Preseason Prediction Accuracy (1993-2004)

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

Magazine	Rank	Total Score	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997	1996	1995	1994	1993
Street & Smith	1	1,626½	143	147	155	180	136	138	119	117	103	138½	110	140
Lindy's	2	1,636	148	149	150	155	124	152	117	126	92	133	126	164
GamePlan	3	1,647	145	141	154	165	132	157	126	118	111	132	122	144
The Sporting News	4	1,673	133	146	131	173	135	155	124	140	99	141	132	164
Athlon	5	1,692	147	149	144	162	134	149	120	129	109	138	149	162

This page shows the accuracy of preseason magazines' conference predictions for the twelve-year span 1993-2004 ("all-time," as long as my preseason consensus has been produced, going into the 2005 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 "2002-2004 (last three years)" table, and a "2000-2004 (last five years)" 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 here to visit the reviews index.
See the notes file for further information on the scoring process.