Review the Preview: The Sporting News

For day two of the week long series of reviews of the national preview magazines, the blog moves on to look at the Sporting News.

Once again, I will look at the things I like, things I don't like, and the infamous "What are they smoking?!?" category.

What's to like

• Best Big XII mascot: Ralphie the Buffalo. Nothing beats a live mascot, and although I am partial to Bevo, he doesn't have the charisma of Ralphie.
• SEC's best fans: Alabama. Can anyone really dispute that?

What's not to like

• Ryan Mallet on the front cover. Mallet has yet to throw a single pass for the Razorbacks, but he is gracing the cover of said preview magazine. Here are the list of his credentials: signed with USC, couldn't beat out the biggest flop in this year's NFL Draft, transferred to Arkansas.
• No 2008 schedules on team preview pages. Sure, they may have the offensive and defensive coordinators listed, but I want to know how this team fared last season.
• Once again, Brandon James 1st team AA PR. Javy is all the way down on 3rd team. Apparently stats and performance mean nothing when compared with the name on the FRONT of the uniform.
• No SEC players on 1st team AA defensive line. Terrance Cody and Greg Hardy at least show up on the 2nd team, but Auburn's Antonio Coleman is no where to be found on any team. I'm on page 13 and this mag is losing credibility fast.
• Clemson 4th in ACC Atlantic. CJ Spiller is still on the roster, and Dabo Swinney did a great job after Tommy Bowden stepped down last season, resurrecting the Tigers season and managed to win the rivalry game with South Carolina.
• Pitt rated as an A- team. Two problems with this: 1) VT and FSU are both rated as A- teams as well and 2) Pitt is not even in the Top 25, but an A- team?
• Penn St. has six guys on the All-Big Ten team, Ohio State has one, but the Buckeyes are picked to win the league...again. This is one wacky magazine.
• Top NFL prospect in Big XII: Sergio Kindle, LB, Texas. Sam Bradford would have been the #1 pick this season, but wouldn't be next year?
• Magazine ends without bowl predictions all in one place. Wow, this was a waste of money.

What are they smoking?!?

• Alabama will be just as good as last year, but get jumped by two teams? The fearless forecast says that LSU will be back and better than Alabama and Ole Miss will win ten games. The SEC is going to be good, no doubt, but to say that both Ole Miss and LSU will just Bama is a bit of a stretch.

Top Ten

1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. USC
5. Ole Miss
6. Virginia Tech
7. Oregon
8. LSU
9. Ohio State
10. Oklahoma State