College football preview mags

I got a few magazines today, some are new for me and one of Phil Steele. What magazine do you put the most stock in?

 

Phil Steele has the most information. Lindy's and Athlon suck.

 

I like the Sporting News one. That one and Street & Smith's are the only ones I ever see here.

 

The Sporting News is the best of the lot. The rest are very amateurish.

 

Sporting News is the best if you want readable content. For pure info in the most condensed form possible, Phil Steele's is the way to go. All others are largely a waste of time.

Good as it is, Sporting News needs to pay more attention to consistency in their content. For example, their FSU preview says in the first paragraph "it would be a surprise" if they won more than nine - meanwhile right above it, they're picking them to finish 10-2 and ranking them 11th. Huh?

 

The previews are generally written by a beat reporter of the team.

The predictions are generally made by the mag's editors. Hence the difference.

Check the bylines on the stories, or the list of contributors in the front of the mags if they have no bylines. Most are beat writers and have a fairly solid reputation. I'm willing to bet many of them are in the SportsJournalists.com family and reading this very thread!

What often hurts is the previews must be done by early April, even before some programs have started spring practice. A lot happens between then and June/July as far as injuries, ineligibilities, etc., to change a team and that can't be reflected in the story.

There's a ton of info in Steele's, if you're a gambler that's the one to buy. It's also very hard to read and graphically a disaster.

TSN, S & S, Lindy's and Athlon are all quite readable. Lindy's and Athlon's publications that are conference-specific are way better than the watered-down national version. Their generally far more accurate than Sports Illustrated.

And the extra $450-$500 every July is nice too.

 

The Sporting News will no longer produce yearbooks in St. Louis. There still will be Sporting News yearbooks, I am told by an editor in St. Louis, but he said the Sporting News titles will replace the Street & Smith's titles and be produced in Charlotte by the folks who currently do Street & Smith's.

Sounds like some of us might be out of at least one free-lance gig.

 

The AP College Mag Preview Poll

1) Phil Steele
12) Sporting News

Also Receiving Votes: etc. etc.

 

Agree with most. Phil Steele makes the most sense to me and has been the most accurate and consistent.

 

Phil Steele's reads like it was written by a first-time stringer. It has information, but it's so damn poorly presented.

 

Mostly, Phil Steele puts 10,000 words on one page, and about 75 of them concern the 2007 season. The rest is recent history.

I do read it but Lindy's, Athlons and TSN is more readable.