PiRate Ratings Conference Tournament Schedules

All Times Eastern Standard

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America East Conference — Higher Seed Hosts

Semifinals (ESPN+)

#1 Vermont (21-10) vs. #5 Binghamton (13-17) 7 PM

#2 UMass Lowell (25-7) vs. #3 New Hampshire (15-14) 6 PM

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Atlantic 10 Conference — Brooklyn

1st Round (ESPN+)

#12 Richmond (14-17) vs. #13 Massachusetts (15-15) 11:30 AM

#10 Saint Joseph’s (14-16) vs. #15 Loyola (MD) (10-20) 2 PM

#11 La Salle (13-18) vs. #14 Rhode Island (9-21) 4:30 PM

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Atlantic Coast Conference — Greensboro, NC

1st Round (ACCN)

#12 Florida St. (9-22) vs. #13 Georgia Tech (14-17) 2PM

#10 Boston College (15-16) vs. #15 Louisville (4-27) 4:30 PM

#11 Virginia Tech (18-13) vs. #14 Notre Dame (11-20) 7 PM

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Big Sky Conference — Boise, ID

Semifinals

#4 Montana (17-13) vs. #9 Northern Arizona (11-22) 8:30 PM ESPNU

#2 Montana St. (23-9) vs. #3 Weber St. (18-14) 11 PM ESPN2

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Big West Conference — Henderson, NV (Las Vegas)

1st Round (ESPN+)

#8 Cal St. Bakersfield (10-21) vs. #9 Cal St. Northridge (7-24) 9 PM

#7 Long Beach St. (17-15) vs. #10 Cal Poly (7-24) 11:30 PM

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Colonial Athletic Association — Washington, D.C.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (CBSSN)

#2 Charleston (30-3) vs. #4 UNC Wilmington (24-9) 7 PM

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Horizon League — Indianapolis

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (ESPN)

#3 Cleveland St. (21-12) vs. #4 Northern Kentucky (21-12) 7 PM

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Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference — Atlantic City, NJ

1st Round (ESPN+)

#8 Mount St. Mary’s (12-19) vs. #9 Canisius (10-19) 5 PM

#7 Fairfield (13-17) vs. #10 Saint Peter’s (12-17) 7 PM

#6 Manhattan (12-17) vs. #11 Marist (10-19) 9 PM

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Northeast Conference — Higher Seed Hosts

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (ESPN2)

#1 Merrimack (17-16) vs. #2 Fairleigh Dickinson (19-14) 7 PM

Merrimack is not eligible for the NCAA Tournament

FDU has already won the league’s automatic bid

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Southland Conference — Lake Charles, LA

Semifinals

#1 Texas A&M-CC (21-10) vs. #8 McNeese St. (11-22) 6:30 PM ESPNU

#2 Northwestern St. (21-10) vs. #7 New Orleans (12-19) 9PM ESPN+

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Summit League — Sioux Falls, SD

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (ESPN2)

#1 Oral Roberts (29-4) vs. #3 North Dakota St. (16-16) 9 PM

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West Coast Conference — Las Vegas

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (ESPN)

#1 Saint Mary’s (26-6) vs. #2 Gonzaga (27-5) 9 PM

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Western Athletic Conference — Las Vegas

1st Round (ESPN+)

#8 Cal Baptist (16-15) vs. #9 Abilene Christian (13-16) 3 PM

#5 Grand Canyon (20-11) vs. #12 UT-Arlington (11-20) 5 PM

#7 Tarleton (16-15) vs. #10 UT-Rio Grande Valley (15-16) 9 PM

#6 Stephen F. Austin (19-12) vs. #11 Utah Tech (13-18) 11 PM

This tournament is seeded by KenPom Ratings rather than standings

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Still to Come Today: Updated Bracketology

PiRate Ratings College Basketball — Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Boston College	Louisville	5.7
Cal Baptist	Abilene Christian	1.3
Cal St. Bakersfield	Cal St. Northridge	2.6
Charleston	UNC Wilmington	8.3
Cleveland St.	Northern Kentucky	-0.9
Fairfield	Saint Peter’s	3.6
Florida St.	Georgia Tech	-1.8
Grand Canyon	UT-Arlington	8.1
La Salle	Rhode Island	0.4
Long Beach St.	Cal Poly	8.5
Manhattan	Marist	0.3
Merrimack	Fairleigh Dickinson	2.9
Montana	Northern Arizona	3.5
Montana St.	Weber St.	5.1
Mount St. Mary’s	Canisius	-1.3
Northwestern St.	New Orleans	9.2
Oral Roberts	North Dakota St.	10.7
Richmond	Massachusetts	1.2
Saint Joseph’s	Loyola (Chi)	2.5
Saint Mary’s	Gonzaga	-2.4
Stephen F. Austin	Utah Tech	2.6
Tarleton St.	UT Rio Grande Valley	5.9
Texas A&M-CC	McNeese St.	9.5
UMass Lowell	New Hampshire	11.9
Vermont	Binghamton	13.3
Virginia Tech	Notre Dame	7.6

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Coming Later Today: Conference Tournament Schedules & Updated Bracketology

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Alabama A&M	Mississippi Valley St.	9.3
Alabama St.	Arkansas Pine Bluff	3.6
Arkansas	Missouri	8.0
Baylor	TCU	4.9
Butler	DePaul	8.8
Campbell	Gardner Webb	-3.7
Charleston Southern	Longwood	-8.0
Davidson	Loyola (Chi.)	4.6
Dayton	Saint Joseph’s	14.9
Duquesne	VCU	1.4
East Carolina	Central Florida	-7.0
East Tennessee St.	W. Carolina	5.1
Elon	UNC Wilmington	-11.6
Florida	Texas A&M	6.8
Furman	The Citadel	12.0
Georgetown	Villanova	-7.6
Georgia	Auburn	-6.8
Georgia Tech	Miami (Fla.)	-5.4
High Point	UNC Asheville	1.3
Illinois Chicago	Belmont	-5.1
Illinois St.	Indiana St.	-5.4
Little Rock	Lindenwood	3.6
Massachusetts	Saint Louis	-2.4
Mercer	Wofford	1.4
Michigan	Penn St.	2.8
Missouri St.	Evansville	15.2
Murray St.	Bradley	-4.7
Nevada	Colorado St.	5.5
North Carolina	Wake Forest	10.4
North Carolina A&T	Charleston	-9.3
North Carolina St.	Duke	-2.2
Northwestern	Illinois	-1.0
Oklahoma	Iowa St.	2.6
Prairie View	Southern	0.6
Providence	Connecticut	-6.6
Radford	USC Upstate	9.2
Rhode Island	Fordham	2.0
Richmond	George Washington	8.9
Samford	VMI	12.2
South Florida	Temple	0.4
Southern Illinois	Drake	1.4
St. Bonaventure	George Mason	0.1
Stephen F. Austin	New Mexico St.	0.7
Texas A&M-CC	Incarnate Word	12.7
Texas Southern	Grambling	1.1
Tulane	Tulsa	12.4
UNC Greensboro	Chattanooga	1.1
Valparaiso	Northern Iowa	-4.1
Virginia Tech	Clemson	5.6
Winthrop	Presbyterian	6.6

PiRate Picks–November 3, 2022

This has been an upside down season for these picks in this weekly feature. In most years, we start out below .500 and then climb upward as the season continues. October and early November are usually our best weeks in most years. This year, we began as hot as can be with a 16-5 start against the spread. Since then, a steady decline has led us to try exotic options that we have not relied on in years. Last week, we incorporated a teaser parlay in our picks. It was a winner. 10 years ago, we had a successful season by relying on teasers. So, without further adieu, we try one 7-point teaser parlay and three 10-point teaser parlays. As always, please use these choices for entertainment purposes only. So, you should get a good laugh from these selections and thank your lucky stars (and intelligence) that you do like us and do not wager real money on the selections.

Selection #1: 2 team, 7-point Teaser (-130)

North Carolina – 1/2 vs. Virginia

Tulane – 1/2 vs. Tulsa

Here you can see us playing the numbers more than the teams. Lowering a spread from 7 1/2 to 1/2 gives us a free point, as the game cannot end in a tie, so 1/2 is merely a pick for an outright win.

Selection #2: 3 team, 10-point teaser (-120)

Duke + 1/2 vs. Boston College

TCU + 1/2 vs. Texas Tech

Kentucky + 8 1/2 vs. Missouri

Again, the point numbers are more important than the games. We’d prefer to move down to – 1/2 instead of + 1/2, but we expect both Duke and TCU to win, but using a Money Line would not give us good odds. As for Kentucky, moving them from a small favorite to an underdog of more than a touchdown looks promising, even though Missouri looked much better beating South Carolina while Kentucky was being demolished against Tennessee.

Selection #3: 3 team, 10-point teaser (-120)

Virginia Tech + 7 1/2 vs. Georgia Tech

Middle Tennessee + 7 1/2 vs. Louisiana Tech

Mississippi State – 2 1/2 vs. Auburn

The first two games in this parlay are obvious numbers’ plays allowing us to move two short favorites to underdogs of more than a touchdown. The third leg of this parlay goes against the 2022 tide. All the teams playing under an interim head coach the week after the head coach was fired have played their best game of the year the next game. However, none of these teams were in the SEC. Carnell Williams will have a rude awakening going up against Mike Leach. Our guess is the Bulldogs will win this game by 10-14 points, so moving the number to less than a field goal looks good to us.

Selection #4: 3 team, 10-point teaser (-120)

South Carolina + 3 1/2 vs. Vanderbilt

UCLA – 1/2 vs. Arizona St.

Tennessee + 18 1/2 vs. Georgia

This is the more variable parlay. South Carolina failed miserably against Missouri last week after Missouri barely held on to beat Vanderbilt. The Commodores also got an extra week to prepare for this game, so the spread is only 6 1/2 points. USC must win this game to have a good shot at bowl eligibility, while Vanderbilt has not won an SEC game since before Covid. We’ll go with the Gamecocks getting more than a field goal. UCLA moving to 1/2 point is our favorite teaser number. As for the last game in this parlay, Georgia figures to have about a 55-60% chance on winning this game, but if this game becomes a blowout of more than two touchdowns, we would tend to believe the winning team would be the team that earned the top-ranking in the first College Football Playoff Poll.

PiRate Ratings College Basketball Spreads

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Home	Visitors	Spread
South Carolina	Auburn	-9.6
Baylor	Oklahoma	12.2
LSU	Kentucky	2.0
Kansas St.	Texas	-4.8
Wake Forest	Florida St.	-0.3
Virginia Tech	North Carolina St.	12.7
Georgia	Texas A&M	-7.0
Rutgers	Michigan	-6.2
Minnesota	Illinois	-6.2
Butler	Seton Hall	-6.3
Arkansas	Vanderbilt	7.0
Duke	Georgia Tech	17.7
Oklahoma St.	Kansas	-5.7
Colorado St.	Air Force	20.2
Marquette	Providence	-1.1
Memphis	Tulsa	14.8
Clemson	Virginia	6.0

PiRate Picks For September 1-6, 2021

Last week, we explained what our PiRate Picks are all about. We even gave you a sample Money Line Parlay that included Illinois beating Nebraska, UTEP beating New Mexico St., and UCLA beating Hawaii. This parlay had payout odds of +341, which meant if you wagered $100, and the teams all won, you would receive $441 in return. But, we made sure you understood that this was a sample and not official.

As of Monday afternoon, three people had notified us that they had played a little real currency on this parlay and were quite happy with their return.

How many times can we state this? Please do not bet real money on our just for fun selections! Okay, so one of you wagered $20, one of you wagered $50, and one of you wagered $100 on this parlay and won money. These same people could just as easily have lost this wager, and there is no guarantee that this week’s two selections have a snowball’s chance in Hades of winning.

We strongly urge you to look at these selections as mathematical entertainment and nothing else. If you are going to wager real money on sports, please do your research. Don’t rely on this site as your substitute for research. We use mathematical factors and not actual research to make these selections.

That said, we have two actual Money Line parlays this week, involving five games. If you did not read last week’s tutorial, or if you are a long-time follower of this site and need a refresher course, our expertise is the Money Line Parlay. The Money Line is a number, plus or minus. If the number is a minus, then you must wager this number of dollars against the book’s offering $100. So, a -145 means you the bettor must put up $145 to win $100 from the book. If you bet $145 on this game and won, you would receive $245 from the book ($100 + your investment money). If the number is positive, for every $100 you wager, the book offers the amount of the the positive numbers in dollars. So, a +170 means that if you wager $100 and win, the book will give you $270 ($170 + your investment).

When you wager on the money line, all that matters is that your selection wins. They can win by one point or 100 points; it doesn’t make a difference.

Obviously, if you want to wager on Alabama against Louisiana-Monroe, expect the Money Line to be about -100,000. You would have to wager $100,000 to win $100. If you wagered $100 on this parlay, when Alabama wins, you would receive one dime in profit, and the book would possibly not accept this one wager.

Obviously, it is much easier to bet a favorite to win, but you will receive less than even money odds. A -240 favorite equates to the team having a 70% chance of winning the game. If you believe that team has a better than 70% chance of winning, it might be worth your while to wager on it. If you win 75% of the time you wager on a -240 money line, you will turn a small profit.

The problem with wagering on favorites is that it is quite difficult to maintain the percentage needed to make a profit. Betting on 20 different teams at -240 and winning 13 of 20 means a loss of $380.

If you wager on a bunch of underdogs, there is also little chance that in the long run you will come out ahead. The answer to this is to bundle a group of favorites into a parlay that returns better than even money odds. For our purposes, we look for parlays of +120 and higher. At +150, we break even if the teams we wager on to win all win more than 40% of the time. At +200, if the parlay has a better than 33.3% chance on winning, we turn a profit.

It looks easy. Try it yourself without wagering. Look at the Money Line odds and make a parlay. There are free parlay calculators online to show you your odds. Try it with 10 parlays and see if you can win enough to make it work. You will find that the books know what they are doing. They build billion dollar mega-structures in the desert, because they know how to vacuum your money into their accounts.

Here are our two selections for Week 1 of the College Football Season. Remember, these are just for fun. We have a bottomless pretend bank account to repeatedly wager $100 on every selection.

Odds:	+125
Must Win	Opponent
Central Florida	Boise St.
Duke	Charlotte
Odds:	+265.98
Must Win	Opponent
North Carolina	Virginia Tech
Kansas St.	Stanford
Purdue	Oregon St.

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For January 24 , 2020

Date	1/24/2020
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Baylor	Gonzaga	San Diego St.	Kansas
2	Florida St.	Duke	Michigan St.	Seton Hall
3	West Virginia	Louisville	Oregon	Dayton
4	Villanova	Butler	Maryland	Iowa
5	Kentucky	Arizona	Auburn	Colorado
6	Creighton	Penn St.	Wisconsin	Marquette
7	LSU	Rutgers	Illinois	Wichita St.
8	Ohio St.	Stanford	Indiana	Arkansas
9	Houston	Michigan	USC	Florida
10	Memphis	Texas Tech	BYU	Saint Mary’s
11	Oklahoma	North Carolina St.	East Tennessee St.	Virginia Tech	VCU
12	Liberty	Akron	North Texas	Minnesota	DePaul
13	Stephen F. Austin	New Mexico St.	Vermont	Harvard
14	Loyola (Chi.)	Colgate	William & Mary	Wright St.
15	Little Rock	UC-Irvine	Murray St.	South Dakota St.
16	Montana	Winthrop	Monmouth	Norfolk St.	Long Island	Prairie View

 

First Four Out
Georgetown	Richmond	Purdue	Xavier

 

Next Four Out
Tennessee	Alabama	Rhode Island	Northern Iowa

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings Picks For August 29-September 2, 2019

Last week, the PiRate Ratings did not make any selections on the two FBS games on the schedule, but our experimental Davey19 system made its first ever pick, and it chose a good one.  The computer program chose Hawaii at +11 against Arizona, and UH not only covered the spread, they won the game outright.

So, entering official week 1 of the college season, the PiRate Ratings stay at $0, while the Davey19 program sits at +$100.

With no NFL games for another weekend, we will jump into the water and stay in the shallow end of the betting pool this week with a minimum of plays.

PiRate Ratings Picks

#1: Money Line Parlay @ +189

SMU over Arkansas St.

South Carolina over North Carolina

 

#2: Money Line Parlay @ +146

Utah over BYU

Purdue over Nevada

Colorado over Colorado St.

Rutgers over UMass

 

#3: Money Line Parlay @ +182

Pittsburgh over Virginia

N. Carolina St. over East Carolina

Missouri over Wyoming

 

#4: 13-Point Teaser @ 10-14

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Rutgers	U Mass	28.5	U Mass
Colorado	Colorado St.	0.5	Colorado
Virginia Tech	Boston College	18.5	Boston College
Florida St.	Boise St.	17.5	Boise St.

 

Davey19 Selections

Straight Selections Against the Spread

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Virginia Tech	Boston College	5.5	Boston College
Florida St.	Boise St.	5.5	Boise St.
Southern Cal	Fresno St.	13.5	Fresno St.

 

10-Point Teaser @10-12

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Army	Rice	11.5	Army
Illinois	Akron	28	Akron
N. Carolina St.	East Carolina	6.5	North Carolina St.

 

10-Point Teaser @10-12

Favorite	Underdog	Spread	Pick
Alabama	Duke	44.5	Duke
Michigan	Middle Tennessee	45	Middle Tennessee
Georgia	Vanderbilt	30.5	Vanderbilt

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings NCAA Tournament For Friday, March 29, 2019

Home	Rating	HCA	Visitor	Rating	Spread
Michigan St.	121.0	0.0	LSU	114.5	6.5
North Carolina	121.4	0.0	Auburn	115.9	5.5
Duke	122.4	0.0	Virginia Tech	115.4	7.0
Kentucky	118.3	0.0	Houston	116.0	2.3

 

Tonight’s Schedule

Team	Team	TIME (EDT)	TV	LOCATION
LSU	Michigan St.	7:09 PM	CBS	Washington, D.C.
Auburn	N. Carolina	7:29 PM	TBS	Kansas City
Va. Tech	Duke	9:39 PM	CBS	Washington, D.C.
Houston	Kentucky	9:59 PM	TBS	Kansas City

2017 Atlantic Coast Conference Preview

The folks around the Atlantic Coast Conference have a decent case to support in the statement that their league, and not the Southeastern Conference, is the supreme college football conference in the land.  Clemson bested Alabama in the National Championship Game.  The ACC went 4-1 against the SEC in bowl games, and the ACC won 10 of 14 games overall against the SEC in 2016.  Five ACC teams finished the season in the top 25.

The 2017 season begins with the SEC just a tiny hair above the ACC in PiRate Ratings averages.  Early games between Alabama and Florida State, Tennessee and Georgia Tech, and Clemson and Auburn will go a long way in determining conference supremacy, and season ending games between Florida and Florida St. Georgia and Georgia Tech, and Louisville and Kentucky will seal the deal if one conference dominates the other.

This league has a little more depth this year.  It may be tougher for any team to go undefeated, as the team with the best quarterback, Louisville with Lamar Jackson, has an average at best defense.  Florida State has the next best quarterback in Deondre Francois, and the Seminoles have a nice stable of running backs.  However, there are some questions at wide receiver, and there could be depth issues in the offensive line.  Clemson still has the overall best combination of offensive and defensive lines, but the defending national champions must replace Deshaun Watson, Wayne Gallman, and Mike Williams on the attack side.  Figure CU to average about 10-14 fewer points per game.

While the top three in the Atlantic Division have exceptional talent but with some questions, the other four teams could all be better than last year, especially North Carolina State and Syracuse.

The Coastal Division race should be quite interesting.  Miami, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, and even Duke could challenge for the divisional flag.  The league could be just balanced enough so that no ACC team earns a Playoff bid.

Here is how the ACC Media voted in the preseason:

ACC Atlantic Division
#	Team	1st Pl.	Total	Champ.
1	Florida St.	121	1,108	118
2	Clemson	37	1,007	35
3	Louisville	9	843	7
4	North Carolina St.	0	658	0
5	Wake Forest	0	415	0
6	Syracuse	0	362	0
7	Boston College	0	283	0
ACC Coastal Division
#	Team	1st Pl.	Total	Champ.
1	Miami (Fla)	103	1,065	3
2	Virginia Tech	40	932	3
3	Georgia Tech	9	708	0
4	Pittsburgh	7	673	0
5	North Carolina	4	606	0
6	Duke	4	473	1
7	Virginia	0	219	0

The PiRate, Mean, and Bias Ratings still show Clemson to be slightly better than Florida State in the initial ratings of the season.  However, the margin is razor thin, and we expect a lot of shuffling early in the season due to heavy schedules.

Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Clemson	128.4	124.6	127.5	126.8
Florida St.	126.8	124.8	126.1	125.9
Louisville	116.6	115.7	117.0	116.4
N. Carolina St.	115.2	114.5	114.9	114.9
Syracuse	110.3	108.1	109.3	109.2
Wake Forest	102.7	102.2	102.0	102.3
Boston College	102.0	102.9	101.5	102.1
Coastal Division
Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Miami	118.6	116.2	117.7	117.5
Virginia Tech	116.6	116.2	117.0	116.6
Georgia Tech	113.2	110.5	111.3	111.7
N. Carolina	109.9	108.4	108.3	108.9
Pittsburgh	108.8	108.8	108.0	108.5
Duke	106.3	105.1	104.9	105.4
Virginia	98.7	98.8	99.7	99.1
ACC Averages	112.4	111.2	111.8	111.8

Here are our unscientific won-loss predictions and bowl projections for the league.

Atlantic Coast Conference Projected Standings
Atlantic Division
Team	Conference	Overall	Bowl
Florida St.	7-1	11-2	Peach
Clemson	6-2	10-2	Orange
Louisville	6-2	9-3	Belk
North Carolina St.	5-3	8-4	Sun
Syracuse	3-5	6-6	[Heart of Dallas]
Boston College	1-7	4-8
Wake Forest	1-7	3-9
Coastal Division
Team	Conference	Overall	Bowl
Miami (Fla)	6-2	10-3	Music City
Virginia Tech	6-2	10-2	Camping World
Georgia Tech	5-3	8-4	Independence
North Carolina	3-5	7-5	Military
Duke	3-5	6-6	Quick Lane
Pittsburgh	3-5	5-7
Virginia	1-7	3-9
Florida St. to win the ACC Championship Game
Notre Dame predicted to take ACC’s bid to the Pinstripe Bowl
Syracuse’s bid to Heart of Dallas Bowl is an at-large bid

Notre Dame qualifies for any ACC Bowl other than the Orange Bowl, if the Irish are within one win of the next available ACC team.  For instance, if Notre Dame goes 8-4, the Irish can leapfrog any 9-3 ACC team in an ACC Bowl.

Notre Dame can also qualify for the Orange Bowl as the replacement for the Big Ten or SEC team.

Later today: We will preview the Southeastern Conference in the afternoon (Eastern Time).  Can a West Division team dethrone Alabama?  Can any team from the West challenge for the SEC Championship?  Can more than one SEC team make this season’s playoffs?  Check back later today.

Coming Tomorrow: It is game week!  There are only five total games involving FBS teams, but it is real, and it counts.  So, we will debut our 2017 PiRate College Football Forecast.  We will show you all 130 teams ranked predictively and retrodictively, give you the spreads for the five games, and give you all of our bowl projections.

There will be no Money Line Parlay suggestions this week with so few games, but when we debut this feature next week, look for it on Friday morning.