Preseason Prediction Accuracy (1999-2001)

See "notes" following the table for more information on its contents.

Magazine	Rank	Total Score	2001	2000	1999
Phil Steele's	1	421	148	130	143
CPA Rankings [Web Site]	2	423	155	119	149
Lindy's	3	431	155	124	152
Athlon	4	445	162	134	149
CNN/SI [Web Site]	5	446	177	125	144
Jim Feist's	6	453	162	129	162
GamePlan	7t	454	165	132	157
Street & Smith	7t	454	180	136	138
Preview Sports	9	455	168	134	153
The Sporting News	10	463	173	135	155
ATS Consultants	11	463½	158½	147	158

This page shows the accuracy of preseason magazines' conference predictions for the three-year span 1999-2001 ("the last three years" going into the 2002 season). In order to qualify for either table, a magazine must have been published for every year used in that table.

There is also a "1997-2001 (last five years)" table, and a "1993-2001 (all-time)" table.

Tables with more years have the advantage of having a larger sample of data: a single unusually lucky or unlucky year has less impact on the standings. However, tables with fewer years have the advantage of including more magazines: several of the magazines available today were not published if one goes back far enough.

Notes:

Lower scores are "better." The lower the score, the closer the magazine's predictions were to the actual results.
Some magazines don't predict every I-A conference; those included in this table are shown in bold. (Their scores include the "average" of other magazines' scores for the non-predicted conferences, plus a two-point penalty per non-predicted conference.)
Click on a magazine name to see a detailed review; or click here to visit the reviews index.
See the notes file for further information on the scoring process.