2017 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em Week 5

I had a good week last week as the coalition continued its quest to correctly pick NFL games against the spread. Unfortunately, Adam was better for the fourth straight week. He took three of our five disputed games... and even that took a ridiculous finish for me to salvage a second one. But more on that in a bit.

Through 63 games and four weeks I currently sit in third place in the coalition thanks to my dad having back to back awful weeks. Adam sits in first place a game ahead of Geoffrey Clark, who has gone hero eight times and gotten seven of them right. You can view a full breakdown of our picks in relation to each other here. You can also check our full standings page here, just bear in mind that Adam has two more correct games than what ESPN says he does based on his picks here.

This week, we're onto the byes so there are fewer points up for grabs. Adam and I disagree on six games of the fourteen on the docket. Let's get to it!

2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 6

We're officially playing games in October now, which means we're well into the college football season. Conference play is also largely underway at this point, which means there's not much left for me to do in this one.

However, there are still the independent teams who need to play games, and we have the occasional interconference game that takes place. We also still have Nick Saban Is A Coward Week and Rivalry Week on the docket, where some major changes will take place.

But for now, I'm going to look at the schedule for this upcoming week and make whatever adjustments to each school's NCSS score, then average them out by conference. I will highlight all non-conference games with each league's score below.

If you need a refresher on how this metric works, it is explained in my season introductory post.

COAS Hands Out 2017 MLB Awards

We interrupt the mostly football-related postings on Confessions of a Sportscaster to bring you another annual feature that I like to do, because running through stats is fun, especially when you don't have to do all the compiling.

It was a pretty busy summer for baseball here on COAS, as I spent the spring and summer working on a much more massive Tournament of Champions than I'd attempted in years prior, but it all worked out in the end when after 1,422 games the 2016 Chicago Cubs took home the Championship of Champions. I'm also hoping that the 2017 Cubs can pull off a repeat and give me a bonus title on top of the one from last year.

But before they can do that, and before any playoff games taint the sample, I want to go through the 2017 Major League Baseball season and, as I have done in years past, make my votes for the four most major awards in each league.

2017 NCAA Playoff Points Rankings: Week 5

Five weeks are in the books, and with another week completed it's time to take a look at the results.

Last week was the final week of mass non-conference games as pretty much all of the Power Five leagues have begun conference play in earnest. I'll have more about the non-conference schedules tomorrow.

Below I will rank the average scores in terms of wins and the various Playoff Points numbers for each conference through five weeks. If you need a refresher of how these metrics work, you can view that in my season introductory post.

2017 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em Week 4

The President can't stop the coalition. Our quest to pick NFL games against the spread continues into Week 4!

In a week dominated by the headlines of players kneeling or staying in the locker room, a lot of us found ourselves struggling. Adam nonetheless took three of our five disputed games to increase his lead, but we both had pretty bad weeks. Not as bad as my dad, but pretty bad. Meanwhile, Geoff went 3-3 on hero picks this week to move into a first place tie with Adam. You can view the breakdown of how we've picked in relation to each other here, which is important because on our ESPN standings page, Adam has two fewer correct picks than he should because picks listed on Confessions of a Sportscaster take priority over what gets input on ESPN.

As we move onto Week 4 with hopefully fewer hissy fits being thrown by people about players exercising their First Amendment rights in trying to bring attention to a major social issue, Adam and I disagree on just five games out of the 16 being played once again. Without further grandstanding on my part, let's get to the picks!

2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 5

We're onto Week 5 and the final week of September, which means conference play is beginning in earnest.

That makes my weekly posts regarding NCSS rankings so much easier, because there are only a few games every week that I need to mention, because only a few are non-conference and thus apply to what's going on.

If you need a refresher on how this metric works, you can view that in my season introduction post. Below is each conference ranked by average NCSS score, with a mention of which games affected the ranking.

2017 NCAA Playoff Points Rankings: Week 4

I'm running a couple hours behind this week, but this time it's because we had a game get pushed back to Sunday. But now we are all caught up and ready to take a look at what happened over the weekend in college football.

Last week we started to see a little separation in terms of Playoff Points, and that separation will only grow more profound as we continue to add data points to the spreadsheet, which you can view here, and I'll link to again after going through the conference rankings. If you need a refresher on how these scores work, you can view those in my season introductory post.