Dr. Green and White Sports Authority

The Michigan State Spartans' football team is done for 2025. But there is still a lot of action to analyze and discuss as college football moves into the postseason. This weekend is there are nine game on the schedule, each of which will crown a new conference champion. Based on the results of those nine games, the College Football Playoff Committee will release the final set of rankings and the resulting bracket for the 12-team college football playoff. Let's discuss both topics. Championship Weekend Bad Betting Advice With the limited number of games this weekend, I will simply present my summary table of the nine games which includes my projected scores, the opening point spread, and the computers' projected point differentials.  Note that the computers are not officially recommending a pick against the spread in any of the nine games, but there are four upset picks on the table. In addition, my analysis has just one point-total bet for the weekend: North Texas and Tulan...

In 1912, British philosopher and mathematician  Bertrand Russell introduced the world to a story about a turkey.  The turkey in question was fed and cared for every day. Each day, he would stick his head through a hole and on the other side he would received a veritable feast, at least from the perspective of a bird. Summer turned slowly into fall and the turkey grew steadily larger and stronger. It was a good life for the turkey and he saw no end in sight to his good fortune. But one day in late November, something different happened. When our plucky protagonist stuck his head through the hole, instead of a hearty mean he instead met his fate by the means of a very sharp knife. A little while later, he was the guest of honor at the farmer's Thanksgiving feast. This classic allegory is meant to illustrate the dangers of inductive reasoning. In other words, just because a certain trend has happened in the past does not mean that it will continue indefinitely. One has to di...

As the final week of the 2025 regular season of college football looms, there is a lot to talk about in the broader landscape. In the sections below, I will highlight conference championship game tiebreaker scenarios and college football playoffs seeding. But in East Lansing, there will be no post season this year. Once this week's game against the Maryland Terrapins puts all zeros on the clock, the season will be over. Spartans fans will need to wait another nine months to see the Green and White take the field again. We can (and will) talk about the odds that Michigan State will notch their first Big Ten win, but we might as well address the elephant in the room. When the Spartans do take to the field again on Sept. 5 against Toledo, who is going to be the head coach? There are two different ways to analyze this question. The first and most important question is what will happen. But unless your name is Michigan State Athletic Director J Batt, this question is irrelevant. In fac...

College football is a sport that relies a lot on decisions. When building a team, coaches have to decide which high school and transfer portal inhabitants to target. Then, they have to wait for the prospects to decide which schools to attend. Once the roster is assembled and the games are played, coaches make a myriad of decisions as to which players to send out onto the field and which plays to call in any given situation.  Should the defense play press man coverage or quarters zone? Should they blitz or should they drop seven players into coverage? Should the offense run or pass on third down and three to go? Should they go for it on fourth-and-two near midfield, or should they tell the quarterback to punt the ball? Speaking of punting, should they punt the ball to the more dangerous return man in Iowa football history or should they punt it out of bounds? Decisions, decisions, decisions.  Good leadership is often simply the ability to make the "right" decision more often t...