Preseason Football Mags Made Mistakes

By Nick Meyer
Associated Content

I had an old Street and Smith's NCAA Preview mag laying around so I thought I'd take a peek and see what some of their worst picks were in this season of the upset:

The Pick: Wisconsin at #3
The Badgers are currently unranked but are still a good team. Still, their defense has been surprisingly weak this year and that has been their downfall as well as a key injury to WR Luke Swan. Not a terrible pick but they underestimated Ohio State like most mags.

The Pick: Michigan at #5
UM lost the shocker to Appalachain State to kick this wild season off then got beat down by Oregon. UM had a ton of yards in the Oregon game but couldn't cash them in with points in the red zone and Chad Henne's injury ended all comeback hopes. Now they're on the rebound, though.

The Pick: Texas at #8
The 'Horns are still hanging around the Top 20 but you get the feeling they're ready to come apart a little more and lose two more games or so.

The Pick: Louisville at #10
The loss to Syracuse was unforgivable and the Cardinals haven't been the same since. Their defense is just too weak to contend.


The Pick: Arkansas at #12
Big mistake from the beginning in my opinion. I had the Hogs much lower in my predictions because they snuck up on people last year and had a poor QB in Casey Dick as well as an injury to top WR Marcus Monk.

The Pick: Ohio State at #15
We still don't really know how good the Bucks are due to their easy schedule but we'll find out in the last 4 weeks as they play PSU, UM, ILL, and WISC. Hard to say if this one is bad or not just yet although it looks bad now.

The Pick: UCLA at #17
Even with a walk-on at QB, there was still zero excuse for losing to Notre Dame at home with all the defensive talent this team has.

The Pick: Nebraska at #20
"Lincoln is alive with the tingle of anticipation." Sure, over Bill Callahan's potential firing, that is.

The Pick: TCU at #23
A tough loss against Texas was followed by a bad loss to Air Force and the Frogs' season was just about ruined.

The Pick: Oregon State at #24
Despite the big win over Cal, this hasn't been a banner year for the Beavers, who were shellacked at Cincinnati.