All-Haiku Bowl Results, 2015 •• Some Blog Site

All-Haiku Bowl Results, 2015

Jan

2016

Okay, okay, it is 2016 at this point, but the results are headlines as 2015 because they match with the 2015 predictions made in 2015 for the 2015 season. Also, the results are not all-haiku, just the predictions were. A more accurate title would be “Results for the All-Haiku Predictions made in 2015”.

Before the bowl games commenced for this past college football season, I made some predictions. Here, for your reading enjoyment, is the tally of those predictions. Note that the results are not in haiku form, in contrast to the predictions.

Results

Here is the list (correct predictions in green, incorrect in red):

Arizona over New Mexico

Utah over BYU

App. St. over Ohio

SJSU over Georgia St.

Arkansas St. over La. Tech

WKU over USF

Utah St. over Akron

Temple over Toledo

NIU over BSU

BG over Georgia So.

WMU over MTSU

Cincinnati over SDSU

Connecticut over Marshall

Washington St. over Miami FL

Southern Miss over Washington

Duke over Indiana

VT over Tulsa

UCLA over Nebraska

Navy over Pitt

CMU over Minnesota

Air Force over Cal

UNC over Baylor

Nevada over Colorado St.

LSU over Texas Tech

Memphis over Auburn

Mississippi St. over NC St.

Texas AM over Louisville

Wisconsin over USC

Houston over FSU

Clemson over Oklahoma

Michigan St. over Alabama

Northwestern over Tennessee

Michigan over Florida

ND over Ohio St.

Iowa over Stanford

Ok. St. over Mississippi

Georgia over Penn St.

Arkansas over KSU

TCU over Oregon

WVU over Arizona St.

Clemson over Michigan State

And here are the results of the various forecasting methodologies (see the first year for description of the methodologies) (also, use the word methodologies if you want to sound important; methods would work just as well and is shorter) :

Some Blog Site picks were 21-19 (similar to last year)
CBS120 picks were 24-16
HTW was 24-16 for the official Home Team Wins (HTW)
HTW was 20-20 for the Geographical Home Team (GHT)
Isaacson-Tarbell Postulate (ITP) was 24-20 if using HTW
ITP was 20-20 if using GHT

I won’t analyze the results as much as I did last year, mainly because I had more time and more sleep last year. But it was a decent year for all predictors – every method was at or over 50%. I just need to figure how to better predict outcomes. Especially against the spread.

Because of the disparities between institutions and between conferences, it is tougher to predict bowl games than NFL games. But one thing seems to be pretty consistent: if you don’t want to do a lot of research, just pick the home team.

Thoughts on the season’s results

Last year, we could have used an 8-team playoff. This year, I’m happy with the 4 teams. If we’re going to stick with 4 teams, then the non-conference games during the season should be with a similar conference (e.g. Big 12 teams would play B1G or SEC teams). You don’t need 4 games against cupcakes. How about 2 cupcakes and 2 interconference games?

Conferences

Since the strength of the conference has something to do with the results, I thought I would tally each conference’s bowl game record for the 2015 (and the first bit of 2016) season.

AAC: 2-6
ACC: 4-6*
Big 10: 5-5
Big 12: 3-4
Independent: 0-2
MAC: 3-4
MW: 4-4
PAC12: 6-4
SEC: 9-2*
Sun Belt: 2-2
USA: 3-2

* additional win/loss due to playoff + championship game

Normally, I take this spot to write different sentences each claiming a different conference as the best because of some different statistic. But this year, no conference could beat the SEC in any stat – they won the most bowl games, they won the championship, and they tied for most teams sent to bowls. So, I must admit that the SEC is the uncontested best conference in NCAA DIV I football.

Next year: playoffs again! A chance for someone other than the SEC to win!

Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”

1 Kings 22:18