The death of college football preview magazines

[mrsimperless]

Is apparently upon us. Or at least me. Or at least in the Indy area.

I've been to no less than 10 stores (Target, Meijer, WalMart, Waldenbooks and Walgreens to name a few) and I've yet to find what I'm looking for. Other than an extremely hot sugar-mama with an unquenchable thirst for my loins this consists of a national college football preview magazine with summaries of all Div I schools including analyses of position groups, expected startes, some stats for returning players, schedules, conference outlooks, etc. Such a guidebook is the only thing that helps me through the season as I watch countless games on TV. I'm pretty sure Athlon and Street & Smiths both make such a beast along with at least one other monster of a magazine I've purchased in years past that was geared towards the betting man, but so far all I've seen is the SI preview which was apparently written by monkeys.

Of course there are about five different fantasy football magazines per store for all you toolbags out there, but no college football preview.

What. The. Hell.

[st.cronin]

I've seen about 3 different pubs pretty much just like you described. Go to Borders.

[cartman]

We have a whole store in Austin with only college football preview mags, or so it seems! Maybe a trip up towards South Bend will yield a greater selection for you.

[JonInMiddleGA]

There's at least a half dozen such standard college football preview mags on the rack at both my local CVS and Ingles. If we've got 'em here in this bedroom community for Hooterville, I gotta figure you're falling victim to some sort of weirdness with the local magazine distributor or something.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Is apparently upon us. Or at least me. Or at least in the Indy area.

I've been to no less than 10 stores (Target, Meijer, WalMart, Waldenbooks and Walgreens to name a few) and I've yet to find what I'm looking for. Other than an extremely hot sugar-mama with an unquenchable thirst for my loins this consists of a national college football preview magazine with summaries of all Div I schools including analyses of position groups, expected startes, some stats for returning players, schedules, conference outlooks, etc. Such a guidebook is the only thing that helps me through the season as I watch countless games on TV. I'm pretty sure Athlon and Street & Smiths both make such a beast along with at least one other monster of a magazine I've purchased in years past that was geared towards the betting man, but so far all I've seen is the SI preview which was apparently written by monkeys.

Of course there are about five different fantasy football magazines per store for all you toolbags out there, but no college football preview.

What. The. Hell.

I was gonna type this yesterday, :) It sucks All the major books stores carry Fantasy football and no preview mags. A few years ago another football fan and I were talking about something like this happening and now it has. :(
I dont give a crap about gambling I just care about previews of teams.

[Tigercat]

If you get a chance I would go for Phil Steele's above all the others. A little less professionally done, but you can tell there is much more football knowledge behind it. His rankings are always the closest to the end of the season.

[timmynausea]

I used to buy as many of these I could get my hands on when I was a kid. The summer before the 1995 season I probably bought 10 of them. Now I don't even bother looking at them. The internet, my friend. The internet.

[sooner333]

If you get a chance I would go for Phil Steele's above all the others. A little less professionally done, but you can tell there is much more football knowledge behind it. His rankings are always the closest to the end of the season.

I will second this...I really like Steele's stuff.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

I will second this...I really like Steele's stuff.
As long as there's no Fantasy Football junk I'll get it.

[Icy]

Profootballweekly store has one, i'm thinking about buying ita s you can download it as PDF:

http://www.pfwstore.com/detail.aspx?ID=223

[Klinglerware]

If you get a chance I would go for Phil Steele's above all the others. A little less professionally done, but you can tell there is much more football knowledge behind it. His rankings are always the closest to the end of the season.

I've bought Steele's magazine for years now. I always looked forward to the "incoming recruits" rankings for each school, where Steele aggregated the rankings from the main recruiting services. You just couldn't get that stuff inexpensively at the time (mid-90s)...

[digamma]

I will second this...I really like Steele's stuff.
Thirded.

[Emiliano]

I got Phil Steele's college football preview the other week, it's really great. It has a huge amount of information. It's my first "preview magazine" purchase ever, so I don't have comparison, but I'm really impressed. It has 2 pages for each team, conference previews and a lot of other stuff that I don't even read yet. From what I read on the internet, it's the best for college football. It seems I was really lucky to find it...

Anyway, I need some advice from you football maniacs. Phil Steele's college football preview came with a coupon that says you can get his NFL preview magazine for free. Obviously, this offer is good only for US residents but I was willing to pay for it since I'm liking a lot his college one. The problem is: the international newspaper stand where I got it doesn't have it, and it doesn't seem to arrive.
It only has the following ones:

-Lindy's
-Pro Football Weekly
-Street&Smith

Since I really want to purchase an NFL preview now, which one do you guys suggest and why? Differences? Reviews?

Thanks a lot.

[General Mike]

I picked up all the major college football preview magazines about 3 months ago.

Phil Steele's is the best. Than Athlon regional. Lindy's, Athlon and Sporting News national are all about the same, and then you have Street and Smith's. That's just awful.

I got all of them at either Border's or Barnes and Noble.

[Emiliano]

Which one do you suggest me for pro football?

[General Mike]

Which one do you suggest me for pro football?

I didn't really buy any. Just some generic fantasy football mag. I don't even know if you can get a good perspective from pro football preview mags because so much changes from the time they are printed in June or so, to the end of August.

[larrymcg421]

I stopped buying these when I discovered http://www.collegefootballnews.com

[andy m]

its a shame they stopped producing this book:

http://www.potomacbooksinc.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=50537

(as far as i can tell)

[Emiliano]

I stopped buying these when I discovered http://www.collegefootballnews.com

Hey good stuff in there man, thanks for the link.

[cartman]

Wow, Emiliano. I guess they ship the magazines only to Rome, because I looked all over Milano for them, but never found any, for either College or NFL football. I had to wait for a trip back to the US to get one.

[Emiliano]

Wow, Emiliano. I guess they ship the magazines only to Rome, because I looked all over Milano for them, but never found any, for either College or NFL football. I had to wait for a trip back to the US to get one.

I don't know, I guess I was very lucky to find one, and one of the best also. Football coverage is pretty bad here (as you know: Italians=soccer) but I found this newstand that has all the international magazines and newspapers, I also bought ESPN and Sporting News in the past. I think it's like the only one in Rome that sells this type of stuff.

[tucker342]

It's a little expensive, but the Blue Ribbon Yearbook is fantastic.