 "Photo: Northcoast Sports")
With only 36 days left until the Longhorns take to the field for the 2007 football season, now is when most college football fans start researching and dissecting their team and the competition in a manner that would befit any intro biology class. And in the world of college football magazines, Phil Steele serves as the professor.
Steele created Phil Steele's College Football Preview 13 years ago after using various preseason magazines to compile data for his sports service business and finding that there simply wasn't enough information available.
Since originally hitting the shelves in 1994, Steele has been on a mission to bring fans the most complete season outlooks for all NCAA Division I schools.
"I just like to have information on top of information, and if there's a stat out there that I can squeeze into the magazine, I'll do it," Steele said. "It's like using 119 different media guides rolled into one."
The 2007 edition of the magazine is 328 pages of statistics and analysis interspersed with 143 abbreviations, allowing for the most possible information to be crammed into college football's unofficial textbook.
Steele writes virtually the entire magazine himself, spending around six months of countless hundred-hour work weeks each year to prepare his "labor of love" for publishing.
"Just having my name on a college football magazine is a real treat, because I've been a huge college football fan since I was 5 or 6 years old," Steele said. "I can't imagine myself doing anything else besides college football."
Every Saturday and Sunday, Steele sits in his Cleveland, Ohio, office staring at 12 television screens broadcasting various games from across the country, and either he or someone in his office takes notes and charts the play-by-play on every single game. In addition to weekends spent watching 12 games simultaneously, Steele spends numerous hours reading hundred-page reports accumulated by various staff members assigned to different conferences.
The facts and figures are then used to make up each team's two-page spread that logically organizes data into sections that include positional outlooks, projected starting lineups, top newcomers and "Phil's Forecast" for the season. Additionally, the team pages consist of upcoming and past schedules, statistical leaders and the squad's offensive and defensive units' averages. For many, the design can create a feeling of information overload.
"I'm the type of person that wants numbers on top of numbers on top of numbers, and that's how I laid out the magazine," Steele said. "So, if we do find a criticism, it generally is that the type is small and we are probably the least eye- pleasing, most intimidating magazine out there."
However, according to Stassen.com, Steele's methods have also made his magazine more accurate than his competitors such as Lindy's, Athlon, The Sporting News and Street & Smith. By Stassen's calculations, Steel was the most accurate magazine in the nation last year, as well as over the past three-, five- and eight-year periods.
Unfortunately for Longhorn fans, Steele predicts that Texas will finish second in the Big 12 South behind Oklahoma, but that doesn't mean he's not enamored with the team.
"Here's a team that might not just win the Big 12 South, but could very well be up there playing in the national title game," Steele said. "I have them number six in the country overall. I love the offense."
Steele believes that if Texas can survive the rivalry games against Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl and Texas A&M in College Station then it could be a rematch between the Longhorns and the USC Trojans at the BCS National Championship game in January. But for now, Steele believes that it will be LSU taking on USC for the coveted crystal football.
Either way, it's certain that one of his 12 TVs will be tuned into the game.
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