The transfer portal is closed for now and the players have all declared for the NFL draft. Over the next 10 days I will go over the all-conference teams from 2023 and note who is coming back and who is lost for each team. This is in preparation for the page 28 of the magazine which is the All Conference points returning and lost.
Today we start with the Sun Belt. Many group of five head coaches I talk to say that with the advent of the transfer portal and NIL that they develop players only to have them leave before their senior seasons as they get plucked by Power Five teams. A quick check shows that all 12 First Team Offensive players from 2023 have left their teams due to graduation or the portal. On the defense only 5 of the 24 members of the First and Second teams defense return to their teams.
While these numbers may change by the time the magazine goes to the press in June, right now only three teams have a positive number on the chart with Texas State at +21 points (see page 28 magazine), ULM at +10 and Southern Miss at +3. Here is this year’s list and the players that are highlighted in yellow are the players returning and if they are not highlighted then they are gone.
Last year the VIP deal worked out tremendously. All VIP members had access to the magazine two days after we sent it to the press and they had EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to the digital magazine for two full weeks. The magazines were shipped priority mail to them as they rolled off the press and VIP members had the actual magazine in their hands about 3 weeks before it went on sale at Barnes and Noble. This year I have added a Super VIP in which you get two magazines and I am giving away the full year of Phil Steele Plus access ($99 value) all for just $69. Here is a link and we do send out the magazines on the FIFO method of First In (first ordered) First Out (first shipped).
