Preseason Prediction Accuracy (2000-2002)

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

Magazine	Rank	Total Score	2002	2001	2000
CPA Rankings [Web Site]	1	420	146	155	119
Lindy's	2	429	150	155	124
Phil Steele's	3	431	153	148	130
Jim Feist's	4t	439	148	162	129
The Sporting News	4t	439	131	173	135
Athlon	6	440	144	162	134
Game Plan	7	451	154	165	132
ATS Consultants	8	453½	148	158½	147
College Football News [Web Site]	9	467	162	180	125
Street & Smith	10	471	155	180	136
Blue Ribbon	11	472	159	177	136

This page shows the accuracy of preseason magazines' conference predictions for the three-year span 2000-2002 ("the last three years" going into the 2003 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 "1998-2002 (last five years)" table, and a "1993-2002 (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.