Three months from tonight – Thursday Sept. 1 - UTC, U. of Tennessee, Vanderbilt, South Carolina and a few other schools across the nation kick off a long weekend to start the 2016 season with eager anticipation and high hopes for a great season.
The weekend schedule also includes a pair of ACC-SEC games with North Carolina-Georgia in Atlanta and Ole Miss-Florida State in Orlando on Labor Day evening, plus PAC-12 –SEC games with USC-Alabama (Arlington, Texas) and UCLA at Texas &M plus Notre Dame at Texas.
To help the college football junkies get through the summer months, a handful of pigskin magazines are ready to give 2–deeps, predictions, coaching changes, the best of the best incoming freshman, complete schedules and more.
Here is a look at three college football magazines; Athlon, Lindy’s and The Sporting News. Phil Steele’s will be at newsstands later in the summer
How Did They Miss This One?: This writer noticed that none of the three magazines have a story on the 100th anniversary of the Ga. Tech-Cumberland Bulldogs (Lebanon, Tenn.) game of Oct 7, 1916 with the Yellow Jackets winning, 222-0 … game was played at Grant Field – the second oldest field (field, not stadium) in the South, behind the field at the Univ. of the South (Sewanee ) …a big omission by all three.
Athlon –
Positives: The one page preview of all FBS teams is clean, easy to read and includes the 2016 schedule, 2015 results, a 2-deep with returning starters highlighted, and a good write-up on both sides of the ball, plus special teams and a list of each teams 2015 rankings in offensive and defensive categories.
A good section on a top 5 of teams in categories including quarterbacks, running backs, offensive and defensive lines and defensive backs and linebackers.
FCS - Could be Better: Magazine includes a 2-page section with short preview of the top 25, including Chattanooga at No.7, and The Citadel at No.10 plus a pre-season All-American team.
(See TSN analysis)
A section of FCS 2016 schedules by conference plus independents is needed (but not included).
What’s Needed – A FBS Top 25 wit short write-ups … More Info on Small Colleges: Athlon needs to add a 2-page section (similar to FCS preview) on the top 25 for D-II, D-III and possibly NAIA and junior colleges
Overall – Worth Buying … excellent preview of FBS teams with easy to read copy, but needs better coverage of football at other levels. Interesting breakdown by position by team (Top 5 .. i.e. “Athlon Awards”) and good Q&A with Clemson’s DShaun Watson and Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield.
The Sporting News
Positives: FBS Top 25 with short write-up for each team … full page for all teams in the major conferences with 2-deep (little hard to read), 2016 schedule (no 2015 results) and includes good section on 2015 team stats … all FBS schedules in the back, alphabetically, plus 2015 conference final standings for FBS and FCS
Beyond FBS- A+: 30 plus section on FCS teams (each team has a short preview by conference), plus top 25 preview for D-II and D-III and top 10 for the Juco teams and Prep All-Americans
Could Be Better: Conference USA, the Mid American, American Athletic, Mountain West and Sun Belt previews are mostly 2 teams to a page with a couple of top teams gaining one full page.
Improvements: All schools in the FBS should have a full page preview ….
Overall – It’s Worth Buying … gives readers the plentiful FCS and small schools sections and good write-ups on FCS schools which is not in Athlon … for the real junkies,
the section in the front on new destinations for coaches and players is informative
Lindy’s
Positives: Good, short preview write-up on Top 25 (as does TSN), but not Athlon)… and Top 25 Recruiting write-ups … Rating of FBS teams 1-128 with short note on each (as does Athlon) … top 5 players by position and top 5 schools by position (Athlon also has top 5 by school) .. excellent section on players by position (more in depth list than Athlon; TSN does not have a section highlighting the top players by position)… list of key conference games at the start of each conference section …. Team previews are good with starters (no 2-deep), 2016 schedule and 2015 results and short write-up on both sides of the ball … list of FBS national schedules in the back
Outside the FBS … good section on the FCS by conference and a top 25, plus top 25 for D-II and D-III … needs NAIA and Juco pages
Could Go Either Way: Lindy’s has story on 8 schools in Alabama, from ‘Bama and Auburn to Troy, Jax State, Samford, etc.
But since the magazine is sold in Tennessee, Lindy’s should have stories on several Tenn schools. Could generate more sales in the state don’t you think. i.e. magazine is published in Birmingham .. go figure
Overall – It’s Worth Buying … has info the other three don’t have such as more in depth section on players by position nationally …
Selected Games Thursday Sept.1
Shorter at Chattanooga
Appy State at Tennessee
South Carolina at Vanderbilt
Tulane at Wake Forest
Tenn Martin at Cincinnati
Oregon State at Minnesota
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net