Our Week 17 NFL Selections

Below you will find some instructions that will help you locate where on our site we display any comments we may have regarding sides and totals that we like.

For all the Sunday games we will have posted our comments by the preceding Saturday.  For games played on any other day we will post our thoughts no later than a few hours prior to kickoff.

There will be times when we change our suggestions to a “NO-PLAY” prior to kickoff due to things such as weather or injury.  When that occurs, in addition to updating the “NOTES” section of our site we will make sure to Tweet the change as well.

For those of you familiar with our site, there is a section title “Select and Print Games” found in the drop down menus for each League.  This section, which allows you to select and print the Current Card Of Games, essentially creates an form from which you can print any and all games selected.  Part of the form is an area labeled, “User Notes”.

For both College Football and the NFL, the User Notes area is be pre-slugged with consensus betting data in cases we are able to calculate such.  Above the Estimated Public Consensus Data is where we will be posting any game selections, ML side, ATS side, or Total that we may have.

In cases where we are posting a selection, you will see directly beneath where it says “User Notes” either *** ML SIDE – FAV/DOG TEAM NAME *** or *** ATS SIDE – FAV/DOG TEAM NAME *** OR TOTAL – OVER/UNDER, followed immediately by some brief thoughts on the selection.

Please note the following:

• To Launch the NFL Link Click Here
• Once the form is open you may filter it in any available way

• If you chose to print the form as a report, click the Print Preview Button at the top left – you may need to enable popups for this window to open correctly in your browser
• Once you have click Print Preview and the display has switched from form to report view, you can simply press the PRINT button to output the report.
• Please note that one you open the report window you can enter CNTL-A, to select all, then CNTL-C, to copy, then paste the entire report pre-formatted for you into excel using CNTL-V. 

If you have any questions, problems, or just want to comment please reach out to us via Twitter @GreyMatterStats .

Thanks and best of luck to everyone.

Our Week 16 NFL Selections

Below you will find some instructions that will help you locate where on our site we display any comments we may have regarding sides and totals that we like.

For all the Sunday games we will have posted our comments by the preceding Saturday.  For games played on any other day we will post our thoughts no later than a few hours prior to kickoff.

There will be times when we change our suggestions to a “NO-PLAY” prior to kickoff due to things such as weather or injury.  When that occurs, in addition to updating the “NOTES” section of our site we will make sure to Tweet the change as well.

For those of you familiar with our site, there is a section title “Select and Print Games” found in the drop down menus for each League.  This section, which allows you to select and print the Current Card Of Games, essentially creates an form from which you can print any and all games selected.  Part of the form is an area labeled, “User Notes”.

For both College Football and the NFL, the User Notes area is be pre-slugged with consensus betting data in cases we are able to calculate such.  Above the Estimated Public Consensus Data is where we will be posting any game selections, ML side, ATS side, or Total that we may have.

In cases where we are posting a selection, you will see directly beneath where it says “User Notes” either *** ML SIDE – FAV/DOG TEAM NAME *** or *** ATS SIDE – FAV/DOG TEAM NAME *** OR TOTAL – OVER/UNDER, followed immediately by some brief thoughts on the selection.

Please note the following:

• To Launch the NFL Link Click Here
• Once the form is open you may filter it in any available way

• If you chose to print the form as a report, click the Print Preview Button at the top left – you may need to enable popups for this window to open correctly in your browser
• Once you have click Print Preview and the display has switched from form to report view, you can simply press the PRINT button to output the report.
• Please note that one you open the report window you can enter CNTL-A, to select all, then CNTL-C, to copy, then paste the entire report pre-formatted for you into excel using CNTL-V. 

If you have any questions, problems, or just want to comment please reach out to us via Twitter @GreyMatterStats .

Thanks and best of luck to everyone.

What Happens When Favorites Flip In Football – 2012/2013 – Through 12/19/2012

We have been asked several times to re-visit this niche trend we followed with success last season.

While this situation does not occur frequently, what we have found is that certain trends have held up over time, and interestingly the trends are very different for College Football versus the NFL.

For those of you not familiar, we use the term “Favorite Flip” to define when a team that opened up as the Favorite, closed as the Underdog.

For example, if Team X opened as a 1.5 point Underdog then closed as a 1 point Favorite, it would fit the “Favorite Flip” situation.  In this example, the Line Movement would be -2.5 point, meaning the Line went down 2.5 points from where it opened.

Just so our users know, as you page through the games on our detail screen, “Favorite Flips” are easy to spot.  In the header for each game, we show the Open and Current Favorite by Away or Home team.  Whenever the Opening Favorite is not equal to the Current Favorite, we highlight this important piece of information as shown below.

Our Week 15 NFL Selections

Below you will find some instructions that will help you locate where on our site we display any comments we may have regarding sides and totals that we like.

For all the Sunday games we will have posted our comments by the preceding Saturday.  For games played on any other day we will post our thoughts no later than a few hours prior to kickoff.

There will be times when we change our suggestions to a “NO-PLAY” prior to kickoff due to things such as weather or injury.  When that occurs, in addition to updating the “NOTES” section of our site we will make sure to Tweet the change as well.

For those of you familiar with our site, there is a section title “Select and Print Games” found in the drop down menus for each League.  This section, which allows you to select and print the Current Card Of Games, essentially creates an form from which you can print any and all games selected.  Part of the form is an area labeled, “User Notes”.

For both College Football and the NFL, the User Notes area is be pre-slugged with consensus betting data in cases we are able to calculate such.  Above the Estimated Public Consensus Data is where we will be posting any game selections, ML side, ATS side, or Total that we may have.

In cases where we are posting a selection, you will see directly beneath where it says “User Notes” either *** ML SIDE – FAV/DOG TEAM NAME *** or *** ATS SIDE – FAV/DOG TEAM NAME *** OR TOTAL – OVER/UNDER, followed immediately by some brief thoughts on the selection.

Please note the following:

• To Launch the NFL Link Click Here
• Once the form is open you may filter it in any available way

• If you chose to print the form as a report, click the Print Preview Button at the top left – you may need to enable popups for this window to open correctly in your browser
• Once you have click Print Preview and the display has switched from form to report view, you can simply press the PRINT button to output the report.
• Please note that one you open the report window you can enter CNTL-A, to select all, then CNTL-C, to copy, then paste the entire report pre-formatted for you into excel using CNTL-V. 

If you have any questions, problems, or just want to comment please reach out to us via Twitter @GreyMatterStats .

Thanks and best of luck to everyone.

Our Bowl Game Selections * Updated Through The Potato Bowl

Throughout the Bowl Season we will be post any sides or totals that we like on our site as we have done all season.

Below you will find some instructions that will help you locate where on our site we display any comments we may have regarding sides and totals that we like.

There will be times when we change our suggestions to a “NO-PLAY” prior to kickoff due to things such as weather or injury.  When that occurs, in addition to updating the “NOTES” section of our site we will make sure to Tweet the change as well.

For those of you familiar with our site, there is a section title “Select and Print Games” found in the drop down menus for each League.  This section, which allows you to select and print the Current Card Of Games, essentially creates an form from which you can print any and all games selected.  Part of the form is an area labeled, “User Notes”.

For both College Football and the NFL, the User Notes area is be pre-slugged with consensus betting data in cases we are able to calculate such.  Above the Estimated Public Consensus Data is where we will be posting any game selections, ML side, ATS side, or Total that we may have.

In cases where we are posting a selection, you will see directly beneath where it says “User Notes” either *** ML SIDE – FAV/DOG TEAM NAME *** or *** ATS SIDE – FAV/DOG TEAM NAME *** OR TOTAL – OVER/UNDER, followed immediately by some brief thoughts on the selection.

Please note the following:

• To Launch the NCAAF Link Click Here
• Once the form is open you may filter it in any available way

• If you chose to print the form as a report, click the Print Preview Button at the top left – you may need to enable popups for this window to open correctly in your browser
• Once you have click Print Preview and the display has switched from form to report view, you can simply press the PRINT button to output the report.
• Please note that one you open the report window you can enter CNTL-A, to select all, then CNTL-C, to copy, then paste the entire report pre-formatted for you into excel using CNTL-V. 

If you have any questions, problems, or just want to comment please reach out to us via Twitter @GreyMatterStats .

Thanks and best of luck to everyone.

Our Week 14 NFL Selections

Below you will find some instructions that will help you locate where on our site we display any comments we may have regarding sides and totals that we like.

For all the Sunday games we will have posted our comments by the preceding Saturday.  For games played on any other day we will post our thoughts no later than a few hours prior to kickoff.

There will be times when we change our suggestions to a “NO-PLAY” prior to kickoff due to things such as weather or injury.  When that occurs, in addition to updating the “NOTES” section of our site we will make sure to Tweet the change as well.

For those of you familiar with our site, there is a section title “Select and Print Games” found in the drop down menus for each League.  This section, which allows you to select and print the Current Card Of Games, essentially creates an form from which you can print any and all games selected.  Part of the form is an area labeled, “User Notes”.

For both College Football and the NFL, the User Notes area is be pre-slugged with consensus betting data in cases we are able to calculate such.  Above the Estimated Public Consensus Data is where we will be posting any game selections, ML side, ATS side, or Total that we may have.

In cases where we are posting a selection, you will see directly beneath where it says “User Notes” either *** ML SIDE – FAV/DOG TEAM NAME *** or *** ATS SIDE – FAV/DOG TEAM NAME *** OR TOTAL – OVER/UNDER, followed immediately by some brief thoughts on the selection.

Please note the following:

• To Launch the NFL Link Click Here
• Once the form is open you may filter it in any available way

• If you chose to print the form as a report, click the Print Preview Button at the top left – you may need to enable popups for this window to open correctly in your browser
• Once you have click Print Preview and the display has switched from form to report view, you can simply press the PRINT button to output the report.
• Please note that one you open the report window you can enter CNTL-A, to select all, then CNTL-C, to copy, then paste the entire report pre-formatted for you into excel using CNTL-V. 

If you have any questions, problems, or just want to comment please reach out to us via Twitter @GreyMatterStats .

Thanks and best of luck to everyone.

2012 Army vs Navy Game Preview

The annual Army vs Navy game concludes the 2012/2013 College Football Regular Season this Saturday.

We have attended a few Army/Navy games, and they are just a tremendous experience.  If you ever get the opportunity, do yourself a favor and go.

As much as we enjoy Army/Navy, the game always makes us a bit sad since it is a stark reminder that all we have left in College Football is a bunch of crappy Bowl Games, a few good Bowl games, and the National Championship.  Of course we are looking forward to Bama/Notre Dame, but it always takes us several weeks to get over our Tuesday/Wednesday Night MAC Conference GOW withdraw.

So in hopes of closing out the 2012/2013 College Football Regular Season with a winner, we offer a review of the current Army/Navy game along with some history of the the last five match ups.

The game will be played at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA the home of the Eagles(and those Temple Owls).

Straight up, Navy leads the overall series with a record of 56-49-7 , and have won the last ten in a row.

While Navy has steadily improved throughout the season, Army has been up and down, at times being in games and at times getting their doors blown off.

Both these teams have solid rushing games with Army leading College Football with 369.8 yards/game while Navy is 6th in the country at 285.5 yards/game.  Couple these running attacks with the fact that both Army and Navy have ranked 108 or higher all season in run defense and it should be a reasonable expectation that both teams will run the ball at will and chew clock.  Additionally, both teams have struggled to say the least with any kind of passing game, with Army ranked dead last and Navy not too far from them.

For the current season Air Force was their only common opponent, and both teams won their games outright as Dogs.  On 10/06/2012 Navy beat Air Force 28-21 as a 8.5 point Road Dog, and on 11/03/2012 Army beat Air Force 41-21 as a 7 point Home Dog.

Our internal Strength of Schedule Calculation moderately favors Navy for the Current Season.

Season to date, the Midshipmen are 6-4 straight up, and 3-7 ATS, and 3 Overs and 7 Unders in the Totals.

Season to date, Army is 2-8 straight up, 3-7 ATS, and 6 Overs and 4 Unders in the Totals.

Currently Navy is a 7 point Favorite and the Total is 56.5.

You can find our full Game Breakdown with Projection, here.

Below is a breakdown of the last five Army vs Navy games, including ML, ATS, and Total, and Projected Results.

 

 

What Happens When Favorites Flip In Football – 2012/2013 – Through 12/02/2012

We have been asked several times to re-visit this niche trend we followed with success last season.

While this situation does not occur frequently, what we have found is that certain trends have held up over time, and interestingly the trends are very different for College Football versus the NFL.

For those of you not familiar, we use the term “Favorite Flip” to define when a team that opened up as the Favorite, closed as the Underdog.

For example, if Team X opened as a 1.5 point Underdog then closed as a 1 point Favorite, it would fit the “Favorite Flip” situation.  In this example, the Line Movement would be -2.5 point, meaning the Line went down 2.5 points from where it opened.

Just so our users know, as you page through the games on our detail screen, “Favorite Flips” are easy to spot.  In the header for each game, we show the Open and Current Favorite by Away or Home team.  Whenever the Opening Favorite is not equal to the Current Favorite, we highlight this important piece of information as shown below.

Getting The Most Out Of Our Website – How To Use The “Select/Sort and Print Games” Function

We had always found it frustrating, that while there were countless sites that provided handicapping information, there was never a simple way to print a roster of the current days games from them.

You could try to copy and paste from somewhere, but that always screwed up the formats, and for the most part, unless you possessed a lot of Excel expertise, you were stuck with whatever Cntl-V left you with.

No matter what your handicapping regiment is, pretty much everyone wants or needs a list of the games and we have helped to make that a lot easier to get.

We created functionality that gives our users the ability to Select, Sort, and Print games, that we believe is as unique and universally useful a handicapping tool as you can find anywhere on the web.

Below you will find an easy to understand primer on how to use this section of our site.

First of all, to launch the “Select/Sort/Print Tool”

1. Go to any of the League Drop Downs on our site
2. Mouse Over “Current Games”
3. Mouse Over and choose “Select and Print Games”

The initial screen offers a top -line view of the complete current card of games.

Some of the data elements include:

• Date and Time
• Rotation Number
• Opening and Current ML/Line/Total Information
• Our Projected Scores and Projected ML/ATS/Total Results
• Notes Section updated with comments on any sides/totals that we may like

To Filter the display:

1. Select any combination of the following variables-

• Current Line – Select a specific Current Line Range
• Current Total – Select a specific Current Total Range
• Date – Select a specific date or date range
• Time – Use the buttons bar to select a specific range of game start times

2. Then click the “Filter Schedule” button and your results will be displayed.
3. Clicking the “Clear Filters” button will reload all games for display.

At any time you can sort your displayed results by clicking any of the report headings including:

• Rotation Number
• Date
• Time
• Current Line
• Current Total
• Projected Outcome
• Team Name

To print your current selection:

Getting The Most Out Of Our Website – How To Use The “Current Games – Detail View” Section

We often see questions posted on Twitter asking where to find handicapping information, and it makes us feel that we are not doing a very good job of informing people about all our site has to offer.

As I am sure most of you reading this know there are countless sites that provide this type of  information, but it had been our experience that most of it was fragmented, not very comprehensive, and displayed in ways that doesn’t make sense.

We just thought that someone could do a better job, so why not us.

When designing the site we included all the information that we found ourselves searching out, grouped it by individual game, and then displayed all that information in a way that mirrors how our users, the handicapping public, intuitively think.

In addition to providing the data, we allow you access to it via query tools that we feel are better than anything offered across this very crowded space.

While we think we have done a pretty good job, and hope you do as well, we continue to feel that too much of our site’s functionality and information is being under utilized.

When we look at how our users navigate within our site, it is clear that people land on a main page and either don’t think about or don’t know how much other valuable information is a few clicks away.

With that in mind we thought it might be helpful if we posted a series of articles that drilled down on our site’s features and the data that we offer.

The first topic we chose to write about is the “Current Games – Detail View”.

This is available for all the Leagues that we track and offers a VERY VERY detailed look at all the currently scheduled games from a handicapping perspective.

Some of the highlights include:

• The most thorough Game Snapshot you will find on the web, including anything and everything from Line/Total Movement, Game Time (which came be customized to your time zone),  and a link that provides the weather forecast for any outdoor venue.
• Head-To-Head Cover Rates, Scoring Averages by Road/Home Team (For MLB Pitcher specific data is included), and a 5 year roster of all their games complete with historic ML/ATS/Total results
• Query Tool that shows you Cover Rates at the current Line/Total and allows you to adjust the Line/Total  by half points to see if there has been any value in buying the Line/Total up or down
• Displays how the teams have done historically specific to the current game role – For example Coming off a Home Loss on Short Weeks Rest
• Query Tool that allows you to return ML/ATS/Total histories at the click of a  button for countless scenarios – For example – How have the Bears done as a Dog in Road Division Games On Grass?
• ML/ATS/Total history for both teams that you can both sort and filter
• Match up data presented side by side showing one team’s offense vs the other team’s defense complete with ranking data for each category to help make the comparisons more meaningful

Below you will find a much more in-depth look at “Current Games – Detail View” section of our site.

We hope you find this informative, and if you have questions we would love to hear from you so please feel free to reach out to us on Twitter @GreyMatterStats .

Current Games – Detail View

This view displays a detailed look at the current card of games for each league.

It is broken down into a header and a series of tabs.

Current Games – Detail View – Header

The header display remains visible regardless of what tab you chose and offers a quick reference on the details of a game, such as who is playing, Current Money Line, Line, and Total data, as well as the projected final scores. Throughout the website, the

Favorite team is highlighted in dark green and the Underdog in dark red.

The arrows will page from game to game and for quick access to a specific match-up you can use the drop down menu to go directly to any game.

If one team opened as the favorite, and currently the other team is currently the favorite, the Open Favorite A/H and Current Favorite A/H fields will be highlighted in yellow, alerting you to this change.

In some cases a game may have a valid Line but no Total. In that event, the system defaults to a Total of 299 and highlights the Current Total field in yellow alerting you that no valid total is available.

Current Games – Detail View – Game Snapshot

This tab drills down on the specifics of the selected game. Here you can find information about each team, such as streaks leading into the current game, Current Line and Total data, projected winners and Total result, as well as date, time, venue, and weather information.

Please note, that during registration you can select a preferred time zone, in which to display all game time data.

If Game Type is something other than “Regular Season”, the display will be highlighted in yellow.

If game is being played at a Neutral Site, the display will be highlighted in yellow.

As mentioned above, in some cases a game may have a valid Line but no Total. In that event, the system defaults to a Total of 299 and on this tab highlights the Open Total, Current Total, and Projected Total Result fields in yellow, alerting you that no valid total is available.