Updated 2016 Toughest Conference.

Producing the 2016 College Football Preview magazine is an all year venture. Once the magazine is off to the press I am already working on next years magazine, and of course, the upcoming college football season. During the season I work a little over 100 hours a week and have 12 TV's in front of me on Saturdays, watching every game.

The magazine process begins in earnest the Sunday after Thanksgiving each year. At that time there are plenty of teams whose seasons are complete and only take Christmas day off in the 6 months of magazine season, working every weekend. During these 6 months I work a little over 2000 hours on College Football with my staff pouring in an additional 10,000 hours. I begin with the first write thru process. During the season a service sends us all the newspaper stories for each team that was written every day each week. We put these stories into a report and when doing the first write thru process, I re-read each of the these stories and go day by day during the season, which gives me a real good feel for the season that just passed.

I spend 4-5 hours on each team during this process and there are 128 teams, so that is roughly 576 hours spent just on that part of the magazine. I do this for roughly two months. I then have a preliminary set of my 9 sets of power ratings.  By the end of January I spend about 5 weeks working on my (pre pre) All-Conference teams and the rest of the miscellaneous pages like: “Turnovers = Turnaround,” “Stock Market Indicator,” “Toughest conference,” etc.

The 2nd write thru begins at the start of March and I spend about 6 weeks on this process. The team’s rosters are updated, we plug in the new freshmen and JUCO signee’s, and keep track of all transfers coming in and going out. I then update all 9 sets of my power ratings. In mid April I begin calling coaches, trying to talk to as many as I can, while also watching EVERY televised spring game.

After spring practices end I begin the 3rd write thru process and this takes about 3 weeks. I add in what I learned in the spring and modify the magazine pages with a 3rd write thru. The next step is talking to my NFL guys to get their input on my projected 1st round and NFL lists in the magazine. This year I received input from Gil Brandt, Mel Kiper, Phil Savage, Todd McShay, Patrick Woo, Josh Buchanon, Aaron Taylor, and Marcus Spears, among others. I then put together my All-American and All-Conference teams. I start finalizing as many pages as I can and at this time am back to working an average of 100 hours a week as I come in at 6:30 am and leave around midnight each day. The entire staff puts in long hours as we proof each team page 4 or 5 times and keep up to date on all the May transfers. Still, there are just not enough hours in the day. This year, on June 2nd, the last page had to be at the press.
I asked my guy who sends the pages to the printer electronically if I had seen all the pages and he thought I did. As it turns out, there were a few that slipped thru the cracks and one of them was the “Toughest Conference” article.

I did my final “Toughest Conference” for 2015 in February and that is solid, but I only did a preliminary “Toughest Conference” for 2016 with my first set of power ratings, which was after the 1st write thru. As an example, at that time I had Baylor my #8 team in the country, but that was with Art Briles at the helm along with my #18 rated recruiting class. By June 2nd, I knew Briles was gone and my magazine is the only one to list Jim Grobe as head coach as we went to the press later than every one else. They have also lost basically half of that recruiting class and have only about 70 scholarship players and are no longer a top ten team in my rankings. This was not reflected on page 40 as that page was sent to the press with my January/February notes and was not updated for that one block in Purple titled "Toughest Conference for 2016."

I just went thru the ratings this morning for each team and plugged them into my toughest conference chart and here is the list that should have appeared in this years magazine. The changes were small.

1. SEC
2. ACC
3. Pac 12
4. Big Ten
5. Big 12
6. American
7. Mountain West
8. MAC
9. CUSA
10. Sun Belt

With Florida St and Clemson, the ACC has TWO top 5 teams and have a shot at getting both in the playoffs. The Coastal Division is much improved as well, and by the slimmest of margins, are ahead of the Pac 12 in my ratings.

The probable key factor to the ACC's rise is reflected in my “Experience Chart” in the magazine on page 29. I factored in the average EXPERIENCE ranking for each league. The SEC's average of the experience rankings is 70.7. Three of the other top conferences are in that same area with the Pac 12 at 71.3, Big Ten at 73.3 and Big 12 at 73.2. Amazingly the ACC has an average experience rank of 46.2!! 13 of their 14 teams rank #80 or better and 10 are in the top 60. That vaults the ACC to #2.

The Big Ten was the 2nd best conference last year but lost a ton of talent to the NFL! The SEC as always led with 51players selected in the draft, but The Big Ten had 47 selected, which was the closest they have been to the SEC in that category in quite some time! The Pac 12 only lost 32 players and the ACC and Big 12 each had 26 selected. That was a little more of a talent drain on the Big 12 as they have just 10 teams and the ACC has 14. The Big 12 was the only Power 5 team with only one team in my top 10.

Three ways to get a copy of Phil Steele's 2016 College Football Preview

#1. Order now: The trucks with the magazines have arrived at our office Wednesday June 15th. Order your Phil Steele's 2016 College Football Preview now thru the office or online at our store and we will send out your copy within 24 hours. The cost is 12.99 + $6.80 for shipping ot take advantage of our 2 magazine special. Get a pair of Phil Steele's College Football Previews must be sent to the same address and pay just $28.99.

Take advantage and order now because when the magazine hit the newstands on June 28th they will sell out quickly. Don't be left out from getting the best College Football Preview on the market. Order today online at the Phil Steele Store or call 1-866-918-7711.

#2. In Stores Now. The Magazine will be available at these Seven retailers.
• Barnes & Noble • Books-A-Million • CVS • Publix • Target
• Walgreens & Now Returning to ALL Walmart Locations nationwide!

2016 College Football Preview
available right now on iTunes & Google Play!

#3. Available now: The digital copy on the Phil Steele 2016 College Football Preview is now available on the iTunes app store and on your Android device thru the Google Play Store. Just search for the Phil Steele Football app in your respective devices store, download the app and purchase the 2016 College Magazine there for just $9.99.

1). it will save you wear and tear on your printed magazine. If you get both you can use it as your mobile version of the magazine and that will keep your actual magazine from getting dog eared and torn up early in the year. The NFL version will be available Mid July.

2). It’s easy to use and works perfectly for both the iPhone, iPad and any Android Devices. The download process may take up to 10-15 minutes but that’s because we have over 350 pages jam-packed with information!

3). Non-U.S. Customers: The magazine will not be on the newsstands in Canada or internationally, the only way to get the 2016 College Football Preview is to order through our office and the cost could be close to $50 (includes shipping) or get it on iTunes or Google Play for just $9.99.

For exact cost for Canada & International shipping email customer service: Here

4). It’s only $9.99! On the newsstand, the magazine will cost you $12.99 + $6.80 shipping.

Please note: after downloading and purchasing the App, please make sure you search for 2016 if the old 2015 cover/edition comes up on your screen.