Delaware vs. Western Kentucky

Conference USA is once again coming up big here in Week 9 with two games on Tuesday and two games on Wednesday to keep up this magical run of 61 straight days with a football game. Delaware vs. Western Kentucky and Sam Houston State vs. Missouri State are the games in question, as we had Missouri State vs. Delaware last week and Sam Houston State played on Wednesday. Western Kentucky has the rest advantage, as they did not play last week, so we’ll see if that helps against the Blue Hens.

Liberty and Jacksonville State are pretty clearly the class of this conference, so these games may not have too much bearing on the C-USA Championship Game and the standings, but keep in mind that bowl eligibility is a big deal for these teams. Having played some paycheck games earlier in the season to fund athletic endeavors has several teams chasing six wins, so these are big games for them.

We’ll go in chronological order here, as I do have a stronger opinion on Delaware vs. Western Kentucky.

Odds from Circa Sports as of October 26, 8:30 a.m. PT; check out our Circa Betting Splits and DraftKings Betting Splits. See all of our Week 9 College Football Picks and Predictions.

Delaware (-1, 56.5) at Western Kentucky

Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET (CBSSN)

To say that the return of Nick Minicucci gave Delaware a big lift last week is an understatement. The Blue Hens exploded for 61 points and the veteran signal caller was responsible for five TDs through the air and another on the ground. Delaware did only outgain Missouri State 482-431 en route to the 61-38 win, but it’s hard to argue with their efficiency on short fields. Delaware had scoring drives of 68, 65, 62, and 55 yards in the first half, so they did sustain some drives, but the second half saw points on drives of 34, 33, 4, 66, 23, and 34 yards as Missouri State had some turnovers and other mishaps.

Clearly Delaware is a different team with Minicucci. He was hurt against Virginia and the team lost 42-3. He also missed the losses to Liberty and Middle Tennessee. With him in the lineup, they are 3-2 and even scored 26 points in a 35-26 loss to Vanderbilt.

Western Kentucky would love to have a difference maker like that at QB. So far, Rodney Tisdale Jr. and Brock Glenn have both gotten reps. Tisdale has a 4/2 TD/INT ratio, but has been sacked 11 times. Glenn has a 5/2 TD/INT ratio and has only been sacked four times, but has also only completed 52.3% of his 128 passes. Tisdale has nine fewer pass attempts and 13 more completions. Glenn, though, is also the team’s second-leading rusher.

Glenn has started the last two games, both wins over Missouri State and Sam Houston State. But, he was just 14-of-30 for 127 yards against the Bearkats in that 16-3 win with just 2.5 yards per carry on 22 attempts. The Hilltoppers had some offensive line issues in that one to say the least. On the whole, this is not the type of offense that you would expect from Clay Helton, as the Hilltoppers have 4.89 YPP and rank 127th in the nation.

Defensively, the Hilltoppers are 111th in YPP allowed, but it should be noted that they have only allowed 4.72 YPP in three C-USA games. They were torched in the non-conference portion of the season, understandable with Georgia and Indiana among the opponents. Unfortunately, the offense hasn’t really perked up in conference play just yet.

Delaware’s playing a really high-variance style in league action. They’ve allowed 6.73 YPP and gained 6.1. Of course, those numbers need an asterisk without Minicucci in the lineup, but he’s not playing defense and that unit has been awful.

Of the bets here in this game, I prefer Western Kentucky -1.5, as their defense should be the best unit on the field, plus they’re well-rested. The Hilltoppers played five road games out of their first seven games, including trips to Reno and Las Cruces. A chance to catch their breath should help here.

At time of writing, Circa was one of very few books with WKU as an underdog. I still prefer -1 or -1.5 on the WKU side to taking Delaware in this one.

Pick: Western Kentucky +1

Sam Houston State at Missouri State (-4.5, 49.5)

Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN2)

Missouri State has allowed 116 points in three conference games thus far. The total number of points scored in Sam Houston games has been 111. So, this should be an interesting one, as the Bearkats have only mustered 30 points worth of offense with their 0-3 start to C-USA action, not exactly what the administration had in mind when longtime OC and Air Raid disciple Phil Longo was hired as the head coach when KC Keeler left for Temple.

While the Bearkats’ record is awful, three of their six losses are by six or fewer points. Two of their uncompetitive losses are Texas Tech and Liberty. However, their only win came against FCS Nicholls in a 59-0 drubbing, so they’ve only scored 82 points in six games against FBS opponents. Incredibly, against some pretty subpar competition, Sam Houston has just 3.94 YPP in conference games.

Missouri State has racked up better than six yards per play against C-USA foes. Unfortunately, they’ve also allowed more than six yards per play. That does make this a pretty tough handicap. The Bears have the better offense, but also pretty clearly the lesser defense. The offense has also had an uptick with Henry Belin IV now the starter over Skyler Locklear. Belin has a 6/4 TD/INT ratio with a 67.6% completion rate and has thrown for 300+ in back-to-back games.

Thus, I lean towards Missouri State, but it’s not an official play or a super strong take from me.

Check out picks from VSiN hosts and guests on this game and all of the Week 9 games on our Pro Picks Page.

“Our people are at the core of our success, and our team has shown leadership and commitment to supporting our clients, industries, and partnerships through strong corporate citizenship, supporting causes in the communities where we live and work.” – Neal Coleman, President & CEO, Pulse

At Pulse, we believe strong communities make strong teams and every year Pulse strives to support community wide causes.

In 2021, Pulse supported several community organizations financially, including the Calgary Food Bank, Canadian Cancer Society, Canadian Mental Health Association, Discovery House Family Violence Prevention Society, Distress Centre, Inn from The Cold Society, Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth, and YouthLink Calgary – Calgary Police Interpretive Centre.

Our committed team members also volunteer their time to support many community causes

and initiatives they are passionate about.

Echoing Our Sustainability Commitment, we want to show our work and commitment to building a sustainable future for our industry and to all those with whom we work.

“Sustainability is embedded throughout our corporate strategy, recognizing the link between environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives and value creation are aligned with our goals and priorities.” – Pamela Wicks, VP Finance and Chief Financial Officer.

For more details about Pulse’s commitment to sustainability and community, please view or download our ESG Report.

As we mark Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, our thoughts are with Indigenous communities. We remember the 150,000 children taken from their homes and sent to residential schools and those who never returned. We are wearing beaded orange shirt pins to honour the Survivors. We are reflecting and learning more about the history of Canada’s residential school system and the lasting effects on Survivors and their families, communities, culture, and traditions.

These pins were made by Kristy Puskar, a sixth generation Métis crafter, and owner of Silver and Ivy Beads. Kristy donates a portion of all pin sales to local and national Indigenous and Métis led organizations. In further support, we have made a donation to one of these organizations, Calgary’s Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth (USAY) to support their many successful programs, which empower urban Indigenous youth to envision and attain a healthy and sustainable future.

Pulse was proud to support Team Canada again this year in the 2023 World Ringette Championships held here in Calgary, Alberta, from October 29 to November 4, 2023. Our contribution to Ringette Canada went directly to help cover the athletes’ costs, as many of them travelled to Calgary from other provinces throughout Canada.

We at Pulse were excited to cheer on the young athletes representing our country, including Calgary U21 team member 19-year-old Regan Meier and a group of employees who attended an exciting Canada versus Finland game.

The 2023 World Ringette Championships were a celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Ringette showcasing the fastest game on ice.

“Our people are at the core of our success, and our team has shown leadership and commitment to supporting our clients, industries, and partnerships through strong corporate citizenship, supporting causes in the communities where we live and work.” – Neal Coleman, President & CEO, Pulse

At Pulse, we believe strong communities make strong teams and every year Pulse strives to support community wide causes.

In 2021, Pulse supported several community organizations financially, including the Calgary Food Bank, Canadian Cancer Society, Canadian Mental Health Association, Discovery House Family Violence Prevention Society, Distress Centre, Inn from The Cold Society, Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth, and YouthLink Calgary – Calgary Police Interpretive Centre.

Our committed team members also volunteer their time to support many community causes

and initiatives they are passionate about.

Echoing Our Sustainability Commitment, we want to show our work and commitment to building a sustainable future for our industry and to all those with whom we work.

“Sustainability is embedded throughout our corporate strategy, recognizing the link between environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives and value creation are aligned with our goals and priorities.” – Pamela Wicks, VP Finance and Chief Financial Officer.

June 7, 2023 — As part of Pulse’s commitment to sustainability, we have partnered with the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area in their reforestation project and supported their educational programming. In 2023, the first year of our three-year partnership, we held our initial Pulse team tree-planting day to assist in the restoration of forests and ecosystems. The original idea behind this partnership was to plant trees to help offset the energy used in Pulse’s office space.

On June 13, 2024 the Pulse employees returned to the Ann and Sandy Cross Conservation Area (ASCCA) for our 2nd annual tree planting day. In 2023 we entered into a three year partnership with ASCCA to support their ongoing rewilding and education initiatives. After the Pulse team spent a day planting tree species native to the area, the Midnapore 75th Boy Scouts troupe volunteered their time to plant the remainder of the trees purchased for 2024. The ASCCA hosts thousands of students every year, including many youth who are new to Canada. We are very proud to support their environmental education in nature.

In the summer of 2024, Pulse sponsored The Mustangs, an Advanced Special Olympics Softball Team in Calgary coached by one of our employees. With Pulse’s help, the team received new uniforms which they wore proudly to compete. We are happy to be included in the supporters of Special Olympics Alberta, assisting in the provision of programs, mentorship and resources required by the athletes, coaches and volunteers to change the lives of thousands of individuals with an intellectual disability across Alberta.

On March 24, 2026, Pulse employees volunteered their time with an incredible organization supporting Calgary’s school communities — Brown Bagging for Calgary Kids (BB4CK).

The BB4CK community works to improve food security for children and families across Calgary, currently supporting 290+ schools. With 2 in 5 children in Alberta experiencing food insecurity, thousands of kids right here in Calgary rely on school lunches for the energy they need to learn, grow, and thrive.

For over 35 years, BB4CK has connected community support to children who need it most and now reaches around 8,000 students every school day. We’re proud to be part of this important work, grateful for the opportunity to give back, and look forward to continuing our support in the years ahead.

Just two weeks ago, we introduced Snowflake Decision in Cortex AI Functions in private preview. Built specifically for classification, scoring, filtering and routing, it tackles high-volume tasks with bounded answers. Instead of open-ended text, it returns a typed answer, such as a specific category, a numerical score or a yes/no probability, that your workflow can act on directly.

Our customers quickly highlighted the need for “arcade speed” for decisions sitting inside interactive or latency-sensitive workflows, such as live routing steps, real-time fraud checks or an agent's first triage hop. In these environments, speed is critical.

Today, in private preview, we are expanding the Snowflake Decision offerings to address these needs with the following capabilities, all backed by the same governance, access controls and audit policies you already rely on:

- snowflake-decision-fast: A lower-latency variant of snowflake-decision built for workloads where response time matters just as much as decision quality.

- REST API support: Call Snowflake Decision models through Cortex AI Gateway, allowing applications, services and agents outside of SQL to use structured decision-making.

- Cortex AI Functions: snowflake-decision-fast is natively available through AI_COMPLETE in SQL.

Seeing decisions in motion: Real-time text classification

To demonstrate the interactive power of snowflake-decision-fast, we built a real-time text classification application. As a customer types a support ticket, such as a complaint about being charged twice, the application quickly evaluates the live text to make three simultaneous decisions: routing the ticket to the right team, flagging urgency and reading the customer's sentiment.

On every keystroke, the interactive application evaluates the current text state and asks the model bounded questions to determine the next workflow step. This interactive capability can be executed externally via the Cortex AI Gateway:

import os

from typesafe_sdk import Choice, Noul, Score, TypeSafeClient

client = TypeSafeClient(

api_key=os.environ["SNOWFLAKE_PAT"],

base_url="https:///api/v2/aigateways/",

model="snowflake-decision-fast",

)

response = client.system_one(

state=(

"hi i have a question about my account. i was charged twice for my "

"subscription and would like a refund. i need this resolved today "

"before our finance 5pm cutoff. this is the 3rd time i contacted support."

),

questions={

"needs_attention_now": Noul(

instructions="Does this ticket need attention now because it is urgent or time-sensitive?"

),

"team": Choice(

instructions="Which support team should handle this ticket?",

criteria={

"billing": "Payments, invoices, subscriptions, duplicate charges, refunds.",

"technical_support": "Product bugs, outages, broken integrations, API issues.",

"account_access": "Login, password, MFA, locked account, authentication.",

"sales": "Pricing, plan upgrades, renewals, contracts, purchasing.",

"general": "Unclear, mixed, or uncategorized requests.",

},

),

"customer_tone": Score(

instructions="How frustrated does the customer sound? This is about tone, not issue severity.",

criteria=["Calm", "Frustrated", "Very frustrated"],

),

},

)

print(response.nouls["needs_attention_now"].noul)

print(response.choices["team"].choice)

print(response.choices["team"].probabilities)

print(response.scores["customer_tone"].score) # 0=Calm, 1=Frustrated, 2=Very frustrated

Here it is in action:

Figure 1: With our text classification tool, you can create a support ticket, and snowflake-decision-fast makes three decisions at once, in real time: who should handle it, how urgent it is, and how the customer feels.

This interactive use case highlights the core mechanics of decision models:

- Construction bounds: The app offers only valid moves as choice options. The model cannot return an invalid action, removing the need for parsers, retry loops or complex error handling in your code.

- Probabilities as the product: The model returns the chosen value and per-option probabilities rather than free-text reasoning. A highly confident 0.99 for a "Billing" route provides a definitive signal you can threshold on for live workflows.

- Visible latency: The live interface relies on near-instant decisions as the user types, with endpoint round trips consistently completing in under 300 ms. Running on snowflake-decision-fast ensures that the latency remains low enough to provide a seamless, real-time user experience.

Scaling to massive table operations

While the REST API is ideal for single-shot, interactive decisions, the same structured decision-making capabilities are also available through Cortex AI Functions, enabling developers to apply classification and routing logic directly to large data sets using simple SQL.

Consider a global support platform that needs to triage and route millions of incoming tickets or messages every day. Using a general-purpose LLM for a narrowly defined classification task can introduce unnecessary complexity, cost and processing overhead, particularly when each record requires only a small set of structured decisions.

By using snowflake-decision-fast in AI_COMPLETE, teams can apply the same decision logic across entire tables without building separate inference pipelines or managing external API integrations.

For example, the following query classifies incoming support tickets by routing queue and determines whether each ticket requires escalation, returning structured outputs ready for downstream processing:

SELECT

ticket_id,

AI_COMPLETE(

model => 'snowflake-decision-fast',

prompt => TO_JSON({

'state': ticket_body,

'questions': {

'routing_queue': {

'type': 'choice',

'instructions': 'Determine the correct support queue for this ticket.',

'criteria': {

'billing': 'Invoices, payments, or subscription changes',

'technical': 'System errors, bugs, or API issues',

'account': 'Password resets or profile updates'

}

},

'requires_escalation': {

'type': 'noul',

'instructions': 'The customer is expressing extreme frustration or threatening to churn'

}

}

})

)::VARIANT AS decision_output

FROM incoming_support_tickets_10m;

What works for a real-time REST API call scales to high-volume classification, offline scoring and asynchronous triage directly within your data pipelines.

Speed at quality you can trust

The landscape of structured AI decision-making is evolving rapidly, and we are iterating quickly to improve both the quality and the raw execution speed of our models. Our engineering focus is to aggressively push the frontier of decision accuracy on established benchmarks while simultaneously driving down latency and compute costs for real-time applications.

snowflake-decision-fast is our latest step in giving developers the exact performance profile their architecture demands, and you can expect rapid, ongoing updates to model quality in the coming months.

Figure 2: The average accuracy and time to process table rows. The difference between snowflake-decision and snowflake-decision-fast is calculated using our internal decision benchmark.

Getting started

To request early access to the decision models, reach out to your Snowflake account team. A representative will follow up with next steps, including comprehensive private preview documentation.

Fast, structured decisions open up patterns that weren't practical before: agents that check each step before acting, pipelines that score every record as it lands and live workflows that route in real time. The question shifts from "Can we afford to put AI here?" to "Where else could a decision go?"