Sixth Pick Week Selections

Oct 23-25 Pick Week Selections

It was another dismal week for the analytics in college football last week as I went 2-6 for the week. The record for the season-to-date stands at 19-30. One major difference from the 2013 and 2014 seasons is the volume of turnovers in games the analytics flag as attractive games to play. Last week's Arkansas-Georgia game was a prime example. Arkansas has been, with the exception of last week, a pretty good at taking care of the ball all season. The game pitted two relatively even-matched teams against one another but the game was blown open by three Arkansas turnovers in the 2nd quarter that netted Georgia 21 points. Other than a very poor 2nd quarter, Arkansas outplayed the Bulldogs in the 1st, 3rd and 4th quarters. One could argue that Georgia went conservative after converting three turnovers into 21 points. Still, Arkansas' 29 first downs to Georgia's 18 first downs is very telling to me who the best team was in almost every category other than the scoreboard. Cest la vie, indeed!.

I debated all weekend whether to continue the football portion of the blog but encouragement from friends and interested by-standers has bought the blog another week of predictions. No doubt that many of them are using the selections as a fade, and I don't blame them!

This week the analytics flagged another eight games but it is suspicious is that only favorites were flagged. As favorites go there are three reasonably large numbers to cover. None of the potential underdog plays could arrive at a consensus among the 5-6 metrics the analytics rely on. Without further adieu, here is this week's list.

10/24 @South Florida +11 Cincinnati

10/25 Arizona -2.5 @Washington State

10/25 Memphis -23 @SMU

10/25 Boston College -12 @Wake Forest

10/25 @TCU -22.5 Texas Tech

10/25 Minnesota -6.5 @Illinois

10/25 Ohio State -13.5 @Penn State

10/25 Northern Illinois -19 Eastern Michigan

Year-To-Date ATS

19-30