Rating the 2018 Non-Conference Slate: Prologue

So, as per usual, my brother and I have recently completed the exercise of rating every Power 5 team’s conference schedule for the 2018 season. You can read a general overview of the process here, so I’ll cut straight to the chase.

We rated 73 different teams this year. Non-P5 teams that merited a rating higher than 0 were Defending National Champions Central Florida (0.25), Houston (0.25), South Florida (0.25), and Boise State (0.5). 26 of the 73 teams were rated as 0, 11 as 0.25, 10 as 0.5, just 3 as 0.75, and 23 got a 1.

Those 23 were: Alabama, Auburn, California-Los Angeles, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Louisiana State, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Pennsylvania State, Southern California, Stanford, Texas, Texas Christian, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The average rating for all teams was 0.45.

Here are the average ratings for each conference:

  1. Big 12 (0.525)
  2. Pac-12 (0.5)
  3. SEC (0.482)
  4. ACC (0.464)
  5. Big Ten (0.446)

That’s a pretty big shuffle, but a couple of Big 12 teams got promoted to 1’s this year, which likely explains it. At any rate, stay tuned for the actual ratings!

Testing the Facebook Page

I wanted to be able to share directly to my Facebook profile feed, but apparently I won’t be able to as of August 1st. So what I’ve done is create the page you’re probably reading right now and then invited friends I figured would be interested (that is to say, you). I won’t be offended if you decline to subscribe, but I figured this was worth a shot until I figure something out.

Do not adjust your monitor

Hey folks,

You may notice that things are looking a bit different around here. We’re currently refreshing and moving things off Blogger, mainly because the Blogger editor can’t handle bulleted lists very well and it was driving me nuts.

All the content should still be here (I did a cursory check), but pardon our dust as visually things begin to look just a bit different around here.

We’ll get to the out-of-conference previews soon. Amazingly, the season is just around the corner.

For posterity, the old Blogger site is still available at http://asimsports.blogspot.com.

Bowl Games 2017: Epilogue

Since I’m about to do the previews soon, I should probably wrap up last season’s bowl coverage.

The page has been updated with the grim news: this was my poorest year, by far, since 2005, which was the last time I got less than 50% right. Fortunately, I’ve been doing this for so long (since 1999!) that it didn’t put much of a dent in my overall percentage, where I’ve gotten 54.5% correct over all those years.

We’ll crank up the 2018 out-of-conference previews soon!

World Cup 2018 Readable TV Schedule

Below is the full TV schedule for the 2018 World Cup. All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4). Will be updated as warranted. A superscript “a” indicates that a team has clinched advancement, but not in a particular place. A superscript “e” indicates that a team has been eliminated A superscript “t” indicates a result after extra time, with penalty shootout results following in parenthesis.

Match Group Date Time Team A vs. Team B Location Network
1 A 6-14-2018 11:00 AM Russia 5-0 Saudi Arabia Moscow-Luzniki FOX
2 A 6-15-2018 08:00 AM Egypt 0-1 Uruguay Yekaterinburg FS1
4 B 6-15-2018 11:00 AM Morocco 0-1 Iran St. Petersburg FOX
3 B 6-15-2018 02:00 PM Portugal 3-3 Spain Sochi FOX
5 C 6-16-2018 06:00 AM France 2-1 Australia Kazan FS1
7 D 6-16-2018 09:00 AM Argentina 1-1 Iceland Moscow-Otkritie FOX
6 C 6-16-2018 12:00 PM Peru 0-1 Denmark Saransk FS1
8 D 6-16-2018 02:00 PM Croatia 2-0 Nigeria Kaliningrad FS1
10 E 6-17-2018 08:00 AM Costa Rica 0-1 Serbia Samara FOX
11 F 6-17-2018 11:00 AM Germany 0-1 Mexico Moscow-Luzniki FS1
9 E 6-17-2018 02:00 PM Brazil 1-1 Switzerland Rostov-on-Don FS1
12 F 6-18-2018 08:00 AM Sweden 1-0 Korea Republic Nizhny Novgorod FS1
13 G 6-18-2018 11:00 AM Belgium 3-0 Panama Sochi FS1
14 G 6-18-2018 02:00 PM Tunisia 1-2 England Volgograd FS1
16 H 6-19-2018 08:00 AM Colombia 1-2 Japan Saransk FS1
15 H 6-19-2018 11:00 AM Poland 1-2 Senegal Moscow-Otkritie FOX
17 A 6-19-2018 02:00 PM Russia 3-1 Egypt St. Petersburg FOX
19 B 6-20-2018 08:00 AM Portugal 1-0 Morocco Moscow-Luzniki FS1
18 A 6-20-2018 11:00 AM Uruguay 1-0 Saudi Arabia Rostov-on-Don FOX
20 B 6-20-2018 02:00 PM Iran 0-1 Spain Kazan FOX
22 C 6-21-2018 08:00 AM Denmark 1-1 Australia Samara FS1
21 C 6-21-2018 11:00 AM France 1-0 Peru Yekaterinburg FOX
23 D 6-21-2018 02:00 PM Argentina 0-3 Croatia Nizhny Novgorod FOX
25 E 6-22-2018 08:00 AM Brazil 2-0 Costa Rica St. Petersburg FS1
24 D 6-22-2018 11:00 AM Nigeria 2-0 Iceland Volgograd FOX
26 E 6-22-2018 02:00 PM Serbia 1-2 Switzerland Kaliningrad FOX
29 G 6-23-2018 08:00 AM Belgium 5-2 Tunisia Moscow-Otkritie FOX
28 F 6-23-2018 11:00 AM Korea Republic 1-2 Mexico Rostov-on-Don FOX
27 F 6-23-2018 02:00 PM Germany 2-1 Sweden Sochi FOX
30 G 6-24-2018 08:00 AM England 6-1 Panama Nizhny Novgorod FS1
32 H 6-24-2018 11:00 AM Japan 2-2 Senegal Yekaterinburg FOX
31 H 6-24-2018 02:00 PM Poland 0-3 Colombia Kazan FOX
33 A 6-25-2018 10:00 AM Uruguaya 3-0 Russiaa Samara FOX
34 A 6-25-2018 10:00 AM Saudi Arabiae 2-1 Egypte Volgograd FS1
35 B 6-25-2018 02:00 PM Iran 1-1 Portugal Saransk FOX
36 B 6-25-2018 02:00 PM Spain 2-2 Moroccoe Kaliningrad FS1
37 C 6-26-2018 10:00 AM Denmark 0-0 Francea Moscow-Luzniki FOX
38 C 6-26-2018 10:00 AM Australia 0-2 Perue Sochi FS1
39 D 6-26-2018 02:00 PM Nigeria 1-2 Argentina St. Petersburg FOX
40 D 6-26-2018 02:00 PM Iceland 1-2 Croatiaa Rostov-on-Don FS1
43 F 6-27-2018 10:00 AM Korea Republic 2-0 Germany Kazan FS1
44 F 6-27-2018 10:00 AM Mexico 0-3 Sweden Yekaterinburg FOX
41 E 6-27-2018 02:00 PM Serbia 0-2 Brazil Moscow-Otkritie FOX
42 E 6-27-2018 02:00 PM Switzerland 2-2 Costa Ricae Nizhny Novgorod FS1
47 H 6-28-2018 10:00 AM Japan 0-1 Polande Volgograd FS1
48 H 6-28-2018 10:00 AM Senegal 0-1 Colombia Samara FOX
45 G 6-28-2018 02:00 PM Englanda 0-1 Belgiuma Kaliningrad FOX
46 G 6-28-2018 02:00 PM Panamae 1-2 Tunisiae Saransk FS1
50 R16 6-30-2018 10:00 AM France 4-3 Argentina Kazan FOX
49 R16 6-30-2018 02:00 PM Uruguay 2-1 Portugal Sochi FOX
51 R16 7-1-2018 10:00 AM Spain 1-1t
(3-4)
Russia Moscow-Luzniki FOX
52 R16 7-1-2018 02:00 PM Croatia 1-1t
(3-2)
Denmark Nizhny Novgorod FOX
53 R16 7-2-2018 10:00 AM Brazil 2-0 Mexico Samara FS1
54 R16 7-2-2018 02:00 PM Belgium 3-2 Japan Rostov-on-Don FOX
55 R16 7-3-2018 10:00 AM Sweden 1-0 Switzerland St. Petersburg FS1
56 R16 7-3-2018 02:00 PM Colombia 1-1t
(3-4)
England Moscow-Otkritie FOX
57 QF 7-6-2018 10:00 AM Uruguay 0-2 France Nizhny Novgorod FS1
58 QF 7-6-2018 02:00 PM Brazil 1-2 Belgium Kazan FS1
60 QF 7-7-2018 10:00 AM Sweden 0-2 England Samara FOX
59 QF 7-7-2018 02:00 PM Russia 2-2t
(3-4)
Croatia Sochi FOX
61 SF 7-10-2018 02:00 PM France 1-0 Belgium St. Petersburg FOX
62 SF 7-11-2018 02:00 PM Croatia 2-1t England Moscow-Luzniki FOX
63 3rd 7-14-2018 10:00 AM Belgium 2-0 England St. Petersburg FOX
64 Final 7-15-2018 11:00 AM France 4-2 Croatia Moscow-Luzniki FOX