The Jim Thorpe Award for the best defensive back in college football was created in 1986. It was conceived by former Oklahoma City talk show host Ed Sossen and W. Lynne Draper, the Jim Thorpe Association Executive Director, as a way to do something positive to promote Oklahoma. The award was immediately accepted as one of the nation’s top collegiate sports honors.

This year I am pleased to report that I will be picking the Jim Thorpe Award player of the week each and every week this season and we will have a special page devoted to the Thorpe Award on the PhilSteele.com site weekly. Read more…

Today I have added some videos on the PhilSteele.com site. They are from an interview I did with Bruce Drennan on Sports Time Ohio where I did a conference-by-conference preview of the 2010 season. Below is my preview for the SEC. My other conference previews can be found by clicking here.

Phil Breakdowns the SEC

We are only 50 days away from the start of college football season and today I want to talk about a couple of new features on PhilSteele.com.

First, for the past few weeks on Facebook I have been taking requests for some of my early forecasts for 2010’s top games. Today I featured the top 5 most requested games from the past two weeks. Here are my early forecasts for those games. Read more…

Recently I just finished up the last several weeks on 1AA football, which is also known as the FCS. I must admit that when the NCAA changed the name from 1AA to FCS I fought the change. I have known it as 1AA for a long time and that was imbedded in my head. After the past couple of weeks and years I am getting a little more comfortable calling it FCS but at times I still mix that up with BCS or FBS or whatever other initials are going around right now.

When comparing the amount of coverage the FCS gets in preview magazines it pales in comparison to the FBS. This year, Lindy’s has 4 pages in their national magazine devoted to the FCS. Athlon devoted none and The Sporting News who merged with Street and Smiths in ’08 had 18 pages devoted to 1AA or FCS teams last year. Read more…

The national preview is out and you should be able to find it at any major bookstore like Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million bookstore. If you cannot find it there you can probably pick it up at any Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart or any large grocery chain as well.

If you still are unable to get your hands on this year’s magazine and simply cannot wait please feel free to use our PhilSteele.com store and order it online for just $13.70 (shipping included).

The PhilSteele.com store was finally finished last summer and you can order any Phil Steele publication on there from the national college preview, the three regionals, the pro magazine to past issues of my magazines. Read more…

This year when you add up the national Phil Steele’s College Football Preview, the three Regional Magazines and the NFL magazine we are closing in on printing close to a million magazines. Now when you factor in the actual printing cost, shipping and distribution of the magazine and my staff of roughly 30 people, the cost becomes exorbitant. My employee’s work on nothing but football year round and I would like to thank them for the massive amount of man hours it takes to produce these in depth and meaty magazines.

To do all the research that we do and print all the magazines, the costs continue to climb. This year you will notice we have expanded our advertising in the magazine and are pleased to have our new advertisers but are still happy to have fewer ads than the competitors. These advertisers are crucial for me to keep expanding the amount of information that we produce every year. There are two things you can do to keep us putting out more and more information. The first is to buy the magazine at the newsstands or ideally buy the entire set of magazines plus my Frosh Report thru the offices and get them sent to you priority mail for just $54.95. The second as you continue to read on is to patronize our advertisers. Read more…

THE POLLS ARE OPEN!!!

The last couple of years I have I put up a poll for everyone to pick who would win each conference game during the year. I found these results fascinating prior to the year. When you vote in the poll, it tabulates the current % of votes for each team in each individual game. Here are the results of the fan poll from 2009.

When initially reviewing the results I was quite impressed with the accuracy as you the fans did quite well in numerous conferences. In fact, when I calculated the results (similar to what stassen.com does for all the major preseason college football magazines) you guys finished #1!!!! Read more…

About a year ago I created a facebook fan page. Since football is my area of expertise I sometimes am behind in the latest technology. However, I learned very quickly that it was easier and quicker for me to answer your questions on Facebook than our previous “Questions and Answers with Phil Steele” section developed on the website in 2008.

I usually check the Facebook Fan Site 3 or 4 times a day and if you have been keeping track I think we have had an overwhelmingly positive response as I love to answer as many questions as possible.

Nearly a month ago I sent out a message on Facebook and promised that when I reached 5,000 fans, I would hold what I call, a live one-hour “chat session” and answer all of your questions. During the “live chat” post your questions as you normally do on the Fan Page (in the what’s on your mind box) and I will answer them as quickly as possible. I will not be talking via the “chat” box as it would be impossible to respond to each question posted in an IM forum. Read more…

First of all, I want to wish you and your families a very happy and safe Memorial Day Weekend! Since many of you will be away from your computers this weekend, today’s blog will be posted until Tuesday June 1st. If you do want to get your hands on my 2010 College Football Preview before it officially hits the newsstands on June 8th, you can order it anytime this weekend thru our offices by calling 1-866-918-7711 or just visit the PhilSteele.com store.

In case you missed it yesterday I was on ESPN College Football Live breaking down my Top 25 with Host Eric Kuselias and specifically my surprise #1 pick. It is a short segment but if you get chance, check it out here. Read more…

It is finally confirmed, the truck will be here bright and early on Tuesday, June 1st! That signals the “official” start of the College Football season when you have your Phil Steele College Football Preview in your hands. Way back on Thursday May 13th we sent the final pages to the printer for this years 2010 Phil Steele’s College Football Preview. The magazine was printed, bound and then put into boxes and stacked onto pallets. And as I type this the pallets are being loaded onto trucks and will be heading off to the newsstands and book stores around the country and a shipment will be sent to our office. Read more…