luckadjusted
CFB Week 4 · 2026

Week 1 2025 · August 30, 2025

Southeast Missouri State at Arkansas State, Week 1 2025: who deserved to win?

Arkansas State beat Southeast Missouri State 42–24, and the replays back it up: with the way both teams actually played, Arkansas State wins 10 of 10.

Before kickoff Arkansas State was an 84% favorite.

Final

Southeast Missouri State Redhawks 24
Arkansas State Red Wolves 42

August 30, 2025 · Centennial Bank Stadium · Closing line: Arkansas State −15.5

Luck index +2 Arkansas State about even · −2 Southeast Missouri State

Each team’s own plays from this game, resampled into new drives 4,000 times: with the way both teams actually played, how often does this performance win? How the replay works

Ten replays. Southeast Missouri State wins 0, Arkansas State wins 10.

  1. 1 SEMO 10 ARST 17
  2. 2 SEMO 13 ARST 24
  3. 3 SEMO 14 ARST 30
  4. 4 SEMO 0 ARST 20
  5. 5 SEMO 10 ARST 31
  6. 6 SEMO 10 ARST 35
  7. 7 SEMO 0 ARST 28
  8. 8 SEMO 3 ARST 35
  9. 9 SEMO 7 ARST 45
  10. 10 SEMO 7 ARST 52

Three other ways to ask

Each answers a different question, so none of them replaces the replay above.

The closing betting line, turned into a probability. What everyone knew before the game.

The line plus what this game showed, weighted by how much one game can tell. It stays close to the line because one game says little.

Every kick, fumble bounce, conversion and judgment call redrawn; everything else fixed. The narrowest view of luck.

How 4,000 replays ended

Southeast Missouri State wins 2% of them, Arkansas State 98%. The line is what actually happened: Arkansas State by 18.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Southeast Missouri State by 17+0.1%
Southeast Missouri State by 9–160.4%
Southeast Missouri State by 1–81.8%
Level after regulation0.4%
Arkansas State by 1–86.0%
Arkansas State by 9–1611.7%
Arkansas State by 17+79.6%

Where the luck was

What the luck was worth

Every lucky and unlucky play, weighted by the moment it happened: its swing in win probability, added up by kind. A missed kick in a decided game counts for nothing; the same kick at the end of a tie game can be most of a win.

Swings add up across a game, so in one that went back and forth they can pass 100%. On the scoreboard the same luck was worth +5.7 points to Southeast Missouri State: the final margin was Arkansas State by 18, without the luck Arkansas State by 23.6. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).

Penalties: Southeast Missouri State 7 for 51 yards, Arkansas State 7 for 70 yards

Every accepted flag, in order, and what it did to the helped team’s chance of winning at that moment, including any play it wiped out (points on the scoreboard in grey). A flag in a decided game is worth nothing; one at the turn of a close game can be worth most of a win. Judgment calls count toward luck, pre-snap fouls mostly don’t. How calls are valued

WhenFlagWin probability for
Q1 15:00 False Start on Arkansas State, 5 yards · pre-snap +3% SEMO +2.7 pts
Q1 9:13 Holding on Southeast Missouri State, 0 yards +1% ARST +0.7 pts
Q1 9:13 False Start on Arkansas State, 5 yards · pre-snap +1% ARST +1.3 pts
Q2 14:03 Pass Interference on Southeast Missouri State, 15 yards +1% ARST +1.6 pts
Q2 10:13 Pass Interference on Arkansas State, 15 yards +2% SEMO +1.6 pts
Q2 10:13 Holding on Southeast Missouri State, 10 yards +1% ARST +0.6 pts
Q2 1:37 Pass Interference on Southeast Missouri State, 1 yard 0% ARST +0.8 pts
Q3 10:18 Pass Interference on Southeast Missouri State, 15 yards 0% ARST +1.6 pts
Q3 10:18 False Start on Arkansas State, 5 yards · pre-snap 0% ARST +0.9 pts
Q3 5:16 False Start on Southeast Missouri State, 5 yards · pre-snap 0% ARST +0.6 pts
Q4 14:16 Holding on Arkansas State, 10 yards 0% SEMO +0.6 pts
Q4 7:51 Personal Foul on Arkansas State, 15 yards 0% SEMO +0.9 pts
Q4 7:51 Offside on Southeast Missouri State, 5 yards · pre-snap 0% ARST +0.4 pts
Q4 3:43 Personal Foul on Arkansas State, 15 yards 0% SEMO +1.6 pts

When it happened

Arkansas State’s chance of winning

Numbers mark the biggest luck moments, listed below.

Our in-game win probability: the score, the value of the possession and the time left, starting from the betting line. Overtime has no clock and is drawn at a fixed width. Shaded above the middle while Arkansas State was ahead in it, below while Southeast Missouri State was.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 Q1 7:13 Southeast Missouri State converted 3rd & 33rd & 4th downs · 57% expectedSoutheast Missouri State converted 3rd & 23rd & 4th downs · 66% expectedSoutheast Missouri State converted 3rd & 33rd & 4th downs · 57% expectedSoutheast Missouri State was stopped on 3rd & 43rd & 4th downs · 51% expected +5% SEMO SEMO: Field goal
2 Q2 15:00 Southeast Missouri State was stopped on 3rd & 63rd & 4th downs · 41% expected +3% ARST SEMO: Field goal
3 Q2 14:03 Arkansas State was stopped on 3rd & 33rd & 4th downs · 58% expectedJ. Keller made a 40-yard field goalKicks · 72% expected for himPass Interference on Southeast Missouri State, 15 yardsJudgment calls +3% ARST ARST: Touchdown
4 Q2 10:13 Pass Interference on Arkansas State, 15 yardsJudgment callsHolding on Southeast Missouri State, 10 yardsJudgment calls +1% SEMO SEMO: Turnover
5 Q2 9:19 Southeast Missouri State fumbled and Arkansas State recoveredFumble bounces · loose balls are close to 50/50 +3% ARST SEMO: Punt
6 Q2 9:05 Southeast Missouri State was stopped on 3rd & 93rd & 4th downs · 32% expected +1% SEMO SEMO: Punt
7 Q2 5:18 Arkansas State was stopped on 4th & 13rd & 4th downs · 79% expectedSoutheast Missouri State was stopped on 3rd & 93rd & 4th downs · 32% expected +1% SEMO ARST: Touchdown
8 Q2 1:37 Arkansas State converted 4th & 13rd & 4th downs · 72% expectedPass Interference on Southeast Missouri State, 1 yardJudgment calls +1% ARST ARST: Touchdown

Adjust the assumptions

Disagree with how much of a fumble bounce or a pass interference call is luck? Change it and the coin-flip replay reruns in your browser.

Only coin-flips re-rolled

Southeast Missouri State 0% · Arkansas State 100%

Final margin
Arkansas State by 18
Luck in points
5.6 for Southeast Missouri State
Luck-adjusted margin
Arkansas State by 23.6
Replay with same day's form
Southeast Missouri State 2% · Arkansas State 98% unchanged: why
How much of each is luck?

0% treats it as skill, 100% as pure luck. The tick is our fit.

What counts

None by default: our tests measured no carryover after a lucky break. Slide it up to count a break for more than its own swing. Why

Flip a play

Force the other outcome, in this game and in every replay: a made kick becomes a miss, a stop becomes a conversion, a flag goes the other way.

About these numbers

Play-by-play and expected points from CollegeFootballData.com via cfbfastR; win probability from our own model of the score, the possession and the betting line; kicks valued against each kicker’s own record. College play-by-play has no charting of drops or interception-worthy throws and no injury reports, so those kinds of luck aren’t counted here.

Methodology and validation · All Week 1 2025 games · Southeast Missouri State · Arkansas State

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