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The Sporting News Is No. 1 TSN and Lindy's lead this year's class of college football previews, while Athlon and Street & Smith's lag behind. Reading a college football preview magazine is in many ways like reading a menu at a Chinese restaurant. There’s a lot there to read, but you end up just looking over the same stuff all the time - the stuff you like. “I’ll take the sweet-and-sour chicken.” ... “I’ll read about the SEC.” Rarely do you venture over to the “special diet menu” or, in the case of the college football previews, the Division I-AA, II or III coverage. But obviously those options are important to some people or they wouldn't be there, the trick is finding the right magazine that caters to your wishes. That’s where ArmchairQB.com comes in. We’ve read, ranked and reviewed the six major college football preview magazines. Below, we present the best and worst from the group as well as each magazine’s review and preseason top 25. We also present a consensus top 25 that combines the lists from the seven magazines and compares it to the AP and ESPN/USA Today preseason polls. At the end of the season, we will compare the final top 25 lists with the preseason lists to see which magazine was most accurate. So, with some Moo Shu Pork in one hand and the mouse in the other, read up on the best and worst of this year’s college football preview magazines. Best Magazine(s): It’s very close and depends on what you want. If you seek a complete look at Division I-A and Division I-AA, then buy The Sporting News. If you only need to know Division I-A, then Lindy’s is a very good choice, although again you can’t go wrong with TSN. Lindy’s has more feature stories, while TSN has better team previews. Worst Magazine: Athlon. It has no conference previews, no notes on the upcoming season and no feature stories. Just 112 team previews (one for each I-A team) and a weak article (see below) ranking the best units by position in college football. (Dis)Honorable Mention: Street & Smith’s.
Overall Rankings:
Best Magazine for Gamblers: Phil Steele’s. It includes gambling trends for each game of the 88 teams it previews in depth (which is all I-A teams, except those in the MAC, Big West and some small independents). Along with other statistical information that gamblers may find interesting, it also has at least five articles with gambling advice for the upcoming season. If you are interested in college football “for amusement purposes only,” don’t even waste your time with Gameplan, Jeff Allen’s or Jim Feist's, which are other preview magazines geared to gamblers, because this is the magazine that you want. Best Article: Tony Pettis’ piece in Preview Sports on Tee Martin, who is replacing Peyton Manning as quarterback at Tennessee. Pettis shows that replacing Manning at Tennessee isn’t - and won’t be - the toughest thing that Martin has to do in life. Honorable Mention: Philip Singerman's story on Central Florida's Daunte Culpepper in Bob Griese's. Worst Article: Malcolm Moran’s position unit rankings in Athlon. Not only does the story have some odd choices (it has Maryland with the third-best linebacking corp in the country, and Florida - with All-American candidates Jevon Kearse and Johnny Rutledge - isn’t even in the top five), but it also doesn’t explain or describe its choices besides the top one or two (of five) at each position. Best Team Previews: The Sporting News edges Phil Steele’s because it’s easier to read and it give you previews for all I-A teams. Phil Steele’s, though, gives you more information (two whole pages for the 88 teams in the major I-A conferences) than any other magazine; the problem is that it is loaded with his abbreviations. The abbreviations save space but make it awkward to read. Worst Team Previews: Street & Smith’s. The magazine offers only a few, often uninsightful paragraphs on each team. Best Conference Previews: Lindy’s and The Sporting News. They are both very good and very informative. Preview Sports also has good conference previews but is just a grade below the top two. The others lack any previews of substance. Best Position Rankings: Lindy’s spends two pages on each position, ranking the best team units. This will be useful for those who like to watch with an eye toward the NFL draft. Best Division I-AA coverage: The Sporting News. Each I-AA conference gets its own preview story and each I-AA team has its own analysis. Honorable mention: Street & Smith’s. Best Non-Division I, I-AA coverage: Bob Griese's. Along with giving an overview on the top 25 teams in Division II and in Division III, it also previews NAIA and JUCO - the only one of the seven magazines reviewed that did that. Writers Cramp: It isn't uncommon to see the same bylines appear in more than one preview magazine because it is easier for the magazines to pay a writer for a story than to keep its own year-round staff. However, this year, it seems like we kept bumping into the same names. Unofficially, Michael Bradley, described in one magazine as a writer based in Philadelphia, has the record; his byline appears in four of the seven magazines reviewed. Unanswered question: Why do some college football preview magazines continue to include pages of cheerleader pictures? If the reader was truly interested in that, there are other, better alternatives than a college football preview magazine. But for those of us interested in college football, those pages could be better used. Of the seven magazines read for this story, the following three includes sideline pictures: Athlon, Lindy’s and Preview Sports.
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The most complete and comprehensive. Other magazines may offer better
parts, but TSN’s sum is clearly the best. 
Has
many well-written articles, but the six-page story about replacing
coaching legends failed to discuss or even mention Doug Williams
taking over Eddie Robinson's job at Grambling. A major omission.
Has
neat, slick look; is very easy to read
Solid
one-page team preview for most Division I-A teams.
Filled
with stats and information that bettors of college football will
love.
Good
news, bad news. The good news is that it gives equal amount of coverage
to I-AA teams as it does Division I-A teams. The bad news is that
it gives equal amount of coverage to I-AA teams as it does Division
I-A teams. Its coverage of Division I-A is woefully underwhelming
when compared to other mags.
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