Below are picks and projections using the S&P+ projections, listed in full for all 130 FBS teams here. See the bottom of the post for more detail about these.
Predicting the winner of every FBS game in 2018’s Week 0
College football is back! Basically!
The spread (listed in parentheses) is shown next to S&P+’s pick for each game. When S&P+ predicts a tie or a push (a tie with Vegas, basically), I list the pick on the side S&P+ would pick if teams could score in decimals.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK THIS WEEKEND. Okay, only sort of, but there are Division I teams competing with one another! And that means there are games to pick!
FBS vs. FBS
- Colorado State (-14) 40, Hawaii 21 (7:30 p.m. ET, CBSSN)
- Wyoming 25, New Mexico State (+4) 21 (10 p.m. ET, ESPN2)
Colorado State still has quite a bit of talent on offense, while Hawaii was hit hard by attrition. Assume the Rams cruise.
MWC rival Wyoming, however, could have its hands full in Las Cruces in a game defined by defense — NMSU’s was solid and returns almost everyone, and Wyoming’s was excellent and returns quite a bit. The offenses ... less so.
FBS vs. FCS
- UMass 37, Duquesne 18 (5:30 p.m. ET, NESN+)
- Rice 35, Prairie View A&M 20 (7 p.m. ET, ESPN+)
This is a big year for Mark Whipple and UMass, who, if they win the games they are favored in, could reach bowl eligibility for the first time since making the leap to FBS. That wouldn’t guarantee a bowl bid, but first things first.
FCS vs. FCS
S&P+ hasn’t been designed to collect full data on FCS teams, but No. 6 Jacksonville State vs. No. 14 North Carolina A&T (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) is probably Saturday’s best game.
Each year, I post weekly S&P+ picks as a way of affirming the ratings’ validity. I use my S&P+ system as a complement to most of my analysis, and the picks are a way of showing it generally knows what it’s talking about.
S&P+ tends to hit between 50 (meh) and 54 percent (great) against the spread from year to year. It isn’t always the single best performer, but it holds its own.
And beyond picks, it goes deeper than any other set of college football analytics on the market. You can go into granular detail regarding team strengths and weaknesses in a way that no other set of ratings allows. (See the annual team statistical profiles, which will be unveiled for 2018 in a couple of weeks, as proof.)
See More:
