The Andrew Extravaganza

We'll begin by reviewing picks for week 8. Below you will find results for the best bets of week 8.

Confidence	Away	Home	Point Spread	Pick	Result
	Florida	Kentucky	Florida by 6.5	Kentucky	Loss
	Wake Forest	Navy	Wake Forest by 3	Navy	Loss
	Michigan	Illinois	Michigan by 2.5	Illinois	Loss
	Miami of Ohio	Temple	Miami of Ohio by 5.5	Temple	Win
	Tennessee	Alabama	Pick'em	Alabama	Win
	Idaho	New Mexico State	New Mexico State by 9.5	New Mexico	Win
	Vanderbilt	South Carolina	South Carolina by 13	South Carolina	Loss
	Nevada	Utah State	Nevada by 7	Utah State	Win
	Kansas State	Oklahoma State	Oklahoma State by 3	Kansas State	Win
	Tulsa	UCF	UCF by 3	Tulsa	Loss
	Utah	TCU	TCU by 3.5	Utah	Win
	Texas Tech	Missouri	Missouri by 3.5	Texas Tech	Loss
	Auburn	LSU	LSU by 10.5	LSU	Loss
	San Jose State	Fresno State	Fresno State by 12.5	Fresno State	Win
	Northern Illinois	Wisconsin	Wisconsin by 23	N. Illinois	Loss
	Army	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech by 24	Army	Push
	Texas	Baylor	Texas by 25	Baylor	Win
	Boise State	Louisiana Tech	Boise State by 16.5	Louisiana Tech	Win
	Houston	UAB	Houston by 13	UAB	Loss
	Penn State	Indiana	Penn State by 7.5	Indiana	Win

To summarize: I'm very disappointed with the best bet results; their performance was essentially equal to that of the system as a whole. A couple of the four star selections (Kentucky & Illinois) would not have been played on at all if I were really betting and if I were allowing human intervention in the system, but so it goes, the system takes its lumps and hopefully will bounce back in week 9. Here's the quick tabulation of best bet results for week 8:
4 Stars, 1-3-0
3 Stars, 4-2-0
2 Stars, 2-3-1
1 Star, 3-1-0
Totals, 10-9-1

Starting this week, I've reclassified the confidence levels slightly on the lower end. 2 Star selections would have gone 5-4-1 with the new 1 Star selections going 4-1-0.

As for the bigger picture, here's the table of results so far for every pick made by the system:

Week	Straight Up	SU%	Against the Spread	ATS%
9-22-07	33-15	68.8	27-20-1	57.4
9-29-07	37-16	69.8	23-29-1	44.2
10-06-07	35-19	64.8	28-24-2	53.8
10-13-07	41-14	74.5	30-24-0	55.6
10-20-07	33-20	62.3	26-24-3	52.0
Total	178-84	67.9	134-121-7	52.5

In my Week 9 Poll and Power Rankings entry I discussed the use of a new absolute power set of ratings. That system performed identically to the relative power rating system in week 8, though they did pick several games differently.


Moving on with new business, here are the best bets for week nine:

Confidence	Away	Home	Point Spread	Pick
	South Florida	Connecticut	South Florida by 4	Connecticut
	Ohio State	Penn State	Ohio State by 4	Penn State
	Clemson	Maryland	Clemson by 3.5	Maryland
	Houston	UTEP	Houston by 3.5	UTEP
	Boise State	Fresno State	Boise State by 3	Fresno State
	Central Michigan	Kent State	Central Michigan by 3	Kent State
	South Carolina	Tennessee	Tennessee by 3	South Carolina
	Baylor	Kansas State	Kansas State by 25	Baylor
	Boston College	Virginia Tech	Virginia Tech by 3	Boston College
	Pittsburgh	Louisville	Louisville by 10.5	Pittsburgh
	Miami of Ohio	Vanderbilt	Vanderbilt by 13.5	Miami of Ohio
	Colorado	Texas Tech	Texas Tech by 13.5	Colorado
	Idaho	Nevada	Nevada by 16	Idaho
	Air Force	New Mexico	New Mexico by 6	Air Force
	Ohio	Bowling Green	Bowling Green by 7.5	Bowling Green
	Florida International	Arkansas	Arkansas by 39.5	Florida International
	Middle Tennessee State	North Texas	Middle Tennessee by 13	Middle Tennessee
	Akron	Buffalo	Buffalo by 1	Buffalo
	Northwestern	Purdue	Purdue by 13	Northwestern
	Nebraska	Texas	Texas by 20.5	Nebraska
	New Mexico State	Hawaii	Hawaii by 27.5	New Mexico State

Normally at this point I provide a link to a complete listing of this week's picks. I'm not going to bother with that time wasting exercise anymore unless I see a comment demanding it. I don't expect that to happen, so for now you'll just have to take my word on overall system performance.