Daily Blog •May 16, 2012 |
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Today’s blog is about accuracy. I take great pride in the accuracy of my predictions in the magazine. I write each of the 124 team previews myself while most of the other magazines have each conference written by a different writer from that conferences area. I put my name on the front of the magazine and my goal each year is to pick every conference perfect. Naturally that is an unreasonable goal but my magazine is the MOST accurate over the past 14 years and it is not really close.
This year, Brandon Pertner who is one of the Assistant Editors here and a former radio producer and talk show host was kind enough to write an article on my magazine being the most accurate over the last 14 years. The scores are figured by taking each publication's forecasting accuracy by comparing the predicted finish with the actual finish of each team in the conference.
In the last 14 years my overall score is 1,957. The closest magazine to me is Athlon at 1,990. That is a 33 point difference which is almost five touchdowns!!! Keep in mind this chart is similar to Golf scores in that the lower the score the more accurate the magazine.
Recently I have taken home 3 titles in the past eight years (2004, 2006, 2008)! In 2004, I had one of my best years and finished with just 125 points, which was 8 points better than my closest competitor The Sporting News. In 2006, I again won the title this time by 5 points over Athlon. Four years ago I bagged another title and this time I won by 4 points over Sports Illustrated and last year I just missed out on taking home another season title by a single point.
While I consider any year that I do not win the title to be a disappointment, last year I finished with a total score of 148 which put me #2 in the standings (Gameplan #1 with 147). Without a doubt the goal this year is to be back on top and hopefully see me take home my 4th season title in 9 years.
If you have any questions on the chart or need further explanation please refer to pages 316-317 of this year's magazine or visit stassen.com
Check back tomorrow to get the first glimpse at my preseason 2012 All-SBC and All-MAC teams!!!