Fourth & Value
Only go for it when the numbers say so.
New name, new address (October 24, 2026). This project used to be called CFB Edge, in a repository named NCAAF-Spread-Projection. It's now Fourth & Value:
- Website: davischamann-alt.github.io/fourth-and-value. The old address,
davischamann-alt.github.io/NCAAF-Spread-Projection, no longer works, so update any bookmarks or links you've shared.
- Repository: github.com/davischamann-alt/fourth-and-value. Old repository links redirect here automatically.
- If you cloned the old repository, point your copy at the new one with
git remote set-url origin https://github.com/davischamann-alt/fourth-and-value.git.
Nothing else changed: the model, the data and the forward-test pick log carried over as they were.
College football spread projections, compared with the Vegas betting line. Fourth & Value shows which side its model would pick, how likely that pick is to cover before and during the game, and how well its picks have done, including a public log of picks recorded before kickoff.
It's free. Scores, lines and ESPN's team ratings come from ESPN's public data. Testing past seasons is optional and uses a free key from CollegeFootballData.com.
Two ways to use it:
| Website | App on your computer |
|---|
| Where | davischamann-alt.github.io/fourth-and-value | Runs in your browser from your own computer |
| Setup | None: open the link on any phone or computer | About 10 minutes (Install and run it) |
| Games, picks, live cover chances | ✅ | ✅ |
| Ratings | Updated automatically every morning | Click Auto-fill to update |
| Your picks and bets | Saved in that browser | Saved as files on your computer |
| Run new backtests | Shows the latest results | ✅ Run any seasons and settings |
This is an analysis tool, not betting advice. Testing on past seasons found no source that beats the final (closing) line. The only possible edge showed up against opening lines, and it isn't proven yet. See What the testing found.
Contents
- What it does and the website
- Terms you'll see
- Install and run it
- Using it on game day
- The four tabs
- Sidebar settings
- Testing on past seasons
- What the testing found
- The forward test
- How the model works and model changes
- Publishing the website
- Files
What it does
- Predicts every game's margin (how many points the home team wins or loses by), using one of four methods you choose.
- Compares that prediction with the betting line and picks the side it thinks will cover.
- Gives a cover chance before the game and a live one that updates with the score and clock.
- Logs and grades your picks automatically when games end.
- Tracks your bets, with profit and return on investment.
- Tests itself on past seasons, predicting each week with only the information available at the time.
The website
Open davischamann-alt.github.io/fourth-and-value. It works on phones, and you can add it to your home screen from the browser's Share menu.
- Games: one week at a time (use ‹ › to change weeks), grouped by day. Each game card shows the line and where it opened, the model's pick, an edge badge labeled like a fourth-down call (Go for it at 3–5 points, Lean at 1.5–3, Punt under 1.5, meaning no bet, and Check the news at 5+, where the gap is more likely missing information than extra value), and the cover chance, which updates live during games. Filter to go-for-it edges, live games, or close games (live and within 4 points of the spread, sorted tightest first), sort by biggest edge, or search for a team.
- Spread / Total: switches every card between the pick against the spread and the over/under pick against the total (see What the testing found for how totals tested).
- Check the news, automatically: a Lean or Go for it turns into Check the news when the model is likely missing something: a team just changed quarterbacks (a QB change tag on the card), it's a bowl game outside the College Football Playoff, or it's an over pick with 12+ mph of wind in the forecast (a Wind tag). The pick box says why. See What the testing found.
- At open: edges of 1.5+ where the line is still within half a point of its opening number, where the model tested best. Each pregame pick box also says how far the line has moved toward or away from the pick since it opened.
- Opening lines notice: once next week's lines are posted (usually Sunday), a notice at the top says how many edges are still at the opening number, with a link straight to them.
- Game details: tap any game card for the full breakdown. Each game has its own link (like
#game/401858274) that you can share.
- Why this pick: what all five projections say, and whether they agree. A split is a reason to punt.
- Over/under: both totals projections, the model's over or under pick, and its forward-test entry.
- Line movement: a chart of the line through the week, from the forward test's two-hourly recordings.
- Matchup: FPI rank and adjusted offense and defense, ESPN's season stats (or game stats once it starts), and each team's last five results.
Picks and bets are saved only in the browser you use, so they don't follow you between devices; use Download as CSV to move bets. The page gets scores and lines straight from ESPN while you have it open, and a GitHub job refreshes the ratings and track record every morning (Publishing the website).
Terms you'll see
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Spread / line | The betting line, shown from the home team's side. -7 means the home team is favored by 7, and +3 means it's a 3-point underdog. |
| Cover | Win against the spread. A 7-point favorite covers by winning by more than 7. Winning by exactly 7 is a push, and the bet is refunded. |
| Projected margin | The dashboard's prediction of home score minus away score. +10 means the home team by 10. |
| Edge | How far the projection is from the line, in points. Bigger means the model disagrees with Vegas more. |
| Opening line | The first line a sportsbook posts, usually the Sunday before the game. It's the easiest line to beat. |
| Closing line | The final line at kickoff, after all the betting has moved it. It's the hardest line to beat. |
| CLV (closing line value) | How far the line moved toward your pick between open and kickoff. Lines that keep moving your way are the standard sign of a real edge. |
| Total (over/under) | The sportsbook's line on combined points. An over bet wins if both teams together score more; an under wins if they score fewer. |
| EPA (expected points added) | How much each play changed a team's expected points, based on down, distance and field position. EPA per play measures how well an offense moves the ball (or a defense stops it) without the noise of turnovers returned for touchdowns or garbage-time scores. |
| Margin of error (±) | How far a hit rate could be from the truth by luck alone (95% of the time). After 50 picks it's about ±14 points; after 2,000 about ±2. |
| Hit rate | The share of picks that covered. At standard -110 odds, you need 52.4% to break even. |
| FPI | ESPN's Football Power Index: how many points better or worse a team is than an average FBS team on a neutral field. |
| FBS / FCS | The top two divisions of college football. The dashboard rates FBS teams; FCS opponents share a single rating. |
Install and run it
You need about 10 minutes and an internet connection. No programming is required: you'll copy and paste a few commands.
1. Install Python (one time)
- Mac: open Terminal (press
Cmd + Space and type "Terminal"), then run python3 --version. If it prints Python 3.11 or higher, skip ahead. Otherwise, download the installer from python.org/downloads and run it.
- Windows: download the installer from python.org/downloads. On the first screen of the installer, tick "Add python.exe to PATH". Then open Command Prompt (press the Windows key and type "cmd").
2. Get the code (one time)
Option A, no tools needed: on the GitHub page, click the green Code button, then Download ZIP. Unzip it into your Downloads folder, and rename the folder to fourth-and-value if it has a different name (GitHub usually adds -main).
Option B, with git:
cd ~/Downloads
git clone https://github.com/davischamann-alt/fourth-and-value.git
3. Set it up (one time)
Run these one at a time in Terminal or Command Prompt. They create a private Python environment for the dashboard and install the three libraries it uses (Streamlit, pandas and requests).
Mac:
cd ~/Downloads/fourth-and-value
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
Windows:
cd %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\fourth-and-value
py -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
4. Start the dashboard (every time)
Mac:
cd ~/Downloads/fourth-and-value
source venv/bin/activate
streamlit run app.py
Windows:
cd %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\fourth-and-value
venv\Scripts\activate
streamlit run app.py
Your browser opens the dashboard at http://localhost:8501. Leave the Terminal window open while you use it. To stop it, click the Terminal window and press Ctrl + C.
The first time Streamlit runs, it may ask for an email address. You can press Enter to skip that. Notes suggesting a newer pip or installing watchdog are safe to ignore.
Using it on game day
- Refresh the ratings once a week. On the Team ratings tab, click ⚡ Auto-fill from ESPN results. It takes about a minute and updates every FBS team from the season's results. The download comes with ratings already filled in, but they go stale as the season goes on.
- Open the dashboard before kickoff. It saves each game's pregame line the first time it sees it, and the live cover chance is measured against that line. After kickoff, ESPN stops listing odds for that game.
- Choose a projection source in the sidebar. If you're unsure, use ESPN FPI or Market-anchored; see What the testing found.
- Read the board. Each game shows its line, projected margin, edge, the pick and its cover chance. If a game has no pick, the Note column says why.
- Log your picks (optional). Click 📌 Log these pregame picks to history before the games start, and they're graded automatically after the games finish.
The four tabs
Today's games
One row per game on the date chosen in the sidebar. It refreshes every 30 seconds.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|
| Game, Status, Score | Matchup (away @ home), game clock and score |
| Home line | The current line, or the saved pregame line once the game has started |
| Open | The opening line; compare it with Home line to see how the line has moved |
| Total | The over/under for total points |
| Proj margin | The model's predicted home margin |
| Edge (pts) | How far the projection is from the line |
| Pick | The side the model picks, with its line |
| Pregame % | The chance the pick covers, before the game |
| Live cover % | The same chance, updated with the score and time left |
| Note | Why a game has no pick (for example, a team missing from the ratings or no line yet) |
Team ratings
A table with one row per team, which you can edit:
- ppg / papg: points scored and allowed per game, adjusted for opponent strength.
- fpi: ESPN's power rating.
- games: games played.
⚡ Auto-fill from ESPN results rebuilds the table from this season's games. Team names have to match the names ESPN uses (for example Ohio State, Miami). If you edit the table by hand, click Save ratings.
Bet tracker
Record each bet: date, game, side, line, odds, stake and result (W, L or Push). Blank odds count as -110. Click Save bets to keep them. The tab shows the number of graded bets, net profit and ROI. Bets are stored only on your computer.
Backtest
Two sections:
- Your logged picks: your logged picks, graded, with hit rates by confidence level (50–54%, 55–59% and so on) and by projection source.
- Season backtest: tests every projection source on whole seasons. See Testing on past seasons.
Sidebar settings
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|
| Date | Which day's games to show | Today |
| Margin std dev | How spread out game results are around the projection; this drives the cover percentages | 14. Testing suggests about 15.5 for FPI, Market-anchored and Blend, and 16.5 for Adjusted points. |
| Home-field advantage | Points given to the home team (none at neutral sites) | 3.0 (was 2.5 before October 25, 2026; see Model changes) |
| Projection source | Which prediction method to use (see below) | Blend |
| Refresh now | Reloads all data right away | — |
| Auto-refresh every 30s | Keeps the scoreboard updating on its own | On |
Projection sources:
- Adjusted points: built from each team's points scored and allowed, adjusted for who they played.
- ESPN FPI: built from ESPN's power ratings.
- Efficiency: built from each team's EPA per play on offense and defense, adjusted for opponents. Needs a CollegeFootballData key.
- Blend: the average of FPI and Efficiency (FPI and adjusted points before October 29, 2026). Without a CollegeFootballData key, it's FPI alone.
- Market-anchored: starts from the current betting line and shifts it toward what FPI and the points ratings say. It stays closest to the betting line, so it shows the fewest and smallest edges, which is why it's the default. It only works once the season backtest has been run on past seasons, which saves the weights it uses (
data/anchor_weights.json). Those saved weights are included in the download, so it works right away.
Testing on past seasons
On the Backtest tab, choose Seasons and click ▶ Run season backtest. For each week from week 3 on, it predicts the games using only what was known before that week, then grades the picks.
-
The current season works right away, using ESPN data.
-
Past seasons (2021 on) need a free CollegeFootballData key. Set it up once:
- Get a key at collegefootballdata.com/key. It arrives by email.
- In the project folder, create a folder named
.streamlit, and inside it a text file named secrets.toml containing:
CFBD_API_KEY = "paste-your-key-here"
- In the dashboard, click Refresh now.
Keep the key private. The file is set to be left out of git, so it won't be uploaded to GitHub. Each past season uses two API calls the first time and is then saved in data/cfbd/; the free plan allows 1,000 calls a month.
Reading the results:
- Grade against:
- Opening line: picks made when lines are first posted. This view adds CLV columns showing how often the line moved toward the pick.
- Closing line: the final line at kickoff, which is the tougher test.
- Only bet when edge is at least: counts only picks where the model disagrees with the line by at least this many points.
- hit_rate: the share of picks that covered. Compare it with 52.4%.
- RMSE vs result: the typical miss in points. Use it for the Margin std dev setting.
- line (baseline): how close the line itself came to the final scores, for comparison.
- Market-anchored predicts each season using only weights learned from earlier seasons you selected, so the first season you select has no Market-anchored picks.
2021 and 2022 have only a few usable weeks each, because ESPN overwrote most of those seasons' weekly FPI ratings later. 2023 onward is the most reliable.
What the testing found
These results are from 2023–2026 (through week 8 of 2026), about 2,300 games, with home-field advantage at 3.0. Opening lines that moved 7+ points before kickoff are excluded: they're look-ahead lines posted weeks early that nobody could bet with that season's information (see Model changes). Market-anchored is graded from 2024 on, because 2023 was its training data.
| Picks made at the… | Result |
|---|
| Closing line | No projection beats it: about 50–51% for every one, below break-even. |
| Opening line, every game | About 53% for every projection, just above the 52.4% break-even. |
| Opening line, edge 3+ points | ESPN FPI 53.7% (826 picks), Adjusted points 53.7%, Efficiency 54.9%, Blend 54.6%. Market-anchored 62.1%, but on only 29 picks. |
| Opening line, edge 5+ points | No better than 3–5 point edges (ESPN FPI 52.6%). That's why the site labels them Check the news instead of Go for it. |
| Line movement | After the open, lines moved toward the model's picks about 62–72% of the time. |
Totals (over/unders), graded the same way, about 2,300 games:
| Picks made at the… | Result |
|---|
| Closing total | 51–52% for both totals projections: no edge. |
| Opening total, every game | Adjusted points 52.1% (2,272 picks), Market-anchored 51.8%: right around break-even. |
| Opening total, big disagreements | When adjusted points and the opening total were 5+ points apart, siding with the ratings won in every season 2022–2026: 53.7% (820 picks), and 56.2% at 7+ points (436 picks). Overs and unders both won. Market-anchored's 1.5+ edges (a 7.5-point disagreement) went 54.5% (363 picks). |
| Total movement | Totals moved toward the Adjusted points picks 55–61% of the time, but by only about +0.4 points on average, which isn't enough to profit. |
Totals are shown because they're part of every game and the forward test now records them, not because they've proven to make money. The model doesn't know the weather, which moves totals more than spreads.
Efficiency (EPA per play), added October 29, 2026. These are 2024–2026 games, since 2023 was used to learn how many points one unit of EPA is worth:
| On the same 2024–2026 games | Opening line, every game | Opening line, 3+ edges | Closing line, every game | Typical miss |
|---|
| ESPN FPI | 53.5% | 54.7% | 51.2% | 15.3 |
| Efficiency | 54.8% | 54.9% | 51.7% | 16.6 |
| Blend, old (FPI + adjusted points) | 53.3% | 54.7% | 50.1% | 15.6 |
| Blend, new (FPI + Efficiency) | 54.4% | 54.6% | 52.2% | 15.6 |
The new Blend picked a little better than the old one in most of these columns, at the same accuracy, so Efficiency replaced adjusted points in it. It isn't better every season (2025 dipped), and it doesn't beat the closing line, so treat it as a small improvement, not a breakthrough. Also tested and not used: starting each season from last season's efficiency (it made the picks worse), and adding efficiency to Market-anchored (no change). In 2022, a season none of this was tuned on, Efficiency alone was only 51.7% at the opening line on 3+ edges.
Situations the model can't see (added October 29, 2026). Each one is now labeled Check the news instead of Lean or Go for it:
| Situation | What happened | Games |
|---|
| A team just changed quarterbacks (someone other than the usual starter led its last game in pass attempts) | 2026, at the opening line: FPI picks 39.3%, Blend 44.6%, Market-anchored 35.7%. In every other game: 55.3%, 56.6% and 54.7%. | 57 games (2026 only; box scores before that aren't saved) |
| A bowl outside the College Football Playoff | 2023–2025, at the opening line: FPI 42.1%, Efficiency and Blend 47.4%. Playoff games went 60–68%, so they keep their normal labels. | 109 bowls, 25 playoff games |
| An over with 12+ mph of wind at kickoff | 2023–2026: totals in those games fell about 1.8 points from the open to kickoff (0.35 in calm games), and overs went 47.7% against the opening total. The closing total prices the wind; the opening total doesn't fully. Rain and cold showed no reliable effect. | 176 windy games |
The quarterback and bowl samples are small, but they point the way you'd expect: the market knows about the new starter or the opt-outs, and the ratings don't.
What this means:
- The Vegas closing line is more accurate than any of these projections. Betting near kickoff shows no edge.
- The opening-line edge is real but small: about 53–54%, barely above break-even and within what luck alone could produce. Lines moving toward the picks is the most encouraging sign.
- Huge disagreements with the market aren't extra value. A 5+ point gap usually means the market knows something the model can't see, such as injuries, which ESPN doesn't publish for college football.
- Adjusted points adds little on top of FPI, and Market-anchored mostly follows the line.
- The forward test is the real judge. Picks recorded before kickoff from week 9 on are the cleanest test.
The forward test
The backtest replays past seasons, and some of its biases can't be fully ruled out (see the caveats above). The forward test can't have those biases: it records picks before the games are played.
Every two hours, the GitHub job runs record.py, which:
- Records lines: saves each game's line whenever it changes, with the time, to
data/live/line_history.csv. This builds a record of how lines move through the week.
- Logs picks: the first time a game has a line, saves every projection's pick at that line to
data/live/picks.csv. Those columns are never changed afterward. Since the job checks every two hours, picks are logged within about two hours of the opening line.
- Logs over/unders: the same for totals, the first time a game has a total, in
data/live/total_picks.csv (started October 29, 2026).
- Grades picks: after kickoff, fills in the closing line, the result at the logged line, the result at the closing line and the CLV (how far the line moved toward the pick).
- Commits the files to the repository. Git history then shows exactly when each pick was recorded, which proves it was made before the game.
The website's Track record tab shows the results by projection and edge size, with a link to that history. It leads with the expected hit rate from line movement, not the win-loss record, because the record needs hundreds of picks before it means much (after 50 picks its margin of error is about ±14 points). Line moves settle much faster: in the 2023–2026 backtest, every point the line moved toward a pick was worth about 3 points of hit rate (2.5 for totals). So the estimate is 50% plus that much for the average move, with its own margin of error. It assumes the closing line is about a coin flip, as it was in the backtest. To beat the 52.4% break-even, the line has to move about +0.8 points toward the picks on average.
The log started on October 21, 2026, partway through week 8, so some of that week's games were logged after their lines had already moved. Everything from week 9 on is logged close to the open.
How the model works
Adjusted points ratings. Every completed game this season is fitted at once: a team's points scored = league average + its offense rating + its opponent's defense rating ± home field. That way 40 points against a strong defense counts for more than 40 against a weak one. Teams with few games are pulled toward average (ridge regression), and all FCS opponents share one rating. ppg and papg are those ratings on the normal points scale.
Efficiency ratings. The same kind of fit, on EPA per play instead of points: a team's EPA per play in a game = average + its offense rating + its opponent's defense rating ± home field, using every regular-season game so far with garbage time left out (from CollegeFootballData). off_eff and def_eff are those ratings, in EPA per play above average. The 67.5 turns a difference in EPA per play into points of margin; it's learned from 2023–2025.
Projected margin, by source:
Adjusted points: (home.ppg + away.papg) - (away.ppg + home.papg) + HFA
ESPN FPI: home.fpi - away.fpi + HFA
Efficiency: 67.5 x [(home.off_eff + away.def_eff) - (away.off_eff + home.def_eff)] + HFA
Blend: average of FPI and Efficiency
Market-anchored: const + w_line x (-home line) + w_fpi x FPI margin + w_pts x points margin
There's no home-field advantage (HFA) at neutral sites. Market-anchored starts from the line you'd be betting: the current line, or the pregame line once a game has started. In the backtest it started from the opening line and was graded against that same line. Starting from an older line than the one being bet would count the line's own movement as edge. The weights are learned by regression on past seasons. Learned from 2023–2025 (look-ahead opening lines excluded), they come out to about 0.73 × line, 0.21 × FPI and 0.12 × adjusted points.
Projected total (over/unders), by source. FPI doesn't project scoring, so it isn't used:
Adjusted points: (home.ppg + away.papg) + (away.ppg + home.papg) - 2 x league average
Market-anchored: betting total + 0.2 x (adjusted points total - betting total)
Market-anchored moves the total a fifth of the way toward adjusted points, so the ratings have to disagree with the market by 7.5 points for a Lean and 15 for a Go for it. It always picks the same side as Adjusted points; it only says the edge is smaller. The 0.2 is fixed, not learned by regression (see the November 1, 2026 row under Model changes for why). The over/under chance uses a 16-point std dev (16.5 for Adjusted points).
Pregame cover chance. The final margin is treated as a bell curve around the projection, with spread equal to the Margin std dev setting (sigma):
P(home covers) = NormalCDF( (projected margin + home line) / sigma )
edge = | projected margin + home line |
Live cover chance. During a game, the expected final margin is the current margin plus the share of the projection still to be played, and the uncertainty shrinks as time runs out:
expected final margin = current margin + projected margin x (time left / 60 min)
live sigma = sigma x sqrt(time left / 60 min)
Finished games show 100% or 0% (50% for a push). Overtime counts as about two minutes left.
Avoiding look-ahead in the backtest. Each week's ratings use only earlier games. FPI comes from the newest ESPN snapshot taken before that week's first game, and weeks with no snapshot from the previous 10 days are skipped, because ESPN overwrote some old snapshots with later data.
Model changes
Any change to how picks are made is logged here and on the website (a notice on the Games tab for two weeks, a permanent dated list on the Track record tab, and the full project history on the Updates tab), so anyone reading the numbers knows what produced them. Changes never touch picks already in the forward-test log; each pick's logged_at time shows which version made it.
| Date | Change | Why | Effect |
|---|
| November 1, 2026 | Market-anchored totals now follow the ratings: total + 0.2 × (adjusted points total − total), replacing a regression on the final total | The regression chased the average score, which a few shootouts pull up, so it learned "low totals go over" and gave the ratings a weight of only 0.09. 96% of its 1.5+ edges were overs, and in 2026 they went 56-55. Over/unders are graded on which side of the number the game lands, and there the ratings carry the signal. | In 2024–2026, 1.5+ edges at the opening total went 56.2% (131-102) instead of 53.8%, on about 7 games a week instead of 15, with 64% overs instead of 96%. Graded at the closing total it's 52.5%, so the opening number matters. The 0.2 was chosen after looking at these seasons, so the backtest flatters it a little. Totals picks logged before this date used the old formula. |
| October 29, 2026 | Check the news for QB changes, bowls and windy overs: Lean and Go for it picks in those games are labeled Check the news instead | The model went 39% after quarterback changes in 2026 and 42–47% in non-playoff bowls in 2023–2025, and opening totals don't fully price wind. | Labels only: projections, edges and the forward-test log are unchanged. |
| October 29, 2026 | Efficiency added: a fifth projection from opponent-adjusted EPA per play, and Blend now averages FPI and Efficiency instead of FPI and adjusted points | Points are a noisy measure of how good a team is. EPA per play, with garbage time left out, measures every play. | In 2024–2026, the new Blend picked a little better than the old one (every game at the opening line: 54.4% vs 53.3%; at the closing line: 52.2% vs 50.1%) with the same accuracy. Market-anchored and the default are unchanged. Blend picks logged before this date used adjusted points. |
| October 29, 2026 | Totals added: over/under projections (Market-anchored total and Adjusted points total), backtested and recorded in the forward test | Totals are part of every game, and the forward test can only judge them if they're recorded before kickoff. | No change to spread picks. Totals tested at about break-even (52% at the opening total), so they're presented as untested, not as an edge. |
| October 25, 2026 | Backtest correction: opening lines that moved 7+ points before kickoff (look-ahead lines, 63 of 2,323 games) are excluded | They made the biggest edges look like big winners, but nobody could have bet them with that season's information. |
To log a future change: add an entry at the top of site/data/changelog.json. Every entry has a date, type and title, plus a summary:
type is model (changes how picks are made), feature, design, fix or data.model entries also need why, effect and forward_test (what it means for the pick log). Add a row to the table above, and change the setting in one place: the constant in model.py (for example HFA).
The newest model entry shows as a notice on the Games tab for two weeks.
Feedback: the site's suggestion form uses the issue forms in .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ (suggestion.yml and problem.yml). Field ids in those forms are filled in from the link the site builds, so keep them in sync with site/updates.js if you edit them.
Alerts
alerts.py runs in the GitHub job right after record.py, every two hours. It looks for two things, using Market-anchored, the default projection:
- New edges: a spread or over/under pick with an edge of 1.5+, logged when the line first appears. The model tested best at the opening number, so these are worth seeing early.
- Key numbers: on a game with such a spread pick, the line moving through, onto or off 3 or 7, the most common winning margins.
Each run sends at most one notification, listing everything new. Alerts always go to the site's feed and the Alerts panel (🔔). Phone notifications and Discord are optional, and only the repo owner can turn them on:
| Where | Setup (one time) |
|---|
| Any RSS reader | Nothing: subscribe to https://davischamann-alt.github.io/fourth-and-value/alerts.xml. |
| Phones (ntfy) | Pick a topic name that's hard to guess, since anyone who knows it can subscribe (or post to it), then save it as a repository variable: gh variable set NTFY_TOPIC -R davischamann-alt/fourth-and-value --body "your-topic-name". Then install the free ntfy app and subscribe to that topic. The Alerts panel shows the topic so visitors can subscribe too. |
| Discord | In your Discord server: Server Settings → Integrations → Webhooks → New Webhook, pick the channel, and copy its URL. Save it as a secret: gh secret set DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL -R davischamann-alt/fourth-and-value and paste the URL when asked. |
data/live/alerts.json remembers what's been sent, so nothing is sent twice. The first run only records what's already on the board, rather than sending it all at once.
Publishing the website
The website is the site/ folder, published free by GitHub Pages. The job in .github/workflows/site.yml runs every two hours, whenever the site's code changes on main, and when you click Run workflow on the repo's Actions tab. Each run records lines and picks (The forward test) and commits them, then runs build_site.py to refresh site/data/ (ratings, Market-anchored weights, recommended std dev and track record), and publishes the site.
Each run also builds the QB watch and player props (build_props.py), sends alerts (alerts.py) and fetches kickoff forecasts (weather.py).
Bowls, the playoff and the offseason. Bowl and playoff results count toward the ratings, the forward test logs postseason games like any others, and conference championships are regular-season week 15. After the national championship, the Games tab says the season is over. On July 1 the site switches to the new season: until games are played, every team is rated by ESPN's FPI alone, the season that just ended joins the backtest automatically, and Market-anchored is retrained with it.
Because the job commits to main every two hours, your copy falls behind quickly. Run git pull before you change anything, or your push will be rejected.
One-time setup (repo owner only):
- On GitHub, open the repo's Settings → Pages, and under Build and deployment → Source, choose GitHub Actions.
- Optional, to keep the multi-season track record current and to get the Efficiency projection: in Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions, add a repository secret named
CFBD_API_KEY containing your CollegeFootballData key. Without it, the job still refreshes the other ratings every day and leaves the track record as it was last built. With it, the job uses about 2 CollegeFootballData calls a day (the free plan allows 1,000 a month).
- Optional: phone or Discord alerts (Alerts).
To preview the website on your own computer, run python build_site.py once, then python -m http.server 8600 --directory site, and open http://localhost:8600.
Files
fourth-and-value/
├── app.py # the computer app: screens and buttons (Streamlit)
├── sources.py # data downloads from ESPN and CollegeFootballData
├── model.py # the math: ratings, projections, cover chances, backtest scoring
├── build_site.py # builds the website's data files
├── record.py # forward test: records lines and picks, grades them
├── alerts.py # alerts: new edges and key-number line moves, to the feed, ntfy and Discord
├── weather.py # kickoff forecasts for this week's games (Open-Meteo), for wind flags on totals
├── build_props.py # player prop projections for the Props tab, and the QB watch (ESPN box scores)
├── site/ # the website: index.html, style.css, app.js, game.js (game details), props.js (Props tab), ratings.js, updates.js (Updates tab), alerts.js (Alerts panel), alerts.xml (feed), data/ (changelog.json is the change log)
├── .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ # GitHub issue forms behind the site's suggestion form
├── .github/workflows/site.yml # nightly job that refreshes and publishes the website
├── requirements.txt # Python libraries to install
├── .streamlit/secrets.toml # your CollegeFootballData key (you create it; never uploaded)
└── data/
├── team_ratings.csv # team ratings (Auto-fill or edit by hand)
├── lines.csv # pregame lines the dashboard has saved
├── closing_lines.csv # this season's opening and closing lines and totals (backtest)
├── anchor_weights.json # Market-anchored weights for spreads and totals (saved by the backtest)
├── live/ # forward test: line_history.csv, picks.csv, total_picks.csv, and alerts.json (what's been sent); written by the GitHub job
├── history.csv # your logged picks (created when you log; kept private)
├── bets.csv # your bets (created when you save; kept private)
└── cfbd/ # past seasons' data (downloaded; kept private)
"Kept private" means the file is listed in .gitignore, so git won't upload it to GitHub.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Fix |
|---|
streamlit: command not found or No module named streamlit | You're outside the environment. Run the source venv/bin/activate (Mac) or venv\Scripts\activate (Windows) line from step 4 first. |
python3: command not found (Mac) or 'py' is not recognized (Windows) | Python isn't installed, or on Windows "Add python.exe to PATH" wasn't ticked. Reinstall it from python.org. |
| Browser didn't open | Go to http://localhost:8501 yourself. |
| "Couldn't load scores" | Check your internet connection and click Refresh now. ESPN's feed sometimes has short outages. |
| No games listed | Check the Date in the sidebar. |
| A game has no pick | Read its Note. Usually a team name doesn't match the ratings table (run Auto-fill) or there's no line yet. |
| Market-anchored shows no picks | data/anchor_weights.json is missing. Run the season backtest with at least one finished season from 2023 on. |
| "Past seasons need a free API key" | Create .streamlit/secrets.toml as described in Testing on past seasons, then click Refresh now. |
| Website shows old ratings | Check the repo's Actions tab for a failed "Update and publish site" run, then click Run workflow to retry. |
| Website picks or bets disappeared | They live in that browser's storage. Private/incognito windows and clearing site data erase them; download bets as CSV to keep a copy. |
| "CollegeFootballData rejected the API key" | Check that the key in is complete, with no extra spaces, and inside the quotes. |
Limitations
- Scores and ratings only. The model doesn't know about injuries, suspensions or motivation. It flags likely quarterback changes (from box scores), bowl games and windy totals as Check the news, but it can't see who's actually playing.
- Unofficial data. ESPN's feeds aren't official and could change or go down without notice.
- Lines differ by sportsbook. Lines come from one book per game (DraftKings when available), so yours may differ.
- Small samples mislead. A few weeks of results can look great or terrible by luck alone. Judge by hundreds of picks and by line movement.
- No guarantees. A high cover percentage is still not a sure thing.
Ideas for later
First-half lines
A Full game / 1st half switch on the Games tab, with Full game selected by default. The 1st half view would show each game's first-half line, the model's first-half projection and pick, and grade picks at halftime, with live "covering now" status during the first half.
What we found (October 28, 2026):
- No free source has first-half lines for college football. ESPN's odds feed and game summaries carry full-game lines only, and CollegeFootballData has none.
- ESPN does have quarter-by-quarter scores for every game, so first-half results can be graded for free, live and after the game.
- Full-game lines translate predictably: across 344 games this season, the first-half margin averaged about 0.59 × the full-game line (a 10-point favorite led by about 6 at halftime). First halves are steadier, with a typical miss of 10.5 points versus 14.1 for full games, and 8.4% of first halves were tied, so whole-number first-half lines push often.
Two ways to build it:
- Free: show an estimated first-half line (0.59 × the full-game line, clearly labeled as an estimate), and let visitors type their book's real first-half line on any card to replace it. Since the estimate comes from the full-game line, the estimated pick mostly echoes the full-game pick; the real value comes when visitors enter actual lines.
- Paid (about $30/month, The Odds API): real first-half spreads from sportsbooks, fetched by the GitHub job like the ratings. This would also let first-half picks go into the forward test, and the same subscription could fill in real player prop lines on the Props tab. Check the service's terms on displaying odds publicly first.
