96.4	96.1	95.4	96.0	1-2	1-5
Pac-12 Averages	106.8	106.6	107.1	106.9
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Georgia	128.6	126.9	129.1	128.2	2-0	5-0
Florida	122.8	119.9	122.4	121.7	4-0	6-0
Missouri	116.6	114.2	116.9	115.9	1-0	4-1
South Carolina	112.3	110.6	112.0	111.6	1-2	2-3
Kentucky	106.6	105.0	105.0	105.5	0-3	2-3
Tennessee	104.7	104.5	103.0	104.1	0-2	1-4
Vanderbilt	99.8	98.3	98.3	98.8	0-3	1-4
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Alabama	135.7	132.2	136.4	134.7	2-0	5-0
L S U	128.0	125.6	127.4	127.0	1-0	5-0
Auburn	121.2	119.3	120.8	120.4	2-1	5-1
Texas A&M	116.9	115.3	115.4	115.9	1-1	3-2
Mississippi St.	112.9	109.0	117.9	113.3	1-1	3-2
Ole Miss	105.1	104.2	104.7	104.7	2-1	3-3
Arkansas	97.5	98.3	96.9	97.6	0-2	2-3
SEC Averages	114.9	113.1	114.7	114.2
Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Appalachian St.	105.4	104.0	104.8	104.7	1-0	4-0
Troy	94.0	94.2	92.9	93.7	0-1	2-3
Georgia Southern	93.9	93.3	93.0	93.4	1-1	2-3
Georgia St.	87.5	88.8	86.8	87.7	1-1	3-2
Coastal Carolina	86.7	87.9	86.1	86.9	0-1	3-2
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Louisiana	100.3	100.5	100.2	100.3	1-0	4-1
Arkansas St.	90.6	90.8	90.3	90.6	1-1	3-3
Louisiana-Monroe	87.7	88.5	87.5	87.9	1-0	2-3
Texas St.	83.7	84.6	83.5	83.9	1-0	2-3
South Alabama	74.1	77.0	73.4	74.9	0-2	1-5
SBC Averages	90.4	91.0	89.9	90.4

 

Conference Power Ratings
#	League	Average
1	SEC	114.2
2	BTen	110.9
3	B12	109.1
4	P12	106.9
5	ACC	105.1
6	AAC	97.0
7	MWC	93.9
8	Ind	92.0
9	SUN	90.4
10	MAC	87.4
11	CUSA	86.2

 

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

 

 

This Week’s Bowl and Playoff Projections

 

The What-if It Were To Happen Edition

 

Submitted for your disapproval, what happens if Clemson loses a game this year to say Florida State, North Carolina St., South Carolina, or Virginia in the ACC Championship Game?  With their weak schedule, the Tigers would most likely not receive a bid to the NCAA Playoffs.

 

The Pac-12 has already eliminated itself from consideration.  We won’t even give Oregon a chance at 11-1, unless a lot of teams fall victims to upsets–too many to contemplate.

 

The Big Ten has three incredible teams in Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin.  Additionally, Minnesota is still undefeated, and Michigan is, well, Michigan.  More than likely one Big Ten team will run the table and finish 13-0 to guarantee a spot in the Playoffs.  There could be a one-loss team in consideration, but with power at the top, it is possible that there will be only an undefeated or one loss team and multiple two-loss teams.

 

In the Big 12, Oklahoma always tends to slip up against somebody but then recovers to win the Big 12 Championship Game.  If the Sooners were to lose to Texas, Baylor, or Iowa State, or if they lost in the Big 12 Championship Game, would a one-loss OU team be good enough to make the top four?

 

Now consider the giant.  Let’s say Alabama, LSU, and Georgia combine to have one undefeated team and two, one-loss teams.  Say, Alabama goes 12-0 and wins the SEC Championship Game over 12-0 Georgia, while LSU only loses at Alabama in a close game to have a record of 11-1.

 

Could it be that THREE SEC teams would finish ranked in the top 4?  That’s the scenario we present today in our bowl and playoff projections.  We are not saying this is a certainty; we just wanted to show you how it might play out if Alabama, Georgia, and LSU finished ranked in the top 4.

 

You may ask if any conference has ever had three of the top four teams in a season, and not only will we answer, we’ll go one better.  In 1971, Nebraska finished number one; Oklahoma was number two; and Colorado was number three, all from the old Big 8 Conference.  It almost happened in 2011, when Alabama finished number one, LSU number two, and Arkansas number five.   That Arkansas team lost to just Alabama and LSU that year. 

 

Take a look at how this plays out.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings Special Money Line Play(s)

Last week, our special money line parlays delivered mixed results.  If you chose to play Duke and Baylor in your upset parlay, you enjoyed a nice bonanza.  If you added or chose Kansas State or Indiana, then your imaginary investment was shredded.

We did not issue any money line parlay picks in our regular weekly picks yesterday.  We decided to save them for this post.  We just want to stress that these selections are totally off the wall long shots at odds of better than +150.  In other words, they are not likely to win, even though they always look handsome on paper.

We have chosen three college parlays and one NFL parlay this week.  Take a look.

 

Money Line Parlay #1  Odds: +160

San Diego State over Colorado State

UAB over Rice

Texas over West Virginia

Miami (Fla.) over Virginia Tech

 

 

Money Line Parlay #2  Odds: +162

Auburn over Florida

North Carolina over Georgia Tech

Maryland over Rutgers

 

 

Money Line Parlay #3  Odds: +198

Colorado over Arizona

Eastern Michigan over Central Michigan

Oklahoma State over Texas Tech

 

 

Money Line Parlay #4  Odds: +230

Chicago over Oakland

New Orleans over Tampa Bay

LA Chargers over Denver

 

 

PiRate Ratings Picks For September 19-23, 2019

Well, hello there.  Welcome to the worst sports picks on the Internet in 2019.  These last two weeks have been so monumentally terrible, that one must go back to 1982 to find a worse two weeks for our selections.  Why have we gone from so good in 2018 to so rotten this year?  If we only knew the answer to that question.

One thing we noticed is that our parlays have been 67% correct, or in other words, we are hitting on all but one game in each parlay.  Or, in other words, if we had re-arranged our picks, we could have in theory won well over half of these selections.  There’s the rub.  When you pick parlays, you have to be 100% right to win your parlay.

We have decided to stick with what has worked for us in the past and hope to improve enough to get back into the black before the end of the year.  It’s going to be a tough hill to climb, but we issue our selections without any stress.

Why is this stress free?  We NEVER wager real money on our selections.  We are in this for fun, and we have always advised you to do the same.  Even in years where our picks would have in theory returned you more than 40% on your investment, we never took ourselves seriously enough to have faith in these choices.

You have had your weekly forewarning.  DO NOT WAGER REAL MONEY ON THESE PICKS!

Odds as of 2:00 PM EDT on Wednesday, September 18

 

Selection #1: 10-point Teaser, 3 teams at 10-12

 

Houston + 15 1/2 vs. Tulane

Boston College +3 vs. Rutgers

Louisiana-Monroe +29 vs. Iowa St.

 

Selection #2: 10-point Teaser, 3 teams at 10-12

 

Northwestern +19 1/2 vs. Michigan St.

TCU + 1/2 vs. SMU

Wyoming +13 1/2 vs. Tulsa

 

Selection #3: 10-point Teaser, 3 teams at 10-12

 

New Mexico St. +15 vs. New Mexico

Oklahoma St. +15 1/2 vs. Texas

Nevada -4 1/2 vs. UTEP

 

Selection #4: 10-point Teaser, 3 teams at 10-12

 

Jacksonville + 11 1/2 vs. Tennessee

Green Bay +2 vs. Denver

Cincinnati +16 vs. Buffalo

 

Selection #5: 10-point Teaser, 3 teams at 10-12

 

Carolina +7 1/2 vs. Arizona

Seattle +6 vs. New Orleans

San Francisco +3 1/2 vs. Pittsburgh

 

Selection #6: 10-point Teaser, 3 teams at 10-12

 

Tennessee & Jacksonville OVER 29

New England & NY Jets OVER 33 1/2

Dallas & Miami UNDER 57 1/2

 

Selection #7: Money Line Parlay, 2 teams at +152

 

Syracuse over Western Michigan

North Carolina over Appalachian St.

 

Selection #8: Money Line Parlay, 3 teams at +137

 

Louisiana Tech over Florida Int’l.

TCU over SMU

Arizona St. over Colorado

 

Selection #9: Money Line Parlay, 3 teams at +180

 

Boston College over Rutgers

Texas A&M over Auburn

UAB over South Alabama

 

Davey19

The experimental Davey19 model took it on the chin as well last week, and it went into the red for the season.  This week, we double-checked the information to make sure we interpreted the statistical data correctly, and it looks like we made no mistakes in the calculations last week.  The picks just plain stunk.

 

Here are Davey19’s selections as we play it a little more conservatively.

 

1. Stanford & Oregon UNDER 58 1/2

2. Air Force & Boise St. UNDER 55

3. Northwestern +9 1/2 vs. Michigan St.

4. Illinois +13 1/2 vs. Nebraska

5. Ole Miss -2 vs. California

PiRate College Football Ratings: September 16, 2019

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Thursday	September 19
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Tulane	Houston	7.1	6.3	4.7

 

Friday	September 20
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
La. Tech	Florida Int’l.	3.9	3.8	3.6
USC	Utah	-6.3	-3.8	-6.1
Boise St.	Air Force	10.8	9.0	10.4

 

Saturday	September 21
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Florida	Tennessee	16.0	13.6	16.9
Indiana	Connecticut	35.9	29.9	35.8
Rutgers	Boston College	-5.2	-5.0	-6.0
Syracuse	Western Mich.	6.2	6.6	5.8
Alabama	Southern Miss.	43.5	42.0	44.3
Iowa St.	UL-Monroe	22.3	21.8	21.9
Northwestern	Michigan St.	-3.7	-4.1	-5.0
Ole Miss	California	-2.4	-3.0	-4.6
Vanderbilt	LSU	-21.1	-19.5	-21.0
Wisconsin	Michigan	0.5	2.3	0.1
Massachusetts	Coastal Car.	-13.5	-12.2	-13.4
Ohio	Louisiana	3.7	2.4	5.6
Akron	Troy	-14.3	-14.3	-13.6
Buffalo	Temple	-15.1	-13.4	-15.5
Florida St.	Louisville	9.4	10.1	9.9
North Carolina	Appy St.	-0.4	2.1	1.6
Ohio St.	Miami (O)	40.6	40.8	40.9
Pittsburgh	Central Fla.	-3.1	-2.6	-4.9
TCU	SMU	4.3	8.2	3.9
Texas A&M	Auburn	5.0	5.3	4.6
Tulsa	Wyoming	0.0	-1.8	0.1
UAB	S. Alabama	12.0	10.4	13.6
BYU	Washington	-8.3	-7.7	-9.2
Kent St.	Bowling Green	11.4	11.5	11.7
Miami (Fla.)	Central Mich.	35.7	33.8	36.6
Mississippi St.	Kentucky	10.0	6.9	10.7
Missouri	South Carolina	5.7	4.7	6.0
Kansas	West Virginia	-5.7	-4.3	-5.5
New Mexico	New Mexico St.	6.4	7.5	6.1
N. Carolina St.	Ball St.	18.8	19.3	19.7
Virginia	Old Dominion	32.6	32.7	32.5
Rice	Baylor	-31.7	-30.5	-32.3
Stanford	Oregon	-8.2	-9.2	-9.5
Texas St.	Georgia St.	-0.5	-0.9	0.4
Clemson	Charlotte	48.5	44.4	48.8
Arkansas	San Jose St.	18.6	17.4	18.9
North Texas	UTSA	18.1	15.0	19.3
Texas	Oklahoma St.	5.1	4.5	5.3
Georgia	Notre Dame	9.3	9.6	9.7
Illinois	Nebraska	-6.4	-6.9	-7.0
UTEP	Nevada	-21.9	-18.1	-21.3
Arizona St.	Colorado	10.6	9.8	11.1
Colorado St.	Toledo	-9.1	-5.3	-10.4
San Diego St.	Utah St.	-5.4	-2.2	-6.9
Washington St.	UCLA	16.8	16.4	18.3

 

FBS vs. FCS
Home	Visitor		PiRate
Army	Morgan St.		41
Wake Forest	Elon		30
Eastern Michigan	Central Conn.		31
Florida Atlantic	Wagner		35
Liberty	Hampton		29
East Carolina	William & Mary		16
Arkansas St.	Southern Illinois		22
Fresno St.	Sacramento St.		30
Hawaii	Central Arkansas		20

 

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

PiRate Ratings
#	Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	Alabama	135.9	132.3	137.0	135.0
2	Clemson	134.5	131.2	135.4	133.7
3	Ohio St.	128.7	127.1	129.2	128.3
4	Georgia	127.5	125.8	128.1	127.1
5	L S U	126.0	123.3	124.8	124.7
6	Oklahoma	122.3	121.4	122.2	122.0
7	Notre Dame	121.2	119.2	121.4	120.6
8	Michigan	119.6	117.5	119.9	119.0
9	Florida	119.9	117.1	119.1	118.7
10	Texas A&M	119.4	117.8	118.3	118.5
11	Wisconsin	117.1	116.8	117.0	117.0
12	Oregon	116.2	116.2	117.3	116.6
13	Auburn	117.4	115.5	116.8	116.6
14	Utah	116.5	114.8	116.7	116.0
15	Michigan St.	116.1	115.6	116.3	116.0
16	Penn St.	116.4	115.3	116.0	115.9
17	Iowa	115.7	113.7	115.8	115.0
18	Missouri	114.9	112.3	115.0	114.1
19	Washington	113.6	113.1	114.7	113.8
20	Mississippi St.	115.0	110.7	114.4	113.4
21	Washington St.	112.8	112.0	113.1	112.6
22	Central Florida	112.1	111.3	113.5	112.3
23	Texas	112.3	112.3	112.2	112.3
24	Baylor	111.9	112.1	111.6	111.9
25	Kansas St.	111.8	111.5	111.8	111.7
26	South Carolina	112.2	110.6	112.0	111.6
27	Miami (Fla.)	110.4	109.5	111.5	110.5
28	Oklahoma St.	110.2	110.9	109.9	110.3
29	Iowa St.	110.2	110.4	109.9	110.2
30	Northwestern	109.9	109.0	108.8	109.2
31	Virginia	108.9	109.4	109.1	109.1
32	Minnesota	109.4	108.7	108.0	108.7
33	Maryland	109.1	108.5	108.3	108.6
34	California	107.6	107.5	108.9	108.0
35	U S C	107.1	108.1	107.6	107.6
36	Kentucky	108.0	106.8	106.7	107.2
37	Nebraska	106.7	108.0	106.3	107.0
38	Arizona St.	107.0	106.2	107.6	107.0
39	T C U	105.2	108.8	105.7	106.6
40	Utah St.	106.3	105.1	107.7	106.3
41	Indiana	107.3	105.4	106.0	106.2
42	Tennessee	106.8	106.5	105.2	106.2
43	Boise St.	106.1	105.4	106.4	106.0
44	Pittsburgh	106.0	105.6	105.6	105.7
45	Purdue	105.5	105.5	105.0	105.3
46	Texas Tech	105.6	105.8	104.6	105.3
47	Memphis	105.0	104.8	106.1	105.3
48	Duke	105.2	104.7	105.1	105.0
49	Syracuse	105.2	104.6	105.0	104.9
50	Cincinnati	105.1	103.5	105.2	104.6
51	Stanford	105.0	104.0	104.8	104.6
52	West Virginia	104.6	104.2	104.2	104.3
53	Appalachian St.	105.2	103.3	104.4	104.3
54	Wake Forest	103.9	103.4	104.5	103.9
55	Virginia Tech	103.4	103.6	103.7	103.6
56	North Carolina	102.8	103.4	104.0	103.4
57	Temple	103.3	102.3	104.5	103.4
58	Arizona	102.5	102.7	102.8	102.7
59	Vanderbilt	103.4	102.2	102.3	102.6
60	North Carolina St.	102.4	102.3	102.9	102.5
61	Florida St.	102.4	102.7	102.2	102.5
62	BYU	102.3	102.4	102.5	102.4
63	SMU	102.0	101.5	102.8	102.1
64	Western Michigan	102.0	100.9	102.2	101.7
65	Ole Miss	102.3	101.5	101.3	101.7
66	Army	101.5	101.6	101.1	101.4
67	Boston College	100.5	100.3	100.9	100.6
68	Tulane	100.2	100.6	100.6	100.5
69	Fresno St.	100.0	100.6	100.7	100.4
70	Colorado	99.5	99.4	99.6	99.5
71	Air Force	98.2	99.4	99.1	98.9
72	San Diego St.	97.9	99.8	97.8	98.5
73	Arkansas	98.3	99.2	97.7	98.4
74	U C L A	98.9	98.5	97.8	98.4
75	Houston	96.1	97.3	98.9	97.4
76	Illinois	97.2	98.1	96.2	97.2
77	Ohio	96.6	95.6	97.9	96.7
78	Wyoming	95.4	97.6	96.0	96.3
79	Kansas	95.9	96.9	95.7	96.2
80	Georgia Southern	96.4	95.7	95.8	96.0
81	Hawaii	95.7	97.3	94.9	96.0
82	Louisiana	95.9	96.2	95.3	95.8
83	Louisville	96.1	95.7	95.3	95.7
84	Oregon St.	95.5	96.8	94.3	95.5
85	Georgia Tech	95.7	93.8	96.2	95.2
86	Southern Miss.	95.4	93.2	95.7	94.8
87	Troy	94.5	94.7	93.4	94.2
88	Marshall	93.4	92.9	94.6	93.6
89	Northern Illinois	93.7	92.6	93.8	93.4
90	North Texas	92.8	92.1	93.7	92.9
91	Tulsa	92.4	92.9	93.1	92.8
92	Toledo	92.1	92.3	93.2	92.5
93	Rutgers	92.3	92.3	91.9	92.2
94	Nevada	91.3	93.0	91.1	91.8
95	South Florida	91.0	92.0	91.3	91.4
96	Arkansas St.	91.3	91.4	91.0	91.2
97	Louisiana-Monroe	90.8	91.6	91.0	91.1
98	Eastern Michigan	90.7	91.1	91.4	91.1
99	Louisiana Tech	91.0	90.7	91.0	90.9
100	Navy	89.8	92.8	89.6	90.8
101	Florida Atlantic	90.4	89.7	91.1	90.4
102	Middle Tennessee	90.4	89.5	90.5	90.1
103	Florida Int’l.	89.6	89.3	89.9	89.6
104	Miami (Ohio)	90.1	88.3	90.4	89.6
105	Liberty	88.5	89.7	88.9	89.0
106	Charlotte	88.1	88.8	88.6	88.5
107	Western Kentucky	86.3	87.0	87.6	86.9
108	U A B	85.7	87.4	86.3	86.5
109	Ball St.	86.6	86.0	86.1	86.2
110	Buffalo	85.8	86.4	86.5	86.2
111	Georgia St.	85.9	87.2	84.9	86.0
112	U N L V	84.9	87.0	84.9	85.6
113	Kent St.	85.3	85.2	85.6	85.4
114	Coastal Carolina	84.1	85.3	83.2	84.2
115	Texas St.	82.9	83.8	82.8	83.2
116	San Jose St.	82.8	84.8	81.9	83.2
117	New Mexico	82.2	85.5	81.4	83.1
118	East Carolina	82.2	84.3	81.7	82.7
119	Colorado St.	79.9	84.0	79.8	81.2
120	Rice	78.7	80.1	77.8	78.9
121	Central Michigan	77.8	78.7	77.9	78.1
122	Old Dominion	77.8	78.2	78.0	78.0
123	Akron	77.7	78.0	77.3	77.6
124	Texas-San Antonio	76.7	79.2	76.4	77.4
125	New Mexico St.	76.8	79.0	76.4	77.4
126	South Alabama	75.2	78.5	74.2	76.0
127	Bowling Green	75.9	75.7	75.9	75.9
128	Connecticut	74.4	78.5	73.2	75.4
129	U T E P	66.9	72.4	67.3	68.8
130	Massachusetts	68.1	70.6	67.3	68.7

 

PiRate Ratings By Conference

 

American Athletic Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Central Florida	112.1	111.3	113.5	112.3	0-0	3-0
Cincinnati	105.1	103.5	105.2	104.6	0-0	2-1
Temple	103.3	102.3	104.5	103.4	0-0	2-0
South Florida	91.0	92.0	91.3	91.4	0-0	1-2
East Carolina	82.2	84.3	81.7	82.7	0-1	1-2
Connecticut	74.4	78.5	73.2	75.4	0-0	1-1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Memphis	105.0	104.8	106.1	105.3	0-0	3-0
SMU	102.0	101.5	102.8	102.1	0-0	3-0
Tulane	100.2	100.6	100.6	100.5	0-0	2-1
Houston	96.1	97.3	98.9	97.4	0-0	1-2
Tulsa	92.4	92.9	93.1	92.8	0-0	1-2
Navy	89.8	92.8	89.6	90.8	1-0	2-0
AAC Averages	96.1	96.8	96.7	96.6
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Clemson	134.5	131.2	135.4	133.7	2-0	3-0
Syracuse	105.2	104.6	105.0	104.9	0-1	1-2
Wake Forest	103.9	103.4	104.5	103.9	0-0	3-0
North Carolina St.	102.4	102.3	102.9	102.5	0-0	2-1
Florida St.	102.4	102.7	102.2	102.5	0-1	1-2
Boston College	100.5	100.3	100.9	100.6	1-0	2-1
Louisville	96.1	95.7	95.3	95.7	0-0	2-1
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Miami (Fla.)	110.4	109.5	111.5	110.5	0-1	1-2
Virginia	108.9	109.4	109.1	109.1	2-0	3-0
Pittsburgh	106.0	105.6	105.6	105.7	0-1	1-2
Duke	105.2	104.7	105.1	105.0	0-0	2-1
Virginia Tech	103.4	103.6	103.7	103.6	0-1	2-1
North Carolina	102.8	103.4	104.0	103.4	1-0	2-1
Georgia Tech	95.7	93.8	96.2	95.2	0-1	1-2
ACC Averages	105.5	105.0	105.8	105.5
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	B12	Overall
Oklahoma	122.3	121.4	122.2	122.0	0-0	3-0
Texas	112.3	112.3	112.2	112.3	0-0	2-1
Baylor	111.9	112.1	111.6	111.9	0-0	2-0
Kansas St.	111.8	111.5	111.8	111.7	0-0	3-0
Oklahoma St.	110.2	110.9	109.9	110.3	0-0	3-0
Iowa St.	110.2	110.4	109.9	110.2	0-0	1-1
T C U	105.2	108.8	105.7	106.6	0-0	2-0
Texas Tech	105.6	105.8	104.6	105.3	0-0	2-1
West Virginia	104.6	104.2	104.2	104.3	0-0	2-1
Kansas	95.9	96.9	95.7	96.2	0-0	2-1
Big 12 Averages	109.0	109.4	108.8	109.1
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Ohio St.	128.7	127.1	129.2	128.3	1-0	3-0
Michigan	119.6	117.5	119.9	119.0	0-0	2-0
Michigan St.	116.1	115.6	116.3	116.0	0-0	2-1
Penn St.	116.4	115.3	116.0	115.9	0-0	3-0
Maryland	109.1	108.5	108.3	108.6	0-0	2-1
Indiana	107.3	105.4	106.0	106.2	0-1	2-1
Rutgers	92.3	92.3	91.9	92.2	0-1	1-1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Wisconsin	117.1	116.8	117.0	117.0	0-0	2-0
Iowa	115.7	113.7	115.8	115.0	1-0	3-0
Northwestern	109.9	109.0	108.8	109.2	0-0	1-1
Minnesota	109.4	108.7	108.0	108.7	0-0	3-0
Nebraska	106.7	108.0	106.3	107.0	0-0	2-1
Purdue	105.5	105.5	105.0	105.3	0-0	1-2
Illinois	97.2	98.1	96.2	97.2	0-0	2-1
Big Ten Averages	110.8	110.1	110.3	110.4
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Marshall	93.4	92.9	94.6	93.6	0-0	2-1
Florida Atlantic	90.4	89.7	91.1	90.4	0-0	1-2
Middle Tennessee	90.4	89.5	90.5	90.1	0-0	1-2
Florida Int’l.	89.6	89.3	89.9	89.6	0-1	1-2
Charlotte	88.1	88.8	88.6	88.5	0-0	2-1
Western Kentucky	86.3	87.0	87.6	86.9	1-0	1-2
Old Dominion	77.8	78.2	78.0	78.0	0-0	1-1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Southern Miss.	95.4	93.2	95.7	94.8	0-0	2-1
North Texas	92.8	92.1	93.7	92.9	0-0	1-2
Louisiana Tech	91.0	90.7	91.0	90.9	0-0	2-1
U A B	85.7	87.4	86.3	86.5	0-0	2-0
Rice	78.7	80.1	77.8	78.9	0-0	0-3
Texas-San Antonio	76.7	79.2	76.4	77.4	0-0	1-2
U T E P	66.9	72.4	67.3	68.8	0-0	1-1
CUSA Averages	85.9	86.5	86.3	86.2
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	Conf.	Overall
Notre Dame	121.2	119.2	121.4	120.6	x	2-0
BYU	102.3	102.4	102.5	102.4	x	2-1
Army	101.5	101.6	101.1	101.4	x	2-1
Liberty	88.5	89.7	88.9	89.0	x	1-2
New Mexico St.	76.8	79.0	76.4	77.4	x	0-3
Massachusetts	68.1	70.6	67.3	68.7	x	0-3
Indep. Averages	93.1	93.7	92.9	93.2
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Ohio	96.6	95.6	97.9	96.7	0-0	1-2
Miami (Ohio)	90.1	88.3	90.4	89.6	0-0	1-2
Buffalo	85.8	86.4	86.5	86.2	0-0	1-2
Kent St.	85.3	85.2	85.6	85.4	0-0	1-2
Akron	77.7	78.0	77.3	77.6	0-1	0-3
Bowling Green	75.9	75.7	75.9	75.9	0-0	1-2
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Western Michigan	102.0	100.9	102.2	101.7	0-0	2-1
Northern Illinois	93.7	92.6	93.8	93.4	0-0	1-2
Toledo	92.1	92.3	93.2	92.5	0-0	1-1
Eastern Michigan	90.7	91.1	91.4	91.1	0-0	2-1
Ball St.	86.6	86.0	86.1	86.2	0-0	1-2
Central Michigan	77.8	78.7	77.9	78.1	1-0	2-1
MAC Averages	87.9	87.6	88.2	87.9
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Utah St.	106.3	105.1	107.7	106.3	0-0	1-1
Boise St.	106.1	105.4	106.4	106.0	0-0	3-0
Air Force	98.2	99.4	99.1	98.9	0-0	2-0
Wyoming	95.4	97.6	96.0	96.3	0-0	3-0
New Mexico	82.2	85.5	81.4	83.1	0-0	1-1
Colorado St.	79.9	84.0	79.8	81.2	0-0	1-2
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Fresno St.	100.0	100.6	100.7	100.4	0-0	0-2
San Diego St.	97.9	99.8	97.8	98.5	0-0	3-0
Hawaii	95.7	97.3	94.9	96.0	0-0	2-1
Nevada	91.3	93.0	91.1	91.8	0-0	2-1
U N L V	84.9	87.0	84.9	85.6	0-0	1-2
San Jose St.	82.8	84.8	81.9	83.2	0-0	1-1
MWC Averages	93.4	95.0	93.5	93.9
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Oregon	116.2	116.2	117.3	116.6	0-0	2-1
Washington	113.6	113.1	114.7	113.8	0-1	2-1
Washington St.	112.8	112.0	113.1	112.6	0-0	3-0
California	107.6	107.5	108.9	108.0	1-0	3-0
Stanford	105.0	104.0	104.8	104.6	0-1	1-2
Oregon St.	95.5	96.8	94.3	95.5	0-0	1-2
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Utah	116.5	114.8	116.7	116.0	0-0	3-0
U S C	107.1	108.1	107.6	107.6	1-0	2-1
Arizona St.	107.0	106.2	107.6	107.0	0-0	3-0
Arizona	102.5	102.7	102.8	102.7	0-0	2-1
Colorado	99.5	99.4	99.6	99.5	0-0	2-1
U C L A	98.9	98.5	97.8	98.4	0-0	0-3
Pac-12 Averages	106.8	106.6	107.1	106.9
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Georgia	127.5	125.8	128.1	127.1	1-0	3-0
Florida	119.9	117.1	119.1	118.7	1-0	3-0
Missouri	114.9	112.3	115.0	114.1	0-0	2-1
South Carolina	112.2	110.6	112.0	111.6	0-1	1-2
Kentucky	108.0	106.8	106.7	107.2	0-1	2-1
Tennessee	106.8	106.5	105.2	106.2	0-0	1-2
Vanderbilt	103.4	102.2	102.3	102.6	0-1	0-2
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Alabama	135.9	132.3	137.0	135.0	1-0	3-0
L S U	126.0	123.3	124.8	124.7	0-0	3-0
Texas A&M	119.4	117.8	118.3	118.5	0-0	2-1
Auburn	117.4	115.5	116.8	116.6	0-0	3-0
Mississippi St.	115.0	110.7	114.4	113.4	0-0	2-1
Ole Miss	102.3	101.5	101.3	101.7	1-0	2-1
Arkansas	98.3	99.2	97.7	98.4	0-1	2-1
SEC Averages	114.8	113.0	114.2	114.0
Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Appalachian St.	105.2	103.3	104.4	104.3	0-0	2-0
Georgia Southern	96.4	95.7	95.8	96.0	0-0	1-2
Troy	94.5	94.7	93.4	94.2	0-0	1-1
Georgia St.	85.9	87.2	84.9	86.0	0-0	2-1
Coastal Carolina	84.1	85.3	83.2	84.2	0-0	2-1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Louisiana	95.9	96.2	95.3	95.8	0-0	2-1
Arkansas St.	91.3	91.4	91.0	91.2	0-0	1-2
Louisiana-Monroe	90.8	91.6	91.0	91.1	0-0	1-1
Texas St.	82.9	83.8	82.8	83.2	0-0	0-3
South Alabama	75.2	78.5	74.2	76.0	0-0	1-2
SBC Averages	90.2	90.8	89.6	90.2

 

Bowl & Playoff Projections

Once again this week, our fearless bowl projections show a lot of at-large teams needed to fill spots.  This week, the number is eight teams.  The Southeastern Conference is looking like an eight-bid league this year, and the league will most likely have 12 spots to fill.  With Alabama, Georgia, and LSU looking like teams that will play in New Year’s Six Bowls or Playoffs, and with Missouri not eligible for a bowl this year, there will probably be just five other bowl eligible teams in the premiere league in FBS Football.  Texas A&M, Florida, Mississippi State, Auburn, and Kentucky should become bowl eligible, but Ole Miss, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt don’t look like they have the strength to reach six wins.

The Big Ten might benefit by an extra bid if Indiana and Northwestern can get to 6-6.  Illinois, Rutgers, and Purdue look like they could supply a little fodder for the other 11 teams to pick up conference wins and allow 11 to become bowl eligible, when only 10 teams will have guaranteed bowl spots.  It figures that if any Big Ten team remains with at-large bowl bids available, the Big Ten will be at the top of the at-large lists.

The Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt Conferences look like they will have extra bowl eligible teams this year, but at this point of the season, some of these teams may be bowl eligible but not get an invitations.

Here’s our look at the Bowls and Playoffs this week.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate College Football Ratings: September 3, 2019

This Week’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Friday	September 6
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Rice	Wake Forest	-21.7	-19.5	-22.2
Boise St.	Marshall	16.3	16.3	16.0
Saturday	September 7
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Pittsburgh	Ohio	13.7	14.6	11.6
Virginia Tech	Old Dominion	35.6	35.7	36.2
Akron	UAB	-1.6	-3.5	-2.3
Michigan	Army	21.5	19.6	22.1
Purdue	Vanderbilt	6.9	8.1	7.2
Iowa	Rutgers	25.8	23.0	25.7
Maryland	Syracuse	-4.9	-5.0	-6.2
Missouri	West Virginia	9.6	6.9	10.0
Ohio St.	Cincinnati	16.5	16.2	16.6
Kansas St.	Bowling Green	30.1	30.0	29.4
Utah	Northern Illinois	25.1	24.8	25.4
Georgia Tech	South Florida	12.7	10.1	13.5
Colorado	Nebraska	-2.7	-4.9	-2.3
Clemson	Texas A&M	18.2	15.5	20.4
Wisconsin	Central Michigan	39.1	37.5	38.7
Appalachian St.	Charlotte	21.3	18.5	19.9
Mississippi St.	Southern Miss.	23.8	21.5	23.0
Connecticut	Illinois	-23.6	-20.2	-24.6
Baylor	UTSA	35.1	32.2	34.9
Alabama	New Mexico St.	60.8	53.3	61.9
UCLA	San Diego St.	14.5	12.0	14.0
Florida St.	Louisiana-Monroe	19.1	19.2	19.3
Texas St.	Wyoming	-9.9	-11.4	-11.0
SMU	North Texas	8.0	7.9	7.5
Tennessee	BYU	8.5	8.2	6.7
Florida Atlantic	Central Florida	-15.9	-15.7	-16.3
Florida Int’l.	Western Kentucky	8.8	7.9	7.8
Kansas	Coastal Carolina	16.7	16.8	17.5
Louisiana	Liberty	8.7	7.3	7.3
Michigan St.	Western Michigan	17.8	18.8	17.7
Texas	LSU	-11.2	-8.4	-10.6
Auburn	Tulane	21.5	18.5	20.3
Ole Miss	Arkansas	5.4	3.4	5.0
Oregon	Nevada	21.7	20.0	23.0
Penn St.	Buffalo	33.1	31.1	32.0
Kentucky	Eastern Michigan	22.3	20.8	20.4
Texas Tech	UTEP	44.3	38.6	42.9
North Carolina	Miami (Fla.)	-7.1	-4.4	-6.8
USC	Stanford	-2.4	0.0	-2.1
Washington	California	9.3	8.4	9.2
Fresno St.	Minnesota	-8.4	-7.2	-6.5
Hawaii	Oregon St.	6.7	7.5	7.7

San Jose St.	Tulsa	-4.3	-2.4	-6.2
UNLV	Arkansas St.	-1.5	0.9	-1.0

 

FBS vs. FCS Games

 

Home	Visitor		PiRate
Virginia	William & Mary		35.8
Arizona St.	Sacramento St.		33.7
South Carolina	Charleston Sou.		38.6
Memphis	Southern U		36.4
Kent St.	Kennesaw St.		-1.8
North Carolina St.	Western Carolina		41.0
Ball St.	Fordham		25.9
Miami (O)	Tennessee Tech		35.1
Massachusetts	Southern Illinois		4.6
Indiana	Eastern Illinois		32.1
Boston College	Richmond		35.0
Louisiana Tech	Grambling		26.4
Georgia	Murray St.		52.3
Colorado St.	Western Illinois		6.4
Washington St.	Northern Colorado		41.9
East Carolina	Gardner-Webb		24.1
Georgia Southern	Maine		10.2
Duke	North Carolina A&T		26.9
Georgia St.	Furman		7.0
Louisville	Eastern Kentucky		19.9
Oklahoma St.	McNeese St.		36.8
South Alabama	Jackson St.		24.4
Oklahoma	South Dakota		38.3
Middle Tennessee	Tennessee St.		25.9
Florida	UT-Martin		42.6
Utah St.	Stony Brook		27.5
Houston	Prairie View		28.6
Arizona	Northern Arizona		23.6

 

This Week’s PiRate Ratings

 

PiRate Ratings
#	Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	Alabama	135.8	131.5	136.7	134.6
2	Clemson	134.0	130.3	135.0	133.1
3	Georgia	125.9	123.9	126.3	125.4
4	L S U	126.1	123.3	125.0	124.8
5	Ohio St.	121.6	119.8	121.8	121.1
6	Michigan	121.3	119.3	121.8	120.8
7	Notre Dame	120.2	118.4	120.2	119.6
8	Oklahoma	119.9	118.9	119.6	119.5
9	Florida	120.0	117.1	119.0	118.7
10	Texas A&M	118.6	117.1	117.2	117.7
11	Penn St.	117.0	115.9	116.9	116.6
12	Utah	116.8	115.2	117.2	116.4
13	Auburn	117.2	114.8	116.5	116.2
14	Michigan St.	115.9	115.6	116.1	115.9
15	Mississippi St.	116.5	111.8	116.0	114.8
16	Wisconsin	114.4	113.9	114.1	114.1
17	Iowa	115.0	112.5	114.7	114.0
18	Oregon	113.1	113.1	114.2	113.5
19	Washington	113.3	112.5	114.4	113.4
20	Washington St.	113.1	112.3	113.5	113.0
21	Syracuse	112.0	111.8	112.3	112.0
22	Texas	111.9	111.8	111.5	111.7
23	Missouri	112.5	109.6	112.4	111.5
24	South Carolina	111.0	109.6	111.0	110.5
25	Minnesota	111.0	110.4	109.8	110.4
26	Baylor	110.4	110.3	109.9	110.2
27	Iowa St.	110.0	110.4	109.9	110.1
28	Northwestern	110.7	109.7	109.7	110.0
29	Miami (Fla.)	110.0	108.7	111.2	110.0
30	Oklahoma St.	109.8	110.4	109.3	109.8
31	Central Florida	109.3	108.3	110.4	109.3
32	Virginia	108.9	109.4	109.1	109.1
33	Stanford	109.3	108.2	109.4	109.0
34	Virginia Tech	107.7	108.0	108.2	108.0
35	Purdue	108.2	108.1	107.6	108.0
36	Texas Tech	108.0	108.1	107.1	107.7
37	Indiana	108.6	106.8	107.4	107.6
38	Kentucky	108.4	107.2	107.2	107.6
39	Kansas St.	107.7	107.5	107.3	107.5
40	California	107.0	107.0	108.3	107.4
41	Arizona St.	107.3	106.3	107.7	107.1
42	Cincinnati	107.6	106.0	107.7	107.1
43	Tennessee	107.1	106.9	105.5	106.5
44	Boise St.	106.5	105.9	107.0	106.5
45	Nebraska	105.6	107.3	105.2	106.0
46	U C L A	106.0	105.6	105.3	105.7
47	West Virginia	105.9	105.7	105.4	105.6
48	Pittsburgh	105.9	105.6	105.2	105.6
49	Utah St.	105.4	104.2	106.8	105.4
50	Boston College	104.9	104.6	105.6	105.0
51	Florida St.	104.4	104.8	104.4	104.6
52	Appalachian St.	105.5	103.4	104.6	104.5
53	U S C	103.8	105.2	104.3	104.5
54	Memphis	104.0	103.5	105.1	104.2
55	Vanderbilt	104.3	103.0	103.4	103.6
56	North Carolina St.	103.2	103.2	104.0	103.5
57	Maryland	104.0	103.5	102.8	103.4
58	Wake Forest	103.6	102.9	103.7	103.4
59	Duke	103.5	102.9	103.2	103.2
60	North Carolina	102.0	103.2	103.4	102.9
61	Army	102.8	102.7	102.6	102.7
62	T C U	101.1	104.9	101.5	102.5
63	Temple	102.4	101.2	103.7	102.4
64	BYU	101.6	101.7	101.8	101.7
65	Ole Miss	102.0	100.9	100.8	101.2
66	Arizona	100.8	100.9	101.0	100.9
67	Fresno St.	99.6	100.2	100.3	100.0
68	Illinois	99.9	100.8	99.3	100.0
69	Western Michigan	100.1	98.7	100.4	99.7
70	Colorado	99.9	99.4	99.9	99.7
71	SMU	99.5	98.7	99.9	99.4
72	Georgia Tech	99.6	97.6	100.3	99.2
73	Arkansas	99.0	100.0	98.3	99.1
74	Tulane	98.7	99.3	99.1	99.0
75	Air Force	97.7	99.0	98.5	98.4
76	Hawaii	97.3	99.3	96.9	97.8
77	Wyoming	96.7	99.1	97.6	97.8
78	Houston	96.0	97.2	98.7	97.3
79	Ohio	96.3	95.0	97.8	96.4
80	Georgia Southern	95.9	95.1	95.1	95.4
81	Kansas	95.0	96.2	94.7	95.3
82	Nevada	94.4	96.1	94.2	94.9
83	Louisville	95.5	94.9	94.3	94.9
84	Troy	94.9	95.5	93.9	94.8
85	San Diego St.	94.1	96.1	93.8	94.7
86	Oregon St.	94.6	95.8	93.2	94.5
87	Northern Illinois	94.7	93.4	94.8	94.3
88	Southern Miss.	94.7	92.3	95.0	94.0
89	Louisiana	93.8	93.9	92.9	93.5
90	Marshall	93.1	92.6	94.0	93.2
91	North Texas	93.0	92.3	93.9	93.1
92	Rutgers	92.2	92.5	92.0	92.2
93	Middle Tennessee	91.8	91.0	92.1	91.6
94	Tulsa	91.2	91.6	92.1	91.6
95	Toledo	91.2	91.4	92.3	91.6
96	Florida Atlantic	91.4	90.6	92.1	91.4
97	Florida Int’l.	91.2	91.0	91.7	91.3
98	Arkansas St.	91.3	91.4	91.0	91.2
99	South Florida	90.4	91.5	90.5	90.8
100	Miami (Ohio)	90.8	89.1	91.3	90.4
101	Louisiana Tech	90.6	90.2	90.4	90.4
102	Eastern Michigan	89.1	89.4	89.8	89.5
103	Louisiana-Monroe	89.1	89.8	89.1	89.3
104	Georgia St.	88.7	90.3	87.8	88.9
105	Liberty	88.1	89.6	88.6	88.7
106	Navy	86.9	89.9	86.5	87.8
107	U N L V	86.8	89.3	86.9	87.7
108	Buffalo	87.0	87.8	88.0	87.6
109	Ball St.	87.1	86.7	86.8	86.9
110	Charlotte	86.3	86.9	86.7	86.6
111	Western Kentucky	85.4	86.2	86.9	86.1
112	Kent St.	85.6	85.8	86.0	85.8
113	U A B	84.7	86.6	85.2	85.5
114	East Carolina	84.5	86.6	84.2	85.1
115	San Jose St.	83.9	86.1	83.0	84.3
116	Texas St.	83.8	84.7	83.6	84.0
117	New Mexico	83.1	86.2	82.5	84.0
118	Coastal Carolina	81.3	82.4	80.2	81.3
119	Colorado St.	79.5	83.8	79.7	81.0
120	Bowling Green	80.5	80.5	80.9	80.7
121	Akron	80.6	80.7	80.5	80.6
122	Rice	79.2	80.8	78.7	79.6
123	New Mexico St.	78.0	81.2	77.8	79.0
124	Central Michigan	78.3	79.4	78.4	78.7
125	Texas-San Antonio	77.8	80.6	77.5	78.6
126	South Alabama	76.4	80.0	75.4	77.3
127	Old Dominion	75.0	75.3	75.0	75.1
128	Massachusetts	73.7	76.8	73.3	74.6
129	Connecticut	73.3	77.6	71.8	74.2
130	U T E P	66.3	72.0	66.7	68.3

 

PiRate Ratings by Conference

 

American Athletic Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Central Florida	109.3	108.3	110.4	109.3	0-0	1-0
Cincinnati	107.6	106.0	107.7	107.1	0-0	1-0
Temple	102.4	101.2	103.7	102.4	0-0	1-0
South Florida	90.4	91.5	90.5	90.8	0-0	0-1
East Carolina	84.5	86.6	84.2	85.1	0-0	0-1
Connecticut	73.3	77.6	71.8	74.2	0-0	1-0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Memphis	104.0	103.5	105.1	104.2	0-0	1-0
SMU	99.5	98.7	99.9	99.4	0-0	1-0
Tulane	98.7	99.3	99.1	99.0	0-0	1-0
Houston	96.0	97.2	98.7	97.3	0-0	0-1
Tulsa	91.2	91.6	92.1	91.6	0-0	0-1
Navy	86.9	89.9	86.5	87.8	0-0	1-0
AAC Averages	95.3	96.0	95.8	95.7
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Clemson	134.0	130.3	135.0	133.1	1-0	1-0
Syracuse	112.0	111.8	112.3	112.0	0-0	1-0
Boston College	104.9	104.6	105.6	105.0	1-0	1-0
Florida St.	104.4	104.8	104.4	104.6	0-0	0-1
North Carolina St.	103.2	103.2	104.0	103.5	0-0	1-0
Wake Forest	103.6	102.9	103.7	103.4	0-0	1-0
Louisville	95.5	94.9	94.3	94.9	0-0	0-1
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Miami (Fla.)	110.0	108.7	111.2	110.0	0-0	0-1
Virginia	108.9	109.4	109.1	109.1	1-0	1-0
Virginia Tech	107.7	108.0	108.2	108.0	0-1	0-1
Pittsburgh	105.9	105.6	105.2	105.6	0-1	0-1
Duke	103.5	102.9	103.2	103.2	0-0	0-1
North Carolina	102.0	103.2	103.4	102.9	0-0	1-0
Georgia Tech	99.6	97.6	100.3	99.2	0-1	0-1
ACC Averages	106.8	106.3	107.1	106.7
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	B12	Overall
Oklahoma	119.9	118.9	119.6	119.5	0-0	1-0
Texas	111.9	111.8	111.5	111.7	0-0	1-0
Baylor	110.4	110.3	109.9	110.2	0-0	1-0
Iowa St.	110.0	110.4	109.9	110.1	0-0	1-0
Oklahoma St.	109.8	110.4	109.3	109.8	0-0	1-0
Texas Tech	108.0	108.1	107.1	107.7	0-0	1-0
Kansas St.	107.7	107.5	107.3	107.5	0-0	1-0
West Virginia	105.9	105.7	105.4	105.6	0-0	1-0
T C U	101.1	104.9	101.5	102.5	0-0	1-0
Kansas	95.0	96.2	94.7	95.3	0-0	1-0
Big 12 Averages	108.0	108.4	107.6	108.0
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Ohio St.	121.6	119.8	121.8	121.1	0-0	1-0
Michigan	121.3	119.3	121.8	120.8	0-0	1-0
Penn St.	117.0	115.9	116.9	116.6	0-0	1-0
Michigan St.	115.9	115.6	116.1	115.9	0-0	1-0
Indiana	108.6	106.8	107.4	107.6	0-0	1-0
Maryland	104.0	103.5	102.8	103.4	0-0	1-0
Rutgers	92.2	92.5	92.0	92.2	0-0	1-0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Wisconsin	114.4	113.9	114.1	114.1	0-0	1-0
Iowa	115.0	112.5	114.7	114.0	0-0	1-0
Minnesota	111.0	110.4	109.8	110.4	0-0	1-0
Northwestern	110.7	109.7	109.7	110.0	0-0	0-1
Purdue	108.2	108.1	107.6	108.0	0-0	0-1
Nebraska	105.6	107.3	105.2	106.0	0-0	1-0
Illinois	99.9	100.8	99.3	100.0	0-0	1-0
Big Ten Averages	110.4	109.7	109.9	110.0
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Marshall	93.1	92.6	94.0	93.2	0-0	1-0
Middle Tennessee	91.8	91.0	92.1	91.6	0-0	0-1
Florida Atlantic	91.4	90.6	92.1	91.4	0-0	0-1
Florida Int’l.	91.2	91.0	91.7	91.3	0-0	0-1
Charlotte	86.3	86.9	86.7	86.6	0-0	1-0
Western Kentucky	85.4	86.2	86.9	86.1	0-0	0-1
Old Dominion	75.0	75.3	75.0	75.1	0-0	1-0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Southern Miss.	94.7	92.3	95.0	94.0	0-0	1-0
North Texas	93.0	92.3	93.9	93.1	0-0	1-0
Louisiana Tech	90.6	90.2	90.4	90.4	0-0	0-1
U A B	84.7	86.6	85.2	85.5	0-0	1-0
Rice	79.2	80.8	78.7	79.6	0-0	0-1
Texas-San Antonio	77.8	80.6	77.5	78.6	0-0	1-0
U T E P	66.3	72.0	66.7	68.3	0-0	1-0
CUSA Averages	85.7	86.3	86.1	86.1
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	Conf.	Overall
Notre Dame	120.2	118.4	120.2	119.6	x	1-0
BYU	101.4	101.2	101.4	101.3	x	0-1
Army	100.2	100.2	99.8	100.1	x	1-0
Liberty	88.0	89.3	88.3	88.5	x	0-1
New Mexico St.	76.6	79.3	76.2	77.3	x	0-1
Massachusetts	73.4	76.2	72.8	74.1	x	0-1
Indep. Averages	93.3	94.1	93.1	93.5
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Ohio	96.3	95.0	97.8	96.4	0-0	1-0
Miami (Ohio)	90.8	89.1	91.3	90.4	0-0	0-1
Buffalo	87.0	87.8	88.0	87.6	0-0	1-0
Kent St.	85.6	85.8	86.0	85.8	0-0	0-1
Bowling Green	80.5	80.5	80.9	80.7	0-0	1-0
Akron	80.6	80.7	80.5	80.6	0-0	0-1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Western Michigan	100.1	98.7	100.4	99.7	0-0	1-0
Northern Illinois	94.7	93.4	94.8	94.3	0-0	1-0
Toledo	91.2	91.4	92.3	91.6	0-0	0-1
Eastern Michigan	89.1	89.4	89.8	89.5	0-0	1-0
Ball St.	87.1	86.7	86.8	86.9	0-0	0-1
Central Michigan	78.3	79.4	78.4	78.7	0-0	1-0
MAC Averages	88.4	88.2	88.9	88.5
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Boise St.	106.5	105.9	107.0	106.5	0-0	1-0
Utah St.	105.4	104.2	106.8	105.4	0-0	0-1
Air Force	97.7	99.0	98.5	98.4	0-0	1-0
Wyoming	96.7	99.1	97.6	97.8	0-0	1-0
New Mexico	83.1	86.2	82.5	84.0	0-0	1-0
Colorado St.	79.5	83.8	79.7	81.0	0-0	0-1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Fresno St.	99.6	100.2	100.3	100.0	0-0	0-1
Hawaii	97.3	99.3	96.9	97.8	0-0	1-0
Nevada	94.4	96.1	94.2	94.9	0-0	1-0
San Diego St.	94.1	96.1	93.8	94.7	0-0	1-0
U N L V	86.8	89.3	86.9	87.7	0-0	1-0
San Jose St.	83.9	86.1	83.0	84.3	0-0	1-0
MWC Averages	93.8	95.4	93.9	94.4
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Oregon	113.1	113.1	114.2	113.5	0-0	0-1
Washington	113.3	112.5	114.4	113.4	0-0	1-0
Washington St.	113.1	112.3	113.5	113.0	0-0	1-0
Stanford	109.3	108.2	109.4	109.0	0-0	1-0
California	107.0	107.0	108.3	107.4	0-0	1-0
Oregon St.	94.6	95.8	93.2	94.5	0-0	0-1
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Utah	116.8	115.2	117.2	116.4	0-0	1-0
Arizona St.	107.3	106.3	107.7	107.1	0-0	1-0
U C L A	106.0	105.6	105.3	105.7	0-0	0-1
U S C	103.8	105.2	104.3	104.5	0-0	1-0
Arizona	100.8	100.9	101.0	100.9	0-0	0-1
Colorado	99.9	99.4	99.9	99.7	0-0	1-0
Pac-12 Averages	107.1	106.8	107.4	107.1
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Georgia	125.9	123.9	126.3	125.4	1-0	1-0
Florida	120.0	117.1	119.0	118.7	0-0	1-0
Missouri	112.5	109.6	112.4	111.5	0-0	0-1
South Carolina	111.0	109.6	111.0	110.5	0-0	0-1
Kentucky	108.4	107.2	107.2	107.6	0-0	1-0
Tennessee	107.1	106.9	105.5	106.5	0-0	0-1
Vanderbilt	104.3	103.0	103.4	103.6	0-1	0-1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Alabama	135.8	131.5	136.7	134.6	0-0	1-0
L S U	126.1	123.3	125.0	124.8	0-0	1-0
Texas A&M	118.6	117.1	117.2	117.7	0-0	1-0
Auburn	117.2	114.8	116.5	116.2	0-0	1-0
Mississippi St.	116.5	111.8	116.0	114.8	0-0	1-0
Ole Miss	102.0	100.9	100.8	101.2	0-0	0-1
Arkansas	99.0	100.0	98.3	99.1	0-0	1-0
SEC Averages	114.6	112.6	113.9	113.7
Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Appalachian St.	105.5	103.4	104.6	104.5	0-0	1-0
Georgia Southern	95.9	95.1	95.1	95.4	0-0	0-1
Troy	94.9	95.5	93.9	94.8	0-0	1-0
Georgia St.	88.7	90.3	87.8	88.9	0-0	1-0
Coastal Carolina	81.3	82.4	80.2	81.3	0-0	0-1
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Louisiana	93.8	93.9	92.9	93.5	0-0	0-1
Arkansas St.	91.3	91.4	91.0	91.2	0-0	0-1
Louisiana-Monroe	89.1	89.8	89.1	89.3	0-0	1-0
Texas St.	83.8	84.7	83.6	84.0	0-0	0-1
South Alabama	76.4	80.0	75.4	77.3	0-0	0-1
SBC Averages	90.1	90.7	89.4	90.0

Conference Power Ratings
#	League	Average
1	SEC	113.7
2	BTen	110.0
3	B12	108.0
4	P12	107.1
5	ACC	106.7
6	AAC	95.7
7	MWC	94.4
8	Ind	93.5
9	SUN	90.0
10	MAC	88.5
11	CUSA	86.1

Top 5 Group of 5
1	Central Florida
2	Cincinnati
3	Boise St.
4	Utah St.
5	Appalachian St.

 

Bowl Projections

 

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

 

Woe To Us

One week into the season, panic has set in at a number of schools after unexpected losses or even unimpressive wins have sent the fans of certain schools into full-scale panic.

Worst of the lot is the University of Tennessee.  The Volunteers, 25-point favorites, lost at home to Georgia State in a game that Vols were clearly manhandled by the team picked to finish last in the Sun Belt Eastern Division in 2019.

Calls have come from within a lot of the fan base for massive changes to be made just 13 games into Coach Jeremy Pruitt’s head coaching career.  There are even calls to rid Athletics Director Phil Fulmer of his duties as well.

Today, in our little old folks reminiscing feature, I will tell you that contrary to the current popular belief, that this loss in Knoxville is not the worst loss in modern day history.

Let’s set the Time Machine back to 1958.  Coach Bowden Wyatt led an archaic Tennessee Single Wing offense that as recently as 1956 had allowed the Big Orange to run the table in the regular season and finish 2nd nationally to champion Oklahoma.

The following year, Tennessee won eight games including the Gator Bowl.  Two of their three losses came to top 5 teams.

In 1958, the Vols stumbled coming out of the gate.  In a 2-4 start that produced little offense and strong defense, Coach Wyatt all of a sudden found himself in hot water.  Tennessee fans, spoiled under the long reign of General Robert Neyland, reacted to this 2-4 start like former New York Yankees manager George Steinbrenner used to react when his team won only 90 games and missed out on the American League Division title.

Game seven was one of those automatic wins against tiny in-state rival Chattanooga.  The Mocs at times in the 20th Century were classified as Major College, or the equivalent of today’s FBS.  However, in 1958, they were Small College, or the equivalent of FCS.

Chattanooga entered this game coming off a loss at Tennessee Tech, and nobody gave Coach Scrappy Moore’s team any hope playing the mighty Vols at Shield-Watkins Field.  When the game started, Chattanooga’s defense, led by future American Football League starter Charlie Long at linebacker (he was also a starting offensive guard and played that position with the Boston Patriots), had little problem stopping Tennessee’s balanced-line Single Wing offense.  Time and time again, Tennessee ran line bucks, off-tackle plays, sweeps, and traps, and the Mocs defense stopped the attack and forced punts.

Chattanooga’s offense was not a juggernaut, but on this day, the Mocs would garner two touchdown drives and led 14-0 with precious little time remaining.  The stadium began to lose its home fans rapidly, as the then 46,000 seat stadium had about 30,000 people in seats.  This was a good thing because of what would happen in a few minutes.

Tennessee mounted one final desperation drive with the forward pass, something Wyatt-coached Vols teams used infrequently.  Chattanooga played a loose defense, allowing the Vols to use up the rest of the clock but finally scoring points in the last few seconds of the game.  The extra point was blocked, and Chattanooga pulled off its greatest ever upset, beating Tennessee in Knoxville 14-6.

The Chattanooga fans, totally excited over their impossible feat, stormed the field and tore down the goalposts.  What happens next has been told to me in the past by older acquaintances that lived in Chattanooga and have passed on to their reward.  Here’s a composite of these stories told to me many years ago:

The Tennessee fans that remained until the end of the game took offense at the Chattanooga fans storming their field and tearing down their goalposts.  When about 100 Vols’ fans decided to let the mob rule, they began to attack the Mocs fans, and within a few seconds, this became a full-scale riot.

In what has been described to me to have resembled the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the Knoxville police had to bring their riot gear and paddy wagons to the campus.  Eventually, tear gas was lobbed onto the field to stop the violence that had gotten well out of control.  Many Chattanooga fans and a handful of Tennessee fans had been detained and carted off to vehicles to be transferred to jail.

Here’s the most outrageous part of this story.  The sheriff of Hamilton County (Chattanooga as the county seat) was at this game as a fan.  He rounded up a “posse” of Mocs to attempt to overpower the Knoxville police and emancipate the arrested Chattanooga fans.  The sheriff was then arrested by the Knoxville police.

Tennessee had two home games remaining in 1958, and the administration decided they would not purchase new goalposts.  Instead, they erected very cheap wooden goalposts, the type anybody could construct by going to Home Depot, Lowe’s, or Menard’s today.

Coach Wyatt was barbecued in the local newspapers.  The Knoxville Journal and the Knoxville News-Sentinel opposed each other in 1958 like Fox News and CNN oppose each other today.  Yet, the two papers were in agreement that something needed to be done.  At 2-5, Tennessee now faced a closing three games against a top-5 Ole Miss team that had lost only to eventual national champion LSU; a decent Kentucky team under future Cleveland Browns head coach Blanton Collier; and a Vanderbilt team that would lose only one game prior to the season-ending contest with the Vols.

Staring a potential 2-8 season in the face, there was no joy in “The Marble City.”  Tennessee football was to Knoxville on Saturdays what it is to Green Bay on Sundays.

With the makeshift goalposts, Tennessee entered their game with Ole Miss as double-digit underdogs at home.  Having done exhaustive research, this was a first at Shields-Watkins Field.  Rarely had the Vols been underdogs at home under Neyland, so being a double-digit underdog to the Rebels was a new low.

As unexpected as their loss was to Chattanooga the previous week, the Vols went the opposite way against Coach Johnny Vaught’s Rebels.  Ole Miss had just scored 56 points the previous week against Houston, and their defense was giving up less than six points per game.  Even LSU could muster only 14 points, so the Vols’ Single Wing offense looked to be in a huge bind, and it was conceivable that Tennessee would be lucky to even cross midfield.

Not only did Tennessee move the ball across midfield, they moved it up and down the field for most of the day, while their defense slowed a great Split-T attack and Ole Miss’s top back, Charlie Flowers, had trouble moving the ball for most of the day.  An 18-16 upset was as big as the upset loss to Chattanooga.

Ironically, the Vols’ fans stormed the field after this game and quickly made short work of the cheap, makeshift goalposts.  Tennessee had to erect another set of wooden goalposts for its final home game.  Also ironically, goalposts would not be needed in that final home game, as neither Tennessee nor Kentucky attempted an extra point that day.  The Vol offense returned to its inept depths and failed to produce points.  A safety by the defense prevented the goose egg from staying on the old scoreboard.  Kentucky scored a lone touchdown and missed a two-point conversion but won 6-2.  This guaranteed a losing season for the Vols.

The season ended with Tennessee visiting their in-state rival Vanderbilt in Nashville.  This Vanderbilt team was ranked number 15 and looking at a likely Sun, Gator, or Bluegrass Bowl bid with a win over the lowly Vols.  Vanderbilt entered this game without an SEC loss and only one overall, which came against a Clemson team that won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and would face LSU in the Sugar Bowl.

After Coach Neyland came to Knoxville, Vanderbilt was rarely favored to beat their nemesis down the road on US Highway 70.  On this late November day, the Commodores were expected to win easily and give some of their second team players extra experience.

Once again, the Vols came out fired up and stopped Vanderbilt’s version of the Split-T and Wing-T offense.  The UT Single Wing offense was not potent by any means, but they moved the ball.  In 1958, few teams made more than two or three field goals in an entire season, and many did not make even one.  On this day, a field goal gave the Vols a surprising early lead, and Tennessee led 10-6 in the fourth quarter.  Two long Vanderbilt drives ended with turnovers, a fumble on the first and an interception on the second.  The Vol player (cannot remember his name) that recovered the fumble also picked off the pass, and Tennessee shocked Vandy at Dudley Field.  As a result, the Commodores were passed over for the bowl bids.  The Sun Bowl took Hardin-Simmons; the Bluegrass Bowl in Louisville took Florida State; and the Gator Bowl chose Florida and Ole Miss.

To all the Vols fans, as well as those that cheer for Tennessee to lose, let this be a warning to you.  The same can be said to Florida State, South Carolina, Missouri, UCLA, and Arizona fans this week.  Your team failed miserably in game one, but you never know what might happen in game two.  This going to the extremes, believing your team might be Playoff bound if they win their first game, and believing that the sky is falling if they lose their first game, is a ridiculous emotion.  It’s just the first game.  Teams have stunk in their first game and proceeded to win the national championship.  Not that this will happen in 2019, but the Seminoles, Gamecocks, Tigers, Bruins, Wildcats, and Vols fans still have reason to believe that this current low point will be replaced with multiple reversals of misfortune.

Week Two–Some Marquee Games

This will be a Saturday to make plans to watch a lot of football if you are a big college fan.

Noon, EDT

Michigan vs. Army–Fox Sports

This is the best early game.  The Wolverines had some trouble against Middle Tennessee in week one, while Army struggled with Rice.  This game may be lower scoring than first expected, but both teams did not show their entire playbooks last week.  I expect more offense and will look at the totals numbers for this game.  If Army can pull off the upset, the Black Knights can easily run the table for the regular season and possibly earn a spot in the Cotton Bowl.  Army is not eligible for the guaranteed Group of 5 New Year’s Bowl bid, as this goes to the highest-rated Group of 5 Conference Champion.  However, if the men from West Point beat Michigan and proceed to go 13-0 in the regular season, they could still be selected as an at-large team for the Cotton Bowl.

Of course, Michigan is a tough team to beat at The Big House, and Army does not wear scarlet and gray uniforms.

Purdue vs. Vanderbilt–Big Ten Network

This looks like a bowl eliminator game, even in week 2.  Purdue watched a 17-point lead disappear in Reno against Nevada.  Vanderbilt suffered against national contender Georgia and has injuries on its already thin offensive line.  The team that emerges 1-1 will still hold bowl hopes for 2019.  The loser has little path to six wins.

3:30 PM EDT

Clemson vs. Texas A&M–ABC

The Aggies gave the Tigers one of their two toughest battles last year in College Station, and Coach Jimbo Fisher certainly knows how to prepare for a game against his former rival when he coached at Florida State.  Having to go to Deaf Valley to place Trevor the Great may be asking the Aggies to do the impossible, but Clemson didn’t look like a super team against Georgia Tech last week, and Lawrence actually completed two passes to the wrong colored jersey.  This game might be quite interesting if the Aggies can contain the CU running game and make Clemson one dimensional.

7:30 PM EDT

Texas vs. LSU–ABC

This may be the overall best game of the week.  Texas looked just as strong if not stronger beating Louisiana Tech in week one as they looked like last year when they beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.  LSU looked like a team that Alabama fans need to worry about, as the new Tiger offense did things through the air that it had not done before, even in the Bert Jones days.  Joe Burrow added his name to Heisman Trophy contention after week one.  The winner of this game stays in Playoff contention.  The loser is already looking at top tier bowl but no Playoffs.

8:00 PM EDT

North Carolina vs. Miami–ACC Network

Kudos to Coach Mack Brown for showing the nation that old guys can still teach new tricks to the youngsters.  North Carolina can now become a co-favorite for the Coastal Division flag with a win over Miami in week two.  Meanwhile, the Hurricanes have had an extra week to lick their wounds after falling to rival Florida in a game that Miami had a chance to win at the end.

10:30 PM EDT

Washington vs. California–FS1

After Oregon lost in the final nine seconds to Auburn, the Pac-12 was placed behind the 8-ball.  It is going to take a 12-0 team from the Pac-12 to make the Playoffs, so this game will see one team emerge as having accomplished what is mandatory for that to happen.  Washington quarterback Jacob Eason looked like a potential first team All Pac-12 player in game one, but then Eastern Washington’s defense is not the standard to judge excellence.

Cal had to come from behind to beat FCS rival UC Davis.  Having to go to Seattle for this game makes the Bears a solid underdog, but Coach Justin Wilcox is impressing us with his handling of the boys from Berkeley.  Expect this game to be closer than expected and most likely quite exciting.  Cal stopped the Huskies last year in a 12-10 win.

Stanford vs. USC–ESPN

When USC quarterback J.T. Daniels went down with a season-ending injury in the middle of the Fresno State game, you could just see Coach Clay Helton’s subconscious brain imagining the help-wanted ads in the Los Angeles Times.  With an incredibly difficult schedule and a mandate to win 8 or 9 games this year, how does Helton survive the season much less get through it to the end with a true freshman signal caller?

Helton and the Trojans may have a shot against the Cardinal, because Stanford quarterback K.J. Costello might not play after suffering a gruesome hit in what should have been called a targeting penalty against Northwestern.  Costello might be in the concussion protocol and unable to play in this game, and backup Davis Mills did not produce any points after entering the game for the second half.

The winner of this game will be an unconvincing 2-0 team, but the loser will be in dire straits at 1-1.  USC faces four consecutive games where they will be the underdog, while Stanford decided to play Central Florida and Notre Dame as two of its three non-conference games.  The Cardinal may not have five more wins on their schedule if they lose this game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate College Football Ratings: August 20, 2019

PiRate Ratings Spreads For Week 0 and Week 1–August 24 through September 2

 

This Week’s PiRate Ratings
Saturday	August 24
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Florida (n)	Miami (Fla.)	11.0	9.5	8.9
Hawaii	Arizona	-2.2	-0.3	-3.4
Thursday	August 29
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Cincinnati	UCLA	2.6	1.1	3.7
Tulane	Florida Int’l.	4.4	5.4	3.7
Clemson	Georgia Tech	36.7	34.0	36.7
Texas A&M	Texas St.	36.5	33.7	34.9
Arizona St.	Kent St.	26.4	24.6	26.8
BYU	Utah	-13.5	-11.5	-13.5
Friday	August 30
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Army	Rice	28.2	26.4	28.7
South Florida	Wisconsin	-12.1	-10.1	-10.9
Michigan St.	Tulsa	27.1	26.4	26.2
Rutgers	Massachusetts	21.2	18.1	21.2
Wake Forest	Utah St.	1.3	2.0	0.0
Nevada	Purdue	-15.2	-13.4	-15.2
Colorado (n)	Colorado St.	20.5	14.8	20.6
Oregon St.	Oklahoma St.	-11.9	-10.8	-12.3
Saturday	August 31
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
North Carolina St.	East Carolina	18.9	16.1	19.5
Illinois	Akron	16.5	17.3	15.4
Indiana (n)	Ball St.	23.8	22.4	23.3
Nebraska	South Alabama	35.9	33.8	36.8
Ohio St.	Florida Atlantic	32.2	31.1	31.7
Kentucky	Toledo	21.3	19.7	19.0
Memphis	Ole Miss	3.1	3.7	5.6
Louisiana (n)	Mississippi St.	-25.0	-19.6	-25.8
North Carolina (n)	South Carolina	-14.3	-11.3	-12.7
Tennessee	Georgia St.	30.8	29.0	30.3
Alabama (n)	Duke	31.3	26.7	32.2
Coastal Carolina	Eastern Michigan	-5.2	-4.1	-7.1
Stanford	Northwestern	0.3	0.1	1.5
Boston College	Virginia Tech	-1.5	-2.6	-1.6
Liberty	Syracuse	-21.3	-19.4	-21.0
Arkansas St.	SMU	-5.4	-4.3	-5.8
Florida St. (n)	Boise St.	2.0	3.6	1.9
Vanderbilt	Georgia	-18.7	-17.8	-20.0
Auburn (n)	Oregon	3.8	0.9	1.5
LSU	Georgia Southern	28.0	25.3	27.3
Wyoming	Missouri	-18.5	-12.7	-17.7
Iowa	Miami (O)	27.4	26.6	26.8
Michigan	Middle Tennessee	35.2	33.8	35.8
Pittsburgh	Virginia	3.4	2.4	2.7
Texas	Louisiana Tech	23.4	23.5	22.5
Washington St.	New Mexico St.	37.0	32.5	37.4
USC	Fresno St.	7.2	8.0	6.8
Sunday/Monday	September 1/2
Home	Visitors	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Oklahoma	Houston	28.2	25.7	24.9
Louisville	Notre Dame	-23.8	-22.4	-25.9

 

FBS vs. FCS Games

 

Home	Visitor	PiRate
San Jose St.	Northern Colorado	14.5
Connecticut	Wagner	12.6
Central Michigan	Albany	9.8
Bowling Green	Morgan St.	17.2
Buffalo	Robert Morris	43.9
Charlotte	Gardner-Webb	26.5
Western Kentucky	Central Arkansas	11.9
Central Florida	Florida A&M	45.5
UAB	Alabama St.	45.5
Minnesota	South Dakota St.	12.7
UNLV	Southern Utah	17.3
Air Force	Colgate	11.3
New Mexico	Sam Houston St.	9.7
Maryland	Howard	36.0
Iowa St.	Northern Iowa	22.2
Kansas	Indiana St.	13.8
West Virginia	James Madison	18.5
Ohio U	Rhode Island	27.6
Washington	E. Washington	18.0
Temple	Bucknell	44.2
Navy	Holy Cross	24.4
Penn St.	Idaho	40.5
Appalachian St.	East Tennessee	36.3
Arkansas	Portland St.	21.0
Texas Tech	Montana St.	25.7
UTSA	Incarnate Word	7.3
Troy	Campbell	33.8
California	UC-Davis	14.5
Marshall	VMI	37.8
Old Dominion	Norfolk St.	23.5
Southern Miss	Alcorn St.	23.6
Kansas St.	Nicholls	23.9
Baylor	Stephen F Austin	37.3
Northern Illinois	Illinois St.	7.3
Western Michigan	Monmouth	20.5
North Texas	Abilene Christian	19.4
UTEP	Houston Baptist	15.2
TCU	Ark. Pine Bluff	52.3
Louisiana-Monroe	Grambling	24.3
San Diego St.	Weber St.	8.1

 

Preseason PiRate Ratings (1-130)

PiRate Ratings
#	Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	Alabama	135.3	130.6	136.1	134.0
2	Clemson	133.8	129.6	134.6	132.7
3	Georgia	125.7	123.6	126.1	125.1
4	Michigan	122.9	120.8	123.6	122.4
5	L S U	123.5	120.4	122.2	122.0
6	Ohio St.	121.1	119.3	121.3	120.6
7	Notre Dame	121.0	119.1	121.5	120.5
8	Oklahoma	120.5	119.4	120.1	120.0
9	Florida	120.7	117.8	119.7	119.4
10	Texas A&M	118.3	116.6	116.7	117.2
11	Utah	116.6	114.7	116.8	116.0
12	Auburn	117.0	114.4	116.1	115.8
13	Mississippi St.	117.5	112.5	117.2	115.7
14	Michigan St.	115.6	115.3	115.7	115.5
15	Penn St.	115.0	113.9	114.9	114.6
16	Missouri	115.5	112.4	115.5	114.5
17	Iowa	115.1	112.6	114.9	114.2
18	Oregon	113.3	113.5	114.6	113.8
19	South Carolina	113.8	112.2	113.7	113.2
20	Washington	112.7	111.9	113.8	112.8
21	Iowa St.	111.8	112.2	111.7	111.9
22	Syracuse	111.9	111.5	112.0	111.8
23	Washington St.	112.0	110.7	112.2	111.6
24	Tennessee	111.8	111.6	110.3	111.2
25	Minnesota	111.8	111.2	110.6	111.2
26	Texas	111.4	111.2	110.7	111.1
27	Northwestern	111.3	110.4	110.3	110.7
28	Purdue	110.4	110.3	110.0	110.2
29	Baylor	110.3	110.2	109.8	110.1
30	Miami (Fla.)	109.6	108.3	110.8	109.6
31	Oklahoma St.	109.6	110.0	108.9	109.5
32	Wisconsin	109.7	109.0	109.0	109.2
33	Virginia Tech	108.5	109.1	109.2	108.9
34	Indiana	109.6	107.8	108.6	108.7
35	Stanford	108.7	107.5	108.8	108.3
36	Central Florida	108.1	107.1	109.2	108.1
37	Kentucky	108.8	107.5	107.6	108.0
38	Arizona St.	107.9	106.6	108.5	107.7
39	Pittsburgh	108.0	107.6	107.4	107.7
40	Nebraska	107.2	108.8	107.0	107.7
41	California	107.0	107.0	108.3	107.4
42	Virginia	107.1	107.7	107.2	107.3
43	Texas Tech	107.5	107.6	106.6	107.2
44	U C L A	107.1	106.9	106.3	106.8
45	Kansas St.	107.0	106.8	106.6	106.8
46	Cincinnati	106.8	105.0	107.0	106.3
47	West Virginia	106.4	106.2	105.9	106.1
48	Utah St.	105.6	104.3	107.0	105.6
49	Florida St.	105.2	105.9	105.4	105.5
50	Boise St.	105.2	104.3	105.5	105.0
51	U S C	103.8	105.2	104.2	104.4
52	Appalachian St.	105.4	103.3	104.5	104.4
53	Boston College	104.1	103.5	104.6	104.1
54	Memphis	103.8	103.3	105.0	104.0
55	Duke	104.0	103.8	103.8	103.9
56	Vanderbilt	104.5	103.3	103.6	103.8
57	Wake Forest	103.4	102.8	103.5	103.2
58	T C U	101.8	105.6	102.2	103.2
59	Army	102.8	102.7	102.6	102.7
60	North Carolina St.	102.5	102.2	103.1	102.6
61	Temple	102.2	101.0	103.5	102.2
62	Arizona	101.9	102.0	102.4	102.1
63	Maryland	102.3	101.8	101.1	101.7
64	BYU	101.6	101.7	101.8	101.7
65	Ole Miss	102.2	101.1	100.9	101.4
66	North Carolina	99.5	100.9	101.0	100.5
67	Fresno St.	99.6	100.2	100.4	100.1
68	Georgia Tech	100.1	98.6	101.0	99.9
69	Colorado	100.0	99.0	100.1	99.7
70	Arkansas	99.5	100.5	98.8	99.6
71	Western Michigan	99.6	98.2	99.9	99.2
72	SMU	99.4	98.4	99.6	99.1
73	Georgia Southern	98.5	98.0	97.9	98.2
74	Air Force	96.7	98.0	97.5	97.4
75	Illinois	97.2	98.1	96.3	97.2
76	Houston	95.4	96.7	98.2	96.7
77	Ohio	96.5	95.2	98.0	96.6
78	Tulane	95.9	96.6	96.0	96.2
79	Hawaii	95.7	97.7	95.0	96.1
80	Kansas	95.3	96.5	95.0	95.6
81	South Florida	94.6	95.9	95.1	95.2
82	Wyoming	94.0	96.6	94.8	95.1
83	Oregon St.	94.8	96.2	93.6	94.9
84	San Diego St.	94.2	96.2	93.9	94.8
85	Troy	94.9	95.5	93.9	94.8
86	Florida Int’l.	94.0	93.7	94.8	94.2
87	Northern Illinois	94.5	93.2	94.6	94.1
88	Louisville	94.7	94.2	93.0	93.9
89	Southern Miss.	94.6	92.2	94.9	93.9
90	Marshall	93.1	92.6	94.0	93.2
91	North Texas	93.0	92.3	93.9	93.1
92	Nevada	92.2	93.9	91.8	92.6
93	Louisiana	92.5	92.9	91.4	92.3
94	Tulsa	91.5	91.9	92.5	92.0
95	Florida Atlantic	91.9	91.1	92.6	91.9
96	Rutgers	91.9	91.9	91.5	91.8
97	Arkansas St.	91.4	91.7	91.3	91.5
98	Louisiana Tech	91.1	90.8	91.2	91.0
99	Toledo	90.5	90.8	91.6	90.9
100	Middle Tennessee	90.7	90.0	90.8	90.5
101	Miami (Ohio)	90.7	89.0	91.1	90.3
102	Louisiana-Monroe	89.2	89.9	89.2	89.4
103	Eastern Michigan	89.0	89.2	89.8	89.4
104	Buffalo	88.2	89.0	89.2	88.8
105	Liberty	88.1	89.6	88.6	88.7
106	Western Kentucky	87.9	88.7	89.4	88.6
107	U A B	87.2	89.1	87.7	88.0
108	U N L V	86.4	88.9	86.5	87.3
109	Navy	86.2	89.2	85.8	87.1
110	Charlotte	86.4	87.0	86.8	86.7
111	East Carolina	85.2	87.6	85.1	86.0
112	Ball St.	85.8	85.4	85.3	85.5
113	Kent St.	85.0	85.5	85.2	85.2
114	San Jose St.	83.8	86.0	82.9	84.2
115	Georgia St.	84.0	85.6	83.0	84.2
116	Texas St.	83.8	84.9	83.8	84.2
117	New Mexico	83.2	86.3	82.6	84.1
118	Akron	83.3	83.4	83.5	83.4
119	Coastal Carolina	81.4	82.6	80.2	81.4
120	Colorado St.	79.4	84.2	79.5	81.0
121	New Mexico St.	78.0	81.2	77.8	79.0
122	Bowling Green	78.5	78.5	78.9	78.7
123	Central Michigan	78.1	79.2	78.2	78.5
124	Texas-San Antonio	77.2	80.0	76.9	78.0
125	Rice	77.1	78.8	76.4	77.5
126	Old Dominion	75.7	76.0	75.7	75.8
127	South Alabama	74.3	78.0	73.1	75.2
128	Massachusetts	73.7	76.8	73.3	74.6
129	Connecticut	73.6	77.9	72.1	74.5
130	U T E P	66.9	72.6	67.3	68.9

 

PiRate Ratings By Conference

 

American Athletic Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Central Florida	108.1	107.1	109.2	108.1	0-0	0-0
Cincinnati	106.8	105.0	107.0	106.3	0-0	0-0
Temple	102.2	101.0	103.5	102.2	0-0	0-0
South Florida	94.6	95.9	95.1	95.2	0-0	0-0
East Carolina	85.2	87.6	85.1	86.0	0-0	0-0
Connecticut	73.6	77.9	72.1	74.5	0-0	0-0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	AAC	Overall
Memphis	103.8	103.3	105.0	104.0	0-0	0-0
SMU	99.4	98.4	99.6	99.1	0-0	0-0
Houston	95.4	96.7	98.2	96.7	0-0	0-0
Tulane	95.9	96.6	96.0	96.2	0-0	0-0
Tulsa	91.5	91.9	92.5	92.0	0-0	0-0
Navy	86.2	89.2	85.8	87.1	0-0	0-0
AAC Averages	95.2	95.9	95.8	95.6
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Clemson	133.8	129.6	134.6	132.7	0-0	0-0
Syracuse	111.9	111.5	112.0	111.8	0-0	0-0
Florida St.	105.2	105.9	105.4	105.5	0-0	0-0
Boston College	104.1	103.5	104.6	104.1	0-0	0-0
Wake Forest	103.4	102.8	103.5	103.2	0-0	0-0
North Carolina St.	102.5	102.2	103.1	102.6	0-0	0-0
Louisville	94.7	94.2	93.0	93.9	0-0	0-0
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	ACC	Overall
Miami (Fla.)	109.6	108.3	110.8	109.6	0-0	0-0
Virginia Tech	108.5	109.1	109.2	108.9	0-0	0-0
Pittsburgh	108.0	107.6	107.4	107.7	0-0	0-0
Virginia	107.1	107.7	107.2	107.3	0-0	0-0
Duke	104.0	103.8	103.8	103.9	0-0	0-0
North Carolina	99.5	100.9	101.0	100.5	0-0	0-0
Georgia Tech	100.1	98.6	101.0	99.9	0-0	0-0
ACC Averages	106.6	106.1	106.9	106.5
Big 12 Conference
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	B12	Overall
Oklahoma	120.5	119.4	120.1	120.0	0-0	0-0
Iowa St.	111.8	112.2	111.7	111.9	0-0	0-0
Texas	111.4	111.2	110.7	111.1	0-0	0-0
Baylor	110.3	110.2	109.8	110.1	0-0	0-0
Oklahoma St.	109.6	110.0	108.9	109.5	0-0	0-0
Texas Tech	107.5	107.6	106.6	107.2	0-0	0-0
Kansas St.	107.0	106.8	106.6	106.8	0-0	0-0
West Virginia	106.4	106.2	105.9	106.1	0-0	0-0
T C U	101.8	105.6	102.2	103.2	0-0	0-0
Kansas	95.3	96.5	95.0	95.6	0-0	0-0
Big 12 Averages	108.2	108.6	107.7	108.2
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Michigan	122.9	120.8	123.6	122.4	0-0	0-0
Ohio St.	121.1	119.3	121.3	120.6	0-0	0-0
Michigan St.	115.6	115.3	115.7	115.5	0-0	0-0
Penn St.	115.0	113.9	114.9	114.6	0-0	0-0
Indiana	109.6	107.8	108.6	108.7	0-0	0-0
Maryland	102.3	101.8	101.1	101.7	0-0	0-0
Rutgers	91.9	91.9	91.5	91.8	0-0	0-0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	BTen	Overall
Iowa	115.1	112.6	114.9	114.2	0-0	0-0
Minnesota	111.8	111.2	110.6	111.2	0-0	0-0
Northwestern	111.3	110.4	110.3	110.7	0-0	0-0
Purdue	110.4	110.3	110.0	110.2	0-0	0-0
Wisconsin	109.7	109.0	109.0	109.2	0-0	0-0
Nebraska	107.2	108.8	107.0	107.7	0-0	0-0
Illinois	97.2	98.1	96.3	97.2	0-0	0-0
Big Ten Averages	110.1	109.4	109.6	109.7
Conference USA
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Florida Int’l.	94.0	93.7	94.8	94.2	0-0	0-0
Marshall	93.1	92.6	94.0	93.2	0-0	0-0
Florida Atlantic	91.9	91.1	92.6	91.9	0-0	0-0
Middle Tennessee	90.7	90.0	90.8	90.5	0-0	0-0
Western Kentucky	87.9	88.7	89.4	88.6	0-0	0-0
Charlotte	86.4	87.0	86.8	86.7	0-0	0-0
Old Dominion	75.7	76.0	75.7	75.8	0-0	0-0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	CUSA	Overall
Southern Miss.	94.6	92.2	94.9	93.9	0-0	0-0
North Texas	93.0	92.3	93.9	93.1	0-0	0-0
Louisiana Tech	91.1	90.8	91.2	91.0	0-0	0-0
U A B	87.2	89.1	87.7	88.0	0-0	0-0
Texas-San Antonio	77.2	80.0	76.9	78.0	0-0	0-0
Rice	77.1	78.8	76.4	77.5	0-0	0-0
U T E P	66.9	72.6	67.3	68.9	0-0	0-0
CUSA Averages	86.2	86.8	86.6	86.5
FBS Independents
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	Conf.	Overall
Notre Dame	121.0	119.1	121.5	120.5	x	0-0
Army	102.8	102.7	102.6	102.7	x	0-0
BYU	101.6	101.7	101.8	101.7	x	0-0
Liberty	88.1	89.6	88.6	88.7	x	0-0
New Mexico St.	78.0	81.2	77.8	79.0	x	0-0
Massachusetts	73.7	76.8	73.3	74.6	x	0-0
Indep. Averages	94.2	95.2	94.3	94.5
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Ohio	96.5	95.2	98.0	96.6	0-0	0-0
Miami (Ohio)	90.7	89.0	91.1	90.3	0-0	0-0
Buffalo	88.2	89.0	89.2	88.8	0-0	0-0
Kent St.	85.0	85.5	85.2	85.2	0-0	0-0
Akron	83.3	83.4	83.5	83.4	0-0	0-0
Bowling Green	78.5	78.5	78.9	78.7	0-0	0-0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MAC	Overall
Western Michigan	99.6	98.2	99.9	99.2	0-0	0-0
Northern Illinois	94.5	93.2	94.6	94.1	0-0	0-0
Toledo	90.5	90.8	91.6	90.9	0-0	0-0
Eastern Michigan	89.0	89.2	89.8	89.4	0-0	0-0
Ball St.	85.8	85.4	85.3	85.5	0-0	0-0
Central Michigan	78.1	79.2	78.2	78.5	0-0	0-0
MAC Averages	88.3	88.1	88.8	88.4
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Utah St.	105.6	104.3	107.0	105.6	0-0	0-0
Boise St.	105.2	104.3	105.5	105.0	0-0	0-0
Air Force	96.7	98.0	97.5	97.4	0-0	0-0
Wyoming	94.0	96.6	94.8	95.1	0-0	0-0
New Mexico	83.2	86.3	82.6	84.1	0-0	0-0
Colorado St.	79.4	84.2	79.5	81.0	0-0	0-0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	MWC	Overall
Fresno St.	99.6	100.2	100.4	100.1	0-0	0-0
Hawaii	95.7	97.7	95.0	96.1	0-0	0-0
San Diego St.	94.2	96.2	93.9	94.8	0-0	0-0
Nevada	92.2	93.9	91.8	92.6	0-0	0-0
U N L V	86.4	88.9	86.5	87.3	0-0	0-0
San Jose St.	83.8	86.0	82.9	84.2	0-0	0-0
MWC Averages	93.0	94.7	93.1	93.6
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Oregon	113.3	113.5	114.6	113.8	0-0	0-0
Washington	112.7	111.9	113.8	112.8	0-0	0-0
Washington St.	112.0	110.7	112.2	111.6	0-0	0-0
Stanford	108.7	107.5	108.8	108.3	0-0	0-0
California	107.0	107.0	108.3	107.4	0-0	0-0
Oregon St.	94.8	96.2	93.6	94.9	0-0	0-0
South Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	P12	Overall
Utah	116.6	114.7	116.8	116.0	0-0	0-0
Arizona St.	107.9	106.6	108.5	107.7	0-0	0-0
U C L A	107.1	106.9	106.3	106.8	0-0	0-0
U S C	103.8	105.2	104.2	104.4	0-0	0-0
Arizona	101.9	102.0	102.4	102.1	0-0	0-0
Colorado	100.0	99.0	100.1	99.7	0-0	0-0
Pac-12 Averages	107.1	106.8	107.5	107.1
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Georgia	125.7	123.6	126.1	125.1	0-0	0-0
Florida	120.7	117.8	119.7	119.4	0-0	0-0
Missouri	115.5	112.4	115.5	114.5	0-0	0-0
South Carolina	113.8	112.2	113.7	113.2	0-0	0-0
Tennessee	111.8	111.6	110.3	111.2	0-0	0-0
Kentucky	108.8	107.5	107.6	108.0	0-0	0-0
Vanderbilt	104.5	103.3	103.6	103.8	0-0	0-0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SEC	Overall
Alabama	135.3	130.6	136.1	134.0	0-0	0-0
L S U	123.5	120.4	122.2	122.0	0-0	0-0
Texas A&M	118.3	116.6	116.7	117.2	0-0	0-0
Auburn	117.0	114.4	116.1	115.8	0-0	0-0
Mississippi St.	117.5	112.5	117.2	115.7	0-0	0-0
Ole Miss	102.2	101.1	100.9	101.4	0-0	0-0
Arkansas	99.5	100.5	98.8	99.6	0-0	0-0
SEC Averages	115.3	113.2	114.6	114.4
Sunbelt Conference
East Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Appalachian St.	105.4	103.3	104.5	104.4	0-0	0-0
Georgia Southern	98.5	98.0	97.9	98.2	0-0	0-0
Troy	94.9	95.5	93.9	94.8	0-0	0-0
Georgia St.	84.0	85.6	83.0	84.2	0-0	0-0
Coastal Carolina	81.4	82.6	80.2	81.4	0-0	0-0
West Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average	SBC	Overall
Louisiana	92.5	92.9	91.4	92.3	0-0	0-0
Arkansas St.	91.4	91.7	91.3	91.5	0-0	0-0
Louisiana-Monroe	89.2	89.9	89.2	89.4	0-0	0-0
Texas St.	83.8	84.9	83.8	84.2	0-0	0-0
South Alabama	74.3	78.0	73.1	75.2	0-0	0-0
SBC Averages	89.5	90.2	88.8	89.5

 

Conference Power Ratings
#	League	Average
1	SEC	114.4
2	BTen	109.7
3	B12	108.2
4	P12	107.1
5	ACC	106.5
6	AAC	95.6
7	Ind	94.5
8	MWC	93.6
9	SUN	89.5
10	MAC	88.4
11	CUSA	86.5

 

 

Top 5 Group of 5
1	Central Florida
2	Cincinnati
3	Utah St.
4	Boise St.
5	Appalachian St.

 

 

Preseason Bowl Projections

 

Bowl	Conf	Conf	Team	Team
Bahamas	MAC	CUSA	Western Michigan	Southern Miss.
Frisco	AAC	At-large	Houston	Florida Int’l.
Cure	AAC	SBC	Temple	Georgia Southern
New Mexico	CUSA	MWC	Louisiana Tech	San Diego St.
Boca Raton	AAC	MAC	Central Florida	Ohio
Camellia	MAC	SBC	Eastern Michigan	Louisiana
Las Vegas	MWC	Pac-12	Utah St.	UCLA
New Orleans	CUSA	SBC #1	UAB	Appalachian St.
Gasparilla	AAC	CUSA	Cincinnati	Florida Atlantic
Hawaii	BYU/MWC	AAC	BYU	Memphis
Independence	ACC	SEC	Florida St.	North Texas
Quick Lane	ACC	Big Ten	Boston College	Northwestern
Military	ACC	AAC	Pittsburgh	South Florida
Pinstripe	ACC	Big Ten	Virginia	Minnesota
Texas	Big 12	SEC	Oklahoma St.	Mississippi St.
Holiday	Pac-12	Big Ten	Washington St.	Iowa
Cheez-It	Big 12	Pac-12	West Virginia	Hawaii
Camping World	ACC	Big 12	Miami (Fla.)	Iowa St.
Cotton	At-large	At-large	Army	Washington
First Responder	CUSA	Big 12	Marshall	TCU
Redbox	Pac-12	Big Ten	Stanford	Wisconsin
Music City	SEC	ACC	Indiana	Wake Forest
Orange	ACC	BTen/SEC	Notre Dame	Florida
Belk	ACC	SEC	Syracuse	Tennessee
Sun	ACC	Pac-12	Virginia Tech	Arizona St.
Liberty	Big 12	SEC	Texas	Kentucky
Arizona	SBC	MWC	Troy	Fresno St.
Alamo	Big 12	Pac-12	Baylor	Oregon
Citrus	SEC	BTen/ACC	Texas A&M	Nebraska
Outback	Big Ten	SEC	Auburn	Penn St.
Rose	Big Ten	Pac-12	Ohio St.	Utah
Sugar	Big 12	SEC	Oklahoma	LSU
Birmingham	AAC	SEC	SMU	North Carolina St.
Taxslayer/Gator	SEC	Big Ten	South Carolina	Michigan St.
Idaho Potato	MAC	MWC	Toledo	Air Force
Armed Forces	Big Ten	MWC	Purdue	Boise St.
Dollar General	MAC	SBC	Northern Illinois	Arkansas St.
FBS PLAYOFFS
Fiesta	Top 4	Top 4	Clemson	Georgia
Peach	Top 4	Top 4	Alabama	Michigan
Champsionship	Fiesta	Peach	Clemson	Alabama
Italics–At-large team because the conference cannot fulfill its allotment

 

 

 

 

 

2019 Big 12 Conference Football Preview

In the 1970’s, the Big Ten was jokingly called the Big Two and Little Eight, as Ohio State and Michigan won or shared every Big Ten title between 1968 and 1982.  Oklahoma has won four consecutive Big 12 regular season championships and both of the Big 12 Championship Games since the game returned in 2017.  Lately, the Big 12 race has been more like the American League baseball race for years: who will finish in second behind the Yankees?

Oklahoma enters 2019 as a prohibitive favorite to win their fifth consecutive regular season and third consecutive Championship Game and must be considered a top contender to make the Field of Four NCAA Playoffs.  The Sooners will have to get there without the services of the 2018 Heisman Trophy winner, as Kyler Murray is now tossing the ball in the NFL.  The Oklahoma offense will most likely take a small backward step even though Coach Lincoln Riley went out in the free agent market and grabbed a great one in former Alabama starter Jalen Hurts.  Oklahoma’s offense figures to be a little weaker, because the offensive line and receiving corps must be rebuilt (or reloaded).

At the same time, Oklahoma’s defense figures to be somewhat better than last year, but then again, it would be hard for it to be any worse after giving up more than 33 points and 450 yards per game.

Texas returned to prominence last year under second year coach Tom Herman.  After a 7-6 season in 2017, the Longhorns beat Oklahoma in the regular season before blowing a lead in the conference championship game and losing to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.  Texas has numerous holes to fill, especially on defense, where only two starters return.

Iowa State is a team that can be compared to the mountain lion hiding on a bluff ready to pounce and attack an unsuspecting deer.  It should be no surprise that the Cyclones should be quite good this year after posting consecutive eight-win seasons.  ISU returns more starting talent than Oklahoma and Texas, and Matt Campbell might be one of the five best coaches in football, be it college or professional.

Baylor must be considered the dark horse in the race this year.  After enduring a total rebuild after the previous regime left under a dark cloud, Matt Rhule has done a commendable job bringing the Bears back to competitive football.  The Baylor offense could challenge for best in the league, and the defense should be a little improved.  Keep an eye on BU.

There are new head coaches at Texas Tech, Kansas State, Kansas, and West Virginia.  Matt Wells comes to Texas Tech after doing great things at Utah State, but his wide-open offense is quite different from the Air Raid used by former coach Kliff Kingsbury, and the Red Raiders will need time to adjust.

Bill Snyder has retired for the second time, and Kansas State must start over with Chris Klieman, the Dabo Swinney of FCS football.  Klieman won four FCS National Championships at North Dakota State, and he inherits a decent roster.  Still, there will be an adjustment with new systems on both sides of the ball, so the Wildcats will need a year or two in transition to be competitive again.

Dana Holgorsen, in a semi-surprise move, bolted West Virginia for Houston, and the Mountaineers must start over with former Troy coach Neal Brown and without Will Grier at quarterback.  Both sides of the ball suffered heavy losses, so 2019 will be a major rebuilding season.  Still, WVU might sneak into a lower-tiered bowl because one of the bottom four is likely to end up at 6-6.

Then, there is Kansas.  What the Jayhawks are to college basketball, they are the opposite in college football.  Since Mark Mangino was forced out at Kansas over several allegations of abuse, the KU program has been the weakest of any Power 5 Conference school.  Three coaches failed to turn the program around, as the Jayhawks are an incredibly poor 5-75 in the Big 12 since Mangino left.  Enter Les Miles as the new coach.  The Kansas football program will definitely be a little more exciting just because one never knows what Miles might do as the coach.  It would not be shocking to see Kansas go for a first down on fourth down inside their own 20 yard line.  They might run plays from the single wing, double wing, wishbone, or air raid offense–in the same possession!  The only for sure thing is that Les will sample the grass in every stadium the Jayhawks play.  If they happen to actually win a conference game this year, it will be a bonus.  They have a chance to begin the season 2-0, but they will almost assuredly lost the final 10.

Two teams remain in this little preview.  Oklahoma State and TCU have been middle of the pack teams in the last couple seasons, and they appear to still be behind the top four, while they are considerably better than the bottom four.  Because the Big 12 has a nine-game conference schedule, both the Cowboys and Horned Frogs can go 4-0 against the transitioning teams.  This means, they need to win two of their three non-league games to become bowl eligible.

Here is how the Big 12 Media voted in the preseason poll.

 

Big 12 Conference Media Poll
Pos.	Team	1st Place Votes	Overall Votes
1	Oklahoma	68	761
2	Texas	9	696
3	Iowa St.	0	589
4	TCU	0	474
5	Oklahoma St.	0	460
6	Baylor	0	453
7	Texas Tech	0	281
8	West Virginia	0	241
9	Kansas St.	0	191
10	Kansas	0	89
	Championship Game Winner
	None Chosen

 

The Initial PiRate Ratings believe the conference race will be a little bit different, and there won’t be a wide moat between Oklahoma and the next three teams.

 

Preseason PiRate Ratings–Big 12
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Oklahoma	120.8	119.4	120.4	120.2
Iowa St.	112.0	112.2	111.9	112.0
Texas	111.6	111.2	110.9	111.2
Baylor	110.1	110.2	109.6	110.0
Oklahoma St.	109.7	110.0	109.0	109.6
Texas Tech	108.1	107.6	107.2	107.6
Kansas St.	107.5	106.8	107.1	107.1
West Virginia	107.6	106.2	107.1	106.9
T C U	102.6	105.6	103.0	103.7
Kansas	95.6	96.5	95.3	95.8
Big 12 Averages	108.6	108.6	108.1	108.4

 

Note:  These preseason ratings are accurate as of August 1, 2019, and subject to change before the first week of the season due to personnel changes prior to the first week of the season.

 

Predicted Won-Loss Records

The PiRate Ratings were not created to forecast won-loss records like other ratings might attempt.  Our ratings are valid for just the next game on the teams’ schedules, and we have pre-set adjustments built into our ratings on many teams.  For instance, if a team has exceptional starting talent but little depth, their rating has a pre-set reduction per week of the season, so that even if they win or lose a game by the exact expected margin, they will lose some of their power rating due to their depth issues.

If a team has exceptional, but inexperienced talent, their rating will have a pre-set addition per week of the season, and even if their performance may be exactly what was expected, their power rating will rise.

What you see in these predicted won-loss records are our opinion and not calculated from the ratings.  These are the estimated records based on a vote, with the Captain having 50% of the vote and the crew having the other 50%.  The Captain then rounded up or down those teams picked to have an average wins that were not whole numbers.

 

PiRate Members Predicted Won-Loss
Pos	Team	Conf.	Overall
1	Oklahoma	7-2	11-2*
2	Iowa St.	7-2	10-3
3	Baylor	6-3	9-3
4	Texas	6-3	8-4
5	Oklahoma St.	5-4	8-4
6	West Virginia	4-5	6-6
7	TCU	3-6	6-6
8	Kansas St.	2-7	4-8
9	Texas Tech	2-7	5-7
10	Kansas	0-9	2-10
*	Oklahoma picked to win Big 12 Championship Game

 

Bowl Predictions
Bowl	Team
Playoffs	Not This Year
Sugar	Oklahoma
Alamo	Baylor
Camping World	Iowa St.
Texas	Okla st.
Liberty	Texas
Cheez-it	WVU
First Responders	TCU

 

Coaches That Could Move Up To Big-Time Programs

Matt Rhule, Baylor

Matt Campbell, Iowa State

 

Coaches on the Hot Seat

None this year

 

Top Quarterbacks

Jalen Hurts, Oklahoma

Sam Ehlinger, Texas

Charlie Brewer, Baylor

Brock Purdy, Iowa St.

 

Top Offense

Oklahoma

Texas

Oklahoma St.

 

Top Defense

Iowa St.

Texas

TCU

 

Coming Tomorrow: The Big Ten Conference.  With Urban Meyer into his next round of retirement, Can Jim Harbaugh take Michigan to the Playoffs?  Can Scott Frost work magic at Nebraska like he did at Central Florida?  Will there be a multiple team tie for first in the Western Division with 6-3 conference records?

 

PiRate Ratings College Basketball For Thursday, March 14, 2019

Thursday’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Home	Rating	HCA	Visitor	Rating	Spread
Akron	103.5	1.0	Buffalo	113.6	-9.1
Arizona St.	108.4	0.0	UCLA	104.9	3.5
Auburn	115.7	0.0	Missouri	106.1	9.6
Baylor	110.6	0.0	Iowa St.	114.1	-3.5
Bowling Green	103.0	0.0	Ball St.	102.8	0.2
Cal St. Fullerton	98.9	0.0	UC Davis	95.6	3.3
Duke	123.2	1.0	Syracuse	111.3	12.9
Duquesne	100.1	0.0	Saint Joseph’s	99.4	0.7
Eastern Washington	95.5	0.0	Montana St.	95.2	0.3
Florida	111.7	0.0	Arkansas	108.7	3.0
Florida St.	114.7	0.0	Virginia Tech	116.5	-1.8
Fresno St.	107.5	0.0	Air Force	94.8	12.7
George Mason	101.4	0.0	George Washington	93.3	8.1
Grand Canyon	104.7	0.0	Seattle	98.6	6.1
Howard	91.4	0.0	Bethune-Cookman	92.5	-1.1
Illinois	106.2	1.5	Iowa	110.9	-3.2
Kansas	114.9	1.5	Texas	112.0	4.4
Kansas St.	113.2	1.0	TCU	110.0	4.2
Kent St.	101.5	0.0	Central Michigan	101.9	-0.4
Long Beach St.	96.9	2.0	Hawaii	98.4	0.5
Louisiana	99.7	1.0	South Alabama	97.4	3.3
Louisiana Monroe	101.3	1.0	Coastal Carolina	100.7	1.6
Maryland	113.4	0.0	Nebraska	110.5	2.9
Memphis	106.8	3.0	Tulane	92.9	16.9
Minnesota	109.3	0.0	Penn St.	110.2	-0.9
Mississippi St.	113.4	0.0	Texas A&M	105.4	8.0
Montana	102.8	0.0	Sacramento St.	94.2	8.6
Nevada	115.0	1.0	Boise St.	102.6	13.4
New Mexico St.	107.7	0.0	Chicago St.	79.3	28.4
New Orleans	94	0.0	Lamar	98.0	-4.0
North Carolina	121.0	1.0	Louisville	114.0	8.0
North Carolina Central	92.8	0.0	Delaware St.	79.5	13.3
North Texas	100.9	1.5	Western Kentucky	103.1	-0.7
Northern Colorado	100.4	0.0	Southern Utah	93.0	7.4
Ohio St.	110.3	0.0	Indiana	110.6	-0.3
Old Dominion	103.8	0.0	Louisiana Tech	101.8	2.0
Ole Miss	110.1	0.0	Alabama	108.0	2.1
Oregon St.	106.2	0.0	Colorado	107.0	-0.8
Rhode Island	102.4	0.0	La Salle	97.2	5.2
Saint Louis	103.3	0.0	Richmond	99.0	4.3
Seton Hall	108.4	0.0	Georgetown	106.3	2.1
South Florida	103.2	0.0	Connecticut	105.2	-2.0
Southeastern Louisiana	94.7	0.0	Central Arkansas	91.6	3.1
Southern Miss.	103.4	0.0	Marshall	99.7	3.7
St. John’s	107.8	1.5	Marquette	112.6	-3.3
Texas Tech	118.3	0.0	West Virginia	104.9	13.4
Toledo	107.9	0.0	Northern Illinois	101.1	6.8
Tulsa	103.2	0.0	SMU	104.2	-1.0
UC Irvine	105.5	0.0	UC Riverside	91.6	13.9
UC Santa Barbara	101.0	0.0	Cal St. Northridge	93.7	7.3
UNLV	101.1	2.5	San Diego St.	103.8	-0.2
UT Rio Grande Valley	97.6	0.0	Cal St. Bakersfield	96.7	0.9
Utah	104.2	0.0	Oregon	109.3	-5.1
Utah St.	110.0	0.0	New Mexico	99.3	10.7
Utah Valley	104.0	0.0	Missouri Kansas City	95.0	9.0
UTSA	99.8	0.0	UAB	100.1	-0.3
Villanova	113.3	0.0	Providence	106.7	6.6
Virginia	123.3	0.0	North Carolina St.	112.9	10.4
Washington	105.5	0.0	USC	105.7	-0.2
Weber St.	98.5	0.0	Portland St.	94.7	3.8
Wichita St.	104.8	0.0	East Carolina	93.7	11.1
Xavier	107.2	0.0	Creighton	110.0	-2.8

 

Conference Tournaments Update

American Athletic Conference
Site: Fedex Forum, Memphis, TN
First Round–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
8	South Florida (19-12)	9	Connecticut (15-16)
5	Memphis (19-12)	12	Tulane (4-26)
7	Tulsa (18-13)	10	SMU (14-16)
6	Wichita St. (17-13)	11	East Carolina (10-20)

 

 

Atlantic 10 Conference
Site: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY
First Round–Wednesday, March 13
George Washington	68	Massachusetts	64 ot
Richmond	52	Fordham	50

Second Round–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
8	Rhode Island (16-14)	9	La Salle (10-20)
5	George Mason (17-14)	12	George Washington (9-23)
7	Duquesne (19-12)	10	Saint Joseph’s (13-18)
6	Saint Louis (19-12)	11	Richmond (13-19)

 

 

Atlantic Coast Conference
Site: Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC
Second Round–Wednesday, March 13
North Carolina St.	59	Clemson	58
Virginia Tech	71	Miami (Fla)	56
Louisville	75	Notre Dame	53
Syracuse	73	Pittsburgh	59

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
1	Virginia (28-2)	8	North Carolina St. (22-10)
4	Florida St. (25-6)	5	Virginia Tech (24-7)
2	North Carolina (26-5)	7	Louisville (20-12)
3	Duke (26-5)	6	Syracuse (20-12)

 

 

Big 12 Conference
Site: Sprint Center, Kansas City, MO
First Round–Wednesday, March 13
TCU	73	Oklahoma St.	70
West Virginia	72	Oklahoma	71

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
1	Kansas St. (24-7)	8	TCU (20-12)
4	Baylor (19-12)	5	Iowa St. (20-11)
2	Texas Tech (26-5)	10	West Virginia (13-19)
3	Kansas (23-8)	6	Texas (16-15)

 

 

Big East Conference
Site: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
First Round–Wednesday, March 13
Providence	80	Butler	57
St. John’s	82	DePaul	74

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
1	Villanova (22-9)	8	Providence (18-14)
4	Xavier (16-14)	5	Creighton (18-13)
2	Marquette (23-8)	7	St. John’s (21-11)
3	Seton Hall (18-12)	6	Georgetown (19-12)

 

Big Sky Conference
Site: Century Link Arena, Boise, ID
First Round–Wednesday, March 13
Sacramento St.	72	Northern Arizona	60
Southern Utah	94	Idaho St.	80
Montana St.	75	Idaho	71

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
1	Montana (23-8)	9	Sacramento St. (15-15)
4	Weber St. (17-14)	5	Portland St. (16-15)
2	Northern Colorado (21-10)	7	Southern Utah (15-15)
3	Eastern Washington (14-17)	6	Montana St. (15-16)

 

 

Big Ten Conference
Site: United Center, Chicago, IL
First Round–Wednesday, March 13
Nebraska	68	Rutgers	61
Illinois	74	Northwestern	69 ot

Second Round–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
8	Ohio St. (18-13)	9	Indiana (17-14)
5	Maryland (22-9)	13	Nebraska (17-15)
7	Minnesota (19-12)	10	Penn St. (14-17)
6	Iowa (21-10)	11	Illinois (12-20)

 

 

Big West Conference
Site: Honda Center, Anaheim, CA
Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
1	UC Irvine (27-5)	8	Cal St. Riverside (10-22)
4	Hawaii (18-12)	5	Long Beach St. (14-18)
3	Cal St. Fullerton (14-16)	6	UC Davis (11-19)
2	UC Santa Barbara (21-9)	7	Cal St. Northridge (13-19)

 

 

Conference USA
Site: Ford Center, Frisco, TX
First Round–Wednesday, March 13
Louisiana Tech	57	Florida Atlantic	56
UAB	70	Middle Tennessee	61
North Texas	71	Florida Int’l.	57
Marshall	82	Rice	65

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
1	Old Dominion (23-8)	8	Louisiana Tech (20-12)
4	UTSA (17-14)	5	UAB (19-13)
2	Western Kentucky (18-13)	10	North Texas (21-11)
3	Southern Miss. (19-11)	6	Marshall (19-13)

 

Mid-American Conference (MACtion)

Site: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
1	Buffalo (28-3)	8/9	Akron/Miami (O)
4	Kent St. (22-9)	5	Central Michigan (22-10)
2	Toledo (25-6)	7	Northern Illinois (16-16)
3	Bowling Green (20-11)	11	Ball St. (16-16)

 

 

Mideastern Athletic Conference
Site: Scope Arena, Norfolk, VA
Quarterfinals–Wednesday, March 13
North Carolina A&T	82	Coppin St.	79 ot
Norfolk St.	78	South Carolina St.	73

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14

3

North Carolina Central (15-15)

11

Delaware St. (6-24)

4

Howard (16-15)

5

Bethune-Cookman (14-16)

 

 

Mountain West Conference
Site: Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV
First Round–Wednesday, March 13
Boise St.	66	Colorado St.	57
New Mexico	78	Wyoming	68
Air Force	87	San Jose St.	56

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
1	Nevada (28-3)	9	Boise St. (13-19)
4	San Diego St. (19-11)	5	UNLV (17-13)
2	Utah St. (25-6)	7	New Mexico (14-17)
3	Fresno St. (21-8)	6	Air Force (14-17)

 

 

Pac-12 Conference
Site: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
First Round–Wednesday, March 13
USC	78	Arizona	65
Colorado	56	California	51
UCLA	79	Stanford	72
Oregon	84	Washington St.	51

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
1	Washington (24-7)	8	USC (16-16)
4	Oregon St. (18-12)	5	Colorado (20-11)
2	Arizona St. (21-9)	7	UCLA (17-15)
3	Utah (17-13)	6	Oregon (20-12)

 

 

Patriot League
All games at home floor of higher seeds
Championship Game–Wednesday, March 13
Colgate	94	Bucknell	80

Champion: Colgate (24-10)

 

 

Southland Conference
Site: Leonard E. Merrell Center, Katy, TX
First Round–Wednesday, March 13
Lamar	81	Houston Baptist	79
Central Arkansas	73	Texas A&M CC	53

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
4	New Orleans (17-12)	5	Lamar (20-12)
3	Southeastern Louisiana (16-15)	7	Central Arkansas (14-18)

 

 

Southeastern Conference
Site: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN
First Round–Wednesday, March 13
Missouri	71	Georgia	61
Texas A&M	69	Vanderbilt	52

Second Round–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
8	Florida (17-14)	9	Arkansas (17-14)
5	Auburn (22-9)	12	Missouri (15-16)
7	Ole Miss (20-11)	10	Alabama (17-14)
6	Mississippi St. (22-9)	11	Texas A&M (14-17)

 

Sun Belt Conference

Site:  Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, LA

Second Round–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
6	Coastal Carolina (15-15)	7	Louisiana Monroe (17-14)
5	Louisiana (19-12)	8	South Alabama (16-16)

 

 

Western Athletic Conference
Site: Orleans Arena, Las Vegas, NV
Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 14
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
1	New Mexico St. (27-4)	8	Chicago St. (3-28)
4	UT Rio Grande Valley (18-15)	5	Cal St. Bakersfield (16-14)
3	Grand Canyon (18-12)	6	Seattle (18-13)
2	Utah Valley (23-8)	7	Missouri Kansas City (11-20)

 

 

Automatic Bids To The NCAA Tournament

Team	Conf	W-L
Liberty	Atlantic Sun	28-6
Gardner-Webb	Big South	23-11
Murray St.	Ohio Valley	27-4
Bradley	Missouri Valley	20-14
Wofford	Southern	29-4
Iona	Metro Atlantic	17-15
Fairleigh-Dickinson	Northeast	20-13
Northern Kentucky	Horizon	26-8
Northeastern	Colonial	23-10
Saint Mary’s	West Coast	22-11
North Dakota St.	Summit	18-15
Colgate	Patriot	24-10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For Monday, March 11, 2019

March 11, 2019

Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Gonzaga	Virginia	Kentucky	North Carolina
2	Duke	Michigan St.	Tennessee	LSU
3	Michigan	Texas Tech	Houston	Purdue
4	Florida St.	Wisconsin	Kansas	Kansas St.
5	Virginia Tech	Maryland	Mississippi St.	Nevada
6	Buffalo	Villanova	Marquette	Auburn
7	Wofford	Cincinnati	Louisville	Iowa St.
8	Baylor	VCU	Iowa	Ole Miss
9	Syracuse	Washington	Central Florida	Oklahoma
10	Minnesota	Seton Hall	Utah St.	TCU
11	Temple	Arizona St.	North Carolina St.	St. John’s
12	Ohio St./Clemson	Florida/Creighton	Murray St.	New Mexico St.
13	Liberty	Vermont	Hofstra	Old Dominion
14	UC-Irvine	Montana	Yale	Georgia St.
15	Bradley	Bucknell	Sam Houston St.	Wright St.
16	Omaha	Gardner-Webb	Norfolk St./St. Francis (PA)	Iona/Prairie View

 

 

 

Last 4 Bye	Temple	Arizona St.	North Carolina St.	St. John’s
Last 4 In	Ohio St.	Clemson	Florida	Creighton

 

 

First 4 Out	Indiana	Georgetown	Texas	Alabama
Next 4 Out	UNC Greensboro	Belmont	Nebraska	Saint Mary’s

 

 

Bids By Conference	Bids
ACC	9
Big Ten	8
Big 12	7
SEC	7
Big East	5
AAC	4
MWC	2
Pac-12	2
One-Bid Leagues	24