ChatGPT College Football Picks Against The Spread: The Machine Gets Revenge On The Human In Week 13
The computer may be starting to figure things out a bit.
In case you may have missed it last weekend, I turned to ChatGPT for a little assistance in the ol' picking college football games against the spread department. While I was fully expecting the computer to help me out in picking some winners, it failed miserably, posting a record of 14-21 against the spread for a success rate of just 40%. I went 19-16 with my picks last week.
That, my friends, will not get the job done, but if at first you don't succeed, you try (and have a computer make your life easier) again.
oey Aguilar #6 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates with teammates after defeating the Florida Gators 31-11. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
The thought process for going back to ChatGPT for pick ‘em assistance this week was simple: it can’t get any worse, and while that came to be true, the computer didn't exactly knock it out of the park.
In total, I had it select 33 games to pick this week. I kept the prompt with ChatGPT straightforward, telling it to make picks against the spread, which I provided, and to take into consideration key injuries. The one difference from this week to last week is that I also told ChatGPT to "use analysis" while picking the games as well, which the chat took as considering home-field advantage and look-ahead spots on the schedule.
Like last week, ChatGPT also ranked each game with a confidence level between 1 and 5, unprompted to do so, with 5 being the most confident.
ChatGPT didn't rank a single game with a confidence level of 5, but did list two games with a confidence level of four and then eight more picks with a confidence level of 3.
Confidence Level 4
Washington -10.5 @ UCLA - Winner
Miami -17.5 @ Virginia Tech - Loser
Confidence Level 3
Duke -6.5 @ North Carolina - Winner
Nebraska +9.5 @ Penn State - Loser
Tennessee -4.5 @ Florida - Winner
USF -21.5 @ UAB - Winner
Illinois -8.5 @ Wisconsin - Loser
BYU -2.5 @ Cincinnati - Winner
North Texas -18.5 @ Rice - Winner
Kansas State @ Utah -17.5 - Loser
While ChatGPT went 6-4 with its most confident picks, it posted an overall record of 17-16 against the spread this week. Surprisingly, I only disagreed with three of its picks this week, which I flipped, and unfortunately lost to the machine as I went 16-17 against the spread.
The takeaway here is that both I and AI suck at picking college football games.
ChatGPT picks against the spread for Week 13 in college football.
With just one week left in the college football regular season, I think the next move is fully fading ChatGPT next weekend, which will surely come back to haunt me.