Preseason Prediction Accuracy (1999-2003)

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

Magazine	Rank	Total Score	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999
CPA Rankings [Web Site]	1	707½	138½	146	155	119	149
Phil Steele's	2	729	155	153	148	130	143
Lindy's	3	730	149	150	155	124	152
Athlon	4	738	149	144	162	134	149
The Sporting News	5	740	146	131	173	135	155
Jim Feist's	6	742	141	148	162	129	162
GamePlan	7	749	141	154	165	132	157
Street & Smith	8	756	147	155	180	136	138
ATS Consultants	9	779	167½	148	158½	147	158

This page shows the accuracy of preseason magazines' conference predictions for the five-year span 1999-2003 ("the last five years" going into the 2004 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 "2001-2003 (last three years)" table, and a "1993-2003 (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.