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Lindy's,
Fla. St. No. 1
AQB
Names Lindy's Best College Football Preview;
6 Preview Magazines
Combine To Vote Florida St. No. 1
By
George Stahl
NEW
YORK (AQB)--Do you realize that the college football season starts
Saturday?
Yeh, that's
the same reaction we had.
Whether it's
because of vacation or the late start of the NFL season, it seems
like college football has sneaked up on a lot of people. So to help
you prepare for the upcoming season, ArmchairQB.com has reviewed
the major college football preview magazines to help you find the
right one for your tastes.
After reading
eight of the leading preview magazines, we have learned a few things.
First, Lindy's is the best preview publication;
second, Florida State is the leading
choice among the magazines to win the National Championship
this season; and third, there are more Internet gambling sites than
we ever imagined.
Below, you will
find:
At the end of
the season, we will compare the final top 25 lists with the preseason
lists to see how the magazines compare.
Hopefully, this
will help you find the right magazine to prepare for the rapidly
approaching season.
Best
Magazine: The choice was easy this year - Lindy's
National College Football edition. The 208-page publication
jumped over last year's No. 1, The Sporting News,
because of its improved team previews, excellent features and impressive
position rankings. The only drawback is that it focuses exclusively
on Division 1-A.
Worst Magazine:
Jim Feist's College Football Insider.
The team previews are a joke, the features are just extensions of
the handicappers' ads (in some cases, the same picture is used for
the ad and the story), and even the "The Girls of the
Vegas Desert" is a misnomer because it's the same woman over
three pages. (Dis)Honorable Mention: Athlon,
the worst of the "legitimate" magazines.
Overall Rankings:
Most Improved
Magazine: Preview Sports. Last
year, Preview Sports was a distant third behind Lindy's
and The Sporting News. This year, it's still third but seriously
challenged TSN for the second spot. The editing was better,
the writing crisper and Michael Bradley's look at a century of college
football, which included all-decade teams from each decade, was
one of the best features among all the preview magazines.
Although we
prefer Lindy's over The Sporting News and TSN over
Preview Sports, the average college football fan can't
go wrong with any of the three.
Best Magazine
for Gamblers:
Phil Steele’s. Phil Steele's 1999
College Football Preview not only kept its title as the best
magazine for bettors, but it actually got better. Now, the 248-page
publication - 40 more than last year - includes at least one full
page on every I-A team, with two pages on the 89 biggest I-A schools.
If Phil Steele, who does the majority of the writing, would allow
others to submit a feature or two, then this magazine could seriously
challenge the top three.
Best Article:
John McGrath's look in Lindy's at the 100 most important
people in college football this century is the appropriate choice
in this year of the list. While there are some questionable choices
among the 100 (Buddy Ryan? Yes, that Buddy Ryan), it is clear that
McGrath did his homework with selections like Dick Beede, who in
1941 was the first game official to mark a penalty by dropping a
flag. McGrath only ranks the top 10 people, of which the top
six are all dead and have been so for at least 16 years.
Honorable
Mention: Michael Bradley's story on a century of college football
in Preview Sports.
Worst Article:Stephen
Graham's profile of new South Carolina coach Lou Holtz in Football
Action '99. On a well-covered topic, this was easily the
worst of them all. (Dis)Honorable Mention: Any article
in Jim Feist's.
Best Team
Previews: The Sporting News edges Preview Sports
because its previews are consistently more comprehesive. Preview
Sports still suffers from some weak outlooks. Honorable Mention:
If you can get through all his self-created abbreviations, Phil
Steele’s previews are loaded with information.
Worst Team
Previews: Jim Feist's. This magazine is awful. (Dis)Honorable
Mention: Street & Smith's.
Best Conference
Previews: Lindy’s and The Sporting News have very
good and very informative conference previews. Preview Sports
and Phil Steele's improved theirs but remain a notch below
the top two.
Best Position
Rankings: Lindy’s blows away the rest of the field by
devoting two pages on each position.
Best Division
I-AA coverage: Street & Smith’s. The best thing about
this magazine. Honorable mention: The Sporting News.
For some unknown reason, TSN didn't provide equal amount of coverage
for 1-AA conferences Metro Atlantic, Northeast and Pioneer, as well
as the Independents, as it did for the other 1-AA teams.
Best Division
II, III: Street & Smith’s. Didn't have much competition.
Best Recruiting
Report: Athlon. The magazine has one feature story but
yet includes nine pages reviewing recruits. Honorable mention:
Lindy's, which breaks the top 25 recruiting classes.
A still unanswered
question: As we asked last year, why do some college football
preview magazines include
pages of cheerleader pictures? If the reader was truly interested
in that, there are other, better alternatives than a college football
preview magazine. And for those of us actually interested in college
football, those pages could be better used.
Lindy's
attempted to soften the pictures by including descriptions of the
cheerleaders photographed, such as their major and community activities,
but the fact is the pictures are still there. The other magazines
that include photo layouts of cheerleaders are Preview Sports,
Athlon and Jim Feist's, which is actually just many
pictures of the same woman over three pages.
Back
to top
Go to individual
magazine reviews and their top 25 lists
Go to the consensus poll
and notes on the magazines' top 25 lists
MAGAZINE
REVIEWS
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Lindy's
Top 25
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1.
Florida St.
2. Tennessee
3. Arizona
4. Penn State
5. Texas A&M
6. Michigan
7. Florida
8. Ohio State
9. Kansas State
10. Nebraska
11. Miami, Fla.
12. Va. Tech
13. Wisconsin |
14.
Ga. Tech
15. Notre Dame
16. Georgia
17. UCLA
18. Alabama
19. Colorado
20. Marshall
21. USC
22. Texas
23. Arkansas
24. LSU
25. Syracuse |
1.
Lindy's (National)
 Has,
by far, the best feature stories. The topics include a history of
college football this century, Lou Holtz, Phil Fulmer and Drew Brees
The
Holtz feature was the best of its kind in any of the magazines
Has,
also by far, the best position unit rankings, devoting 16 pages
to the subject
The
team previews are solid, especially on those schools in Lindy's
Top 25, to which the magazine devotes a whole page
No
Divisions I-AA, II and III in 208-page magazine
Tried
to ease the outrage over including pictures of cheerleaders by sticking
in descriptions of the young women, all of whom were white. The
descriptions didn't work
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The
Sporting News Top 25
|
1.
Penn State
2. Florida St.
3. Tennessee
4. Arizona
5. Florida
6. Nebraska
7. Michigan
8. Texas A&M
9. Wisconsin
10. UCLA
11. Ohio State
12. Colorado
13. Miami, Fla.
|
14.
Ga. Tech
15. Georgia
16. Alabama
17. Texas
18. Arizona St.
19. USC
20. Notre Dame
21. Purdue
22. BYU
23. Kansas State
24. Arkansas
25. Marshall |
2.
The Sporting News
The
notes sections on Division I-A and on each conference are easy to
read and very informative
Previews
all Division I-A teams from the major conferences position-by-position
Good
I-AA coverage, although teams from the Metro Atlantic, Northeast
and Pioneer conferences, as well as the Independents, are inexplicably
handled differently
Surprisingly,
no feature stories in 206-page issue
Can
never go wrong with a Sporting News preview publication
|
Preview
Sports' Top 25
|
1.
Florida St.
2. Tennessee
3. Penn State
4. Arizona
5. Texas A&M
6. Michigan
7. Nebraska
8. Wisconsin
9. Miami, Fla. 10. Florida
11. Ga. Tech
12. Arkansas
13. Va. Tech |
14.
Kansas St.
15. Georgia
16. Ohio State
17. Colorado
18. USC
19. Notre Dame
20. Texas
21. Virginia
22. BYU
23. S. Miss.
24. Air Force
25. UCLA |
3.
Preview Sports
Most
improved magazine from last year
Has
neat, slick look; very easy to read
Above-average
team previews, conference previews and features
Includes
detailed All-America picks and Heisman projections
Devotes
one page each to Divisions I-AA, II and III
Again
no position unit rankings
Sadly,
still has the "Hometown Honeys" pictures
Markets
itself "for the serious fan." The 162-page publication
is almost there
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Phil
Steele's Top 25
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1.
Nebraska
2. Florida St.
3. Penn State
4. Florida
5. Tennessee
6. Va. Tech
7. Ohio State
8. USC
9. Wisconsin
10. Texas A&M
11. Arizona
12. Colorado
13. Miami, Fla. |
14.
Michigan
15. Alabama
16. Kansas St.
17. UCLA
18. Syracuse
19. Marshall
20. Virginia
21. Notre Dame
22. LSU
23. Louisville
24. Michigan St.
25. Auburn |
4.
Phil Steele's
Remains
the best magazine for college football gamblers. Includes trends
and angles on every major I-A game
Two-page
team previews are very comprehensive, although tough to comprehend
because of his self-created abbreviations. Gamblers and nongamblers,
though, will enjoy them
Expanded
coverage on MAC, Big West and small independents but still has nothing
on Divisions I-AA, II and III
Cheats
a little bit by including updated versions of the same articles
in the back of the magazine
|
Street
& Smith's Top 25
|
1.
Florida St.
2. Tennessee
3. Ohio State
4. Arizona
5. Nebraska
6. Michigan
7. Penn State
8. Ga. Tech
9. Florida
10. Va. Tech
11. Georgia
12. Texas A&M
13. Wisconsin |
14.
Purdue
15. Miss. St.
16. Virginia
17. Notre Dame
18. Colorado
19. Arkansas
20. Miami, Fla.
21. Texas
22. UCLA
23. Air Force
24. USC
25. Marshall |
5.
Street & Smith's
Gives
similar coverage to Division I-A and Division I-AA, which is great
for Division I-AA fans but hurts the magazine in comparison to other,
more Division I-A oriented magazines
Also
has more on Divisions II and III than any other magazine
Devotes
eight of its 156 pages to high school football
Team
previews are the briefest and least comprehensive
Includes
15-page "NCAA Special Section," which is a very soft look
at the upcoming season
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Athlon's
Top 25
|
1.
Florida St.
2. Penn State
3. Tennessee
4. Arizona
5. Texas A&M
6. Va. Tech
7. Michigan
8. Wisconsin
9. Ga. Tech
10. Nebraska
11. USC
12. Alabama
13. Georgia |
14.
Miami, Fla.
15. Ohio State
16. Colorado
17. Florida
18. Notre Dame
19. Virginia
20. BYU
21. Texas
22. UCLA
23. Kansas St.
24. Arkansas
25. Louisville |
6.
Athlon (National)
Ranks
all 114 Division I-A teams and gives a full-page preview on each
Team
previews are generally well-written
Has
the best recruiting report, devoting nine pages to the subject.
Offers
no conference previews but manges to squeeze in four pages of cheeleader
pictures
The
only feature in it, Malcolm Moran's 13 ideas for better college
football, includes wishes for the returns of Keith Jackson (which
he did IN JUNE) and the fumblerooski but makes no mention of a playoff
system. Priorities, people.
Uses
four of its 184 pages on Division I-AA. Includes nothing on II or
III
7.
Football Action '99
Provides
no preseason top 25 list.
Stephen
Graham's profile of Lou Holtz is the worst of any magazine.
Has
an average one-page preview on every Division I-A team, except for
new member Middle Tennesse State, which is not included
Table
of contents isn't always reliable and is missing Idaho from its
college team index. The preview is on page 79, if you care.
Provides
coverage to only a handfule of Division I-AA conferences
Clearly,
the 202-page book is geared to gamblers. My suggestion: Buy Phil
Steele's
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Jim
Feist's Top 10
|
1.
Florida St.
2. Michigan
3. Arizona
4. Arizona
5. Tennessee
|
6.
Colorado
7. Nebraska
8. Virginia Tech
9. UCLA
10. Miami, Fla.
|
| Sleepers:
USC and Texas A&M |
| The
magazine does not have a preseason top 25, rather just a top
10. The above list was not used in the consenus poll.
|
8.
Jim Feist's
Obviously
geared to gamblers
Has
slick look and feel but is horribly uninsightful
Features
only the 103 teams on the Vegas board
Difficult
to separate the handicappers' stories from their ads. In many cases,
the same picture appears on both
Offers
10 years of vegas stats and lines on each team. Phil Steele's, on
the other hand, provides five years
Doesn't
have pictures of cheerleaders but does include "The Girls
of the Vegas Desert," which is a misnomer because it's the
same woman over three pages
No
coverage of Divisions I-AA, II or III in the 232 pages. Just a lot
of ads and wasted paper
Back
to top
Go to best and worst of the college football
magazines
Go to the consensus poll
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AQB's
review of the 1998 college football preseason magazines:
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