Preseason Prediction Accuracy (1993-2009)

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

Magazine	Rank	Total Score	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997	1996	1995	1994	1993
Lindy's	1	2,382	151	168	137	171	129	148	149	150	155	124	152	117	126	92	123	126	164
GamePlan	2	2,396	132	141	145	174	157	145	141	154	165	132	157	126	118	111	132	122	144
Athlon	3	2,404	144	141	135	158	134	147	149	144	162	134	149	120	129	109	138	149	162
The Sporting News	4	2,432	150	154	140	170	145	133	146	131	173	135	155	124	140	99	141	132	164

This page shows the accuracy of preseason magazines' conference predictions for the fourteen-year span 1993-2009 ("all-time," as long as my preseason consensus has been produced, going into the 2010 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 "2007-2009 (last three years)" table, a "2005-2009 (last five years)" table, and a "2000-2009 (last ten 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.