Some Blog Site

Okay, okay, it is 2018 at this point, but the results are headlines as 2017 because they match with the 2017 predictions made in 2016 for the 2017 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 2017”.

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):

Troy over N. Texas

WKU over Georgia St.

BSU over Oregon

Colorado St. over Marshall

Arkansas St. over MTSU

FAU over Akron

SMU over La. Tech

FIU over Temple

UAB over Ohio

CMU over Wyoming

USF over Texas Tech

SDSU over Army

Toledo over App. St.

Houston over Fresno St.

WVU over Utah

Duke over NIU

UCLA over KSU

FSU over Southern Miss

Iowa over BC

Purdue over Arizona

Texas over Missouri

Virginia over Navy

VT over Ok. St.

TCU over Stanford

Michigan St. over Washington St.

Wake Forest over Texas AM

NC St. over Arizona St.

Northwestern over Kentucky

New Mexico St. over Utah St.

USC over Ohio St.

Mississippi St. over Louisville

Iowa St. over Memphis

Penn St. over Washington

Miami FL over Wisconsin

Michigan over S. Carolina

Auburn over UCF

ND over LSU

Oklahoma over Georgia

Clemson over Alabama

Clemson over Oklahoma

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 19-21 (same as last year)
• CBS120 picks were 21-19
• I didn’t bother with Home Team stuff this year

I won’t analyze the results as much as I did last year, mainly because I had more time and more sleep last year. 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 whatever CBS Sports says.

Thoughts on the season’s results

This year, I wasn’t happy with the 4 teams the selection committee selected. Especially the selection of not-UCF. If we’re going to stick with 4 teams, then the little guys who do well should not be excluded, especially in favor of multiple teams from one of the bigger conferences.

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 2017 (and the first bit of 2018) season.

• AAC: 3-3
• ACC: 3-5
• Big 10: 7-1
• Big 12: 3-3
• Independent: 1-0
• MAC: 1-3
• MW: 3-2
• PAC12: 1-8
• SEC: 4-6*
• Sun Belt: 4-1
• USA: 4-3

* additional win/loss due to playoff + championship game

So the best conference was the Big Ten (they won 88% of their bowl games) and the worst was the Pac-12 (at 11%).

Or maybe the MAC was the worst conference because they sent the fewest teams to bowl games this year.

Perhaps you could say that the SEC was the best because they won the championship. Or maybe the Big Ten is the best because they won the most bowls (at 7).

Or perhaps you could say the AAC was the best because they had the real championship team.

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

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