The portal is closed and all the underclassmen that are going to the NFL have declared for the draft. These next two weeks I will be posting the All-Conference players from 2025 and note which ones are returning and which ones are gone. Now if an All-conference player has transferred to another conference, I list him as GONE even if they are returning to play college football in 2026. Yes, the transfer portal has made things tough to keep track of.
There are roughly 1400 players on the lists from the All Conference and All-American teams. I am asking for your help. If you see a player that I have listed as coming back to his team this year and you know he is gone, please let me know. Also, if I list a player is listed as lost but they are coming back also let me know. There is a chance a player I had listed as a senior was granted a sixth or seventh year by the NCAA. You can email media@philsteele.com with any corrections of just give me a tweet letting me know. Last year I had to deal with a second portal window after spring and some players left but with a single portal window, there will be a lot less movement.
The fifth conference we will look at is the MAC. The MAC just added Sacramento St for 2026 and when the magazine comes out I will have them factored into this chart. I have HIGHLIGHTED in YELLOW the returning players and they are in black type while the players that are no longer on their teams are in red type. In the era of the transfer portal the Group of Five conferences took heavy hits not only losing seniors but losing their star players. Many of the G5 coaches I talked to understood that they were getting stronger classes of Freshmen due to the fact the P4 teams were taking more transfers and some of the top Frosh were slipping down. They also understood that once they developed a player into a star that they would likely lose that player to a team with more money to spend on NIL. The top G5 (now G6) league had just six 1st team players back. The Power 4 conferences have players leaving early for the NFL draft (more than the G5) so they do not have a ton more of first teamers coming back.
The MAC had a team in Northern Illinois leave the league for the Mountain Wst. The MAC ties the American for the top G6 league with six 1st team players back. They have four 2nd team and eight 3rd team retuning. That adds up to a total of 18 players returning off the first three teams and that is the third most of any of the G6 leagues. After I have gone thru all the conferences, I will be posting the All-Conference Points chart that has been in the magazine for years and was on page 28 of last years magazine. I use the following point system: 10 points to 1st Team All-Conf Player, 7 points to a 2nd and 4 points for 3rd. If a player is an All-American, he gets awarded an additional 5. If the player is returning it is a positive number and if the player is lost it, is a negative number. Every single conference has had a player drain, and the MAC came up with -380 points which was the third lowest score of any of the 10 conferences. Two of the G6 leagues do only have 8 teams so not as many points lost. The MAC was poached this offseason as many of its star players hit the portal for more cash or a move to the P4. The MAC was the second most heavily poached conference as 25 players that made first, second or third team MAC left via the portal! The MAC added one all conference player from South Alabama (to Miami) and Miami also snagged a NIU transfer.
This year in the magazine my All-Conference Points chart will include players transferring in that made all Conference in another league. The SEC added 8 players that were 1st, 2nd or 3rd team All-Conference in a P4 league with the Big Ten was next adding 7 the Big 12 just 3 and the ACC added only one. The Big Ten had a pair of coaches move from the Big 12 in Kyle Whittingham from Utah to Michigan and Matt Campbell from Iowa St to Penn St and those two brought some players with them. I will do a separate blog at the end of this series showing all the conference-to-conference moves of the top players and who benefitted the most. As mentioned, the G5/6 leagues lost a lot of players to the P4 leagues thru the portal especially if they made all Conference. The Big 12 actually added the most 1st team All-Conference players from other leagues with 19 which was more than doublethe #2 league as the SEC and ACC each added 9 and the Big Ten just 8. The American Conference added 2 both going from Southern Miss To Memphis following Charles Huff. Of the G6 leagues the American added 7 players who were all conference in another league which was more than double any other G6 league and in the All-Conference points returning in the magazine, that will help their totals. The MAC as mentioned added two transfers from “other” leagues if you include the NIU transfer (now MW) coming back to the MAC.
Five Great Options to get the 2026 College Football Preview Magazine!
2026 Magazine is the LARGEST ever! –I am pleased to say that the magazine is a labor of love, and I will continue to put out the magazine for years and years to come. I spend over six months working 80+ hours a week to produce a magazine of this detail. My staff spends the entire 6+ months working on the magazine as well. The cost of printing the magazine over the last 10-15 years has doubled plus getting it on trucks and to the stores is a large expense. The cost to mail the magazine also rises yearly. Labor costs have probably risen the fastest. I have held the line at $19.99 per magazine for the last 6 years not wanting to break that threshold but with the additions of North Dakota St and Sacramento St the magazine is the largest it has ever been. Back in 1995 the magazine was black and white on newsprint and had 192 pages. This year it is now 368 full color pages with two full pages on all 138 FBS teams. We will be bumping up the price this year. The new cost is $24.95 but the good news is you can still get it at all Barnes and Nobles for that price. Naturally if you buy online, we must charge you for shipping.
Option #1 – Buy the magazine for just $24.95 July 4th at Barnes and Noble! As I have chronicled many times Barnes and Noble stepped up in 2020 and basically saved the magazine buying them directly from me even with the possibility that football would not be played. I am forever grateful and there is nothing better than strolling into your favorite Barnes and Noble and picking up your 368-page book (can you really call it a magazine anymore?). I love going into Barnes and Nobles and can never leave with just one item. They have so many great books and stuff and I love the fact that there are so many Barnes and Nobles out there. You can also go into Books-A-Million as well as they are in some states that B&N is not. Those two locations are my Exclusive Book Stores and if you are in Las Vegas, you can get them at the Gamblers Book Store on July 4th.
Option #2 – Buy the digital magazine for $19.99. The price of the digital magazine will not increase this year as there have been no additional costs to producing the digital version. The best thing about the digital magazine is that it is updated all the way thru the month of September. If a coach gets fired (that has happened the last couple of years) we update it. If a player is injured and out for the year we CIRCLE him in the magazine. If a player is added late (very rare) we put him in. Any changes to the team from the start of June thru the month of September is updated in the digital version. When you go to the store you will not see a picture there, you need to click on Digital Editions and order it there. It will not be activated until the middle of June and once again the price for the digital will not be going up and it will remain $19.99 the entire year. ORDER HERE
Option #3 – Buy the Hard copy of the magazine for $24.99 PLUS SHIPPING. You get to choose the method of shipping, so the total cost depends on where you live and which of the Five types of shipping you choose. It will cost you in the ballpark of $10 for shipping and tax. When you buy the Hard copy, you GET the DIGITAL version of the magazine ($19.99) for FREE and it is updated thru September. Your access begins in the middle of June. You also get your choice of covers (National, SEC, Midwest, Southwest, West or East Coast) as these mail out about 10 days after the magazine goes to print. ORDER HERE
Option #4 – Order the VIP Bundle – The price of the VIP bundle is $44.95. With the VIP bundle you get the National Cover of the magazine but unlike the regular magazine orders we mail these as they roll off the press which last year was just 6 days after we sent the magazine to the press. You will be the first person in the country to have a copy in your hands, and the magazine will not be in Barnes and Noble until July 4th and the regular magazine orders do not get mailed out til the next week. You also get EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to the digital version of the magazine which is usually two days after we send it to the press and before the magazine is even printed! You get one week of EXLUSIVE ACCESS. You also receive FOUR Free issues of my Inside the Pressbox Newsletter ($20 per issue – $80 value) which gives you my Forecast and my computers forecast on EVERY FBS game each week. You also receive access to Phil Steele Plus ($25 per month) for the months of June, July, August and September! The VIP Bundle also includes SHIPPING so it is basically just $10 more than ordering the magazine by itself! ORDER HERE
Option #5 – Order the Super VIP Bundle – The price of the SUPER VIP bundle is $74.95. With the Super VIP Bundle you receive TWO magazines INCLUDING SHIPPING, mailed out as they roll off the press, EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to the digital version one week before anyone else, Four Issues of Inside the Pressbox ($80 value) the same bonuses that the VIP’s get. You also receive…
FCS Digital Magazine ($25) FREE – Two full pages on Every FCS team laid out the same way the pages are for the FBS magazine. There are 128 FCS teams so over 250 pages!
NFL Digital Magazine ($15) FREE – Four full pages on Every NFL team and a Fantasy Football section!
Phil Steele Plus ($25 month) ENTIRE SEASON FREE – This is a tremendous addition and is currently on the Super VIP Bundle but we may eventually take it off in the upcoming months. If you purchase the full year access it is $99 but you get it included in the Super VIP Bundle right now for just $74.95. Purchase the Super VIP Bundle now and get the entire year of Phil Steele Plus FREE!! ORDER SUPER VIP HERE
