Preseason Prediction Accuracy (2000-2004)

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

Magazine	Rank	Total Score	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000
Phil Steele's	1	711	125	155	153	148	130
CPA Rankings [Web Site]	2	713½	155	138½	146	155	119
The Sporting News	3	718	133	146	131	173	135
Lindy's	4	726	148	149	150	155	124
Athlon	5	736	147	149	144	162	134
GamePlan	6	737	145	141	154	165	132
College Football News [Web Site]	7	743½	127	149½	162	180	125
Street & Smith	8	761	143	147	155	180	136
ATS Consultants	9	781½	160½	167½	148	158½	147

This page shows the accuracy of preseason magazines' conference predictions for the five-year span 2000-2004 ("the last five years" 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 "1993-2004 (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.