Detroit News "Cliffs Notes" of Big Ten Preview Magazines

The Big Ten Football Preview magazines have hit the racks much to the delight of information starved bloggers and fans alike. The problem is there is a mountain of information that is presented in the four major preview publications: Lindy's, Phil Steele, Athlon, and The Sporting News. It could take a long time to digest all that information. What can a college football fan do if they do not want to read all that information? Well, they could do the same thing they probably did in high school. Consult the "Cliffs Notes" version. In this case, that would be Detroit News sportswriter Dave Dye's article in the Thursday, June 15, 2006, edition of The Detroit News in which he summarized the findings of all four of the afore-mentioned preview publications.

Dave Dye, who covers MSU for the Detroit News, wrote the general consenus among the four magazines is that U of M will finish 2nd in the Big Ten Conference whereas opinions regarding MSU vary widely and have the Spartans finishing anywhere from 4th to 8th place next season. On the national scene, U of M has a preseason ranking ranging from as high #11 to as low as #17. Not surprisingly, MSU did not make any preseason top 25 polls. Although preseason rankings do not mean anything (see U of M's 2005 season), I still always like to be ranked higher than lower going into a season as that means we will have fewer teams to jump in the rankings on our way to #1 on the road to the National Title. Go Blue!