Preseason Prediction Accuracy (2017-2019)

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

Magazine	Rank	Total Score	2019	2018	2017
ESPN	1	368	109	126	133
Athlon	2	382	127	109	146
Sports Crunchers	3	384	121	121	142
DRatings.com	4	390½	127	114½	149
Gold Sheet	5	395	130	107	158
Arena Fanatic	6	398½	132½	132	134
Media Polls	7	399	131	123	145
Lindy's	8	404	127	120	157
Pick Six Previews	9	405	135½	119	150½
Phil Steele	10	406½	121½	126½	158½
McIllece Sports	11	408½	120	132½	156
Sports Formulator	12	414	136½	115½	162
CollegeFootballPoll.com	13	420½	127	131	162½
compughterratings.com	14	429	140	129½	159½
Street & Smith / The Sporting News	15	431	134	119	178
Simplified Football	16	443	138	141	164

This page shows the accuracy of preseason magazines' conference predictions for the three-year span 2017-2019 ("the last three years" going into the 2020 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 "2015-2019 (last five years)" table, a "2010-2019 (last ten years)" table, and a "1993-2019 (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.
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See the notes file for further information on the scoring process.