The portal is closed and all the underclassmen that are going to the NFL have declared for the draft. This week 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 2025. Yes, the transfer portal has made things tough to keep track of. Today I start the series by taking a look at my All American teams and Iist 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th team All Americans plus I had 4 Honorable mention All Americans at each spot.
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 as lost but they are coming back also let me know. It is possible that someone I listed as a senior has somehow been given a 6th year or I missed a transfer. You can email media@philsteele.com with any corrections of just give me a tweet letting me know.
Here is the All American and I have HIGHLIGHTED the returning players, and they are in black type while the players that are no longer on their teams are in red type. There are some players in RED but highlighted and there are two team names after them. This means a player that made my All-American List last year has left the team he was on (in RED) and joined a new team (in Black) for this year. I highlight the players as they are returning to College football. The first team AA’s only have 6 of the 30 players returning this year. This makes sense as for those that are not graduating, it makes sense to head to the NFL and strike when the Iron is hot as they are off a great year. The second team AA’s only have 9 players returning respectively and this is the first group that has 3 players moving teams. Cam Cook goes from Jax St to West Virginia. Danny Scudero goes from San Jose to Colorado and KR Solomon Beebe from UAB to Virginia. The numbers rise to 11 for the third team with Oklahoma St, UCLA and Michigan each landing one off this team. The 4th team has 12 players back with BYU and Arizona St each snagging a transfer from this group. There are 13, 13, 10 and 8 returnees on the HM AA lists. Here is the list for 2026.
I will be doing blogs on each conference in the upcoming weeks but here is the breakdown for most All-American players returning to a league. If a player transferred to a league I have included them in the new league’s totals.
- SEC. 15
- Big 12 8
- Big Ten 7
- ACC 5
- Independent, Sun Belt, MWC 1 each
In this category the SEC really had a banner off season as they have 15 players returning that were All American last year which is more than any two of the of the other P5 leagues combined. Overall 38 All Americans are returning, and the SEC has 39.4% of them! The Big 12 is second with 21%, the Big Ten has 18% and the ACC has just 13%. The only players returning to non P4 leagues are CB Leonard Moore Notre Dame, P Evan Crenshaw of Troy and LB Jaxton Eck of New Mexico. Eck probable would have gone elsewhere but his Dad is head coach so he opted to stay.
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
