July 4th is the official on sale date for my 2026 magazine at ALL Barnes and Nobles! The last couple of years I have waited for this date to begin my TV, Podcast & Radio season, and I am doing so once again this year.
Barnes and Noble is my favorite store and for the last couple of years they have been the Exclusive distributor of the Phil Steele Magazine. I talk about some of the reasons why they are the exclusive dealer on page two of the magazine. We were the #1 selling magazine for Barnes and Noble for years and that has only grown. Something that we have done the last 3 years with them is have two covers available in all their stores so you can get a choice of covers. While I say exclusive dealer of the magazine, they do allow us to sell to Books-a-Million as well. In the Covid year of 2020 when the football season was in question, Books-A-Million bought copies from us direct just like Barnes and Noble did and took the risk and I greatly appreciate that and my relationship with them as well. There is a chance that the magazines could start popping up in those two locations as early as this week so check your local store to see if they have arrived yet.
There are 3 seasons during the year for me and the Radio/TV/Podcast season is the easiest for me. I do 6-8 shows per day and work 50-60 hours a week, so it is like being on vacation. There is the 3-month Football season which I work 100+ hours a week and then Magazine season which starts the Sunday after Thanksgiving and stretches over 7 months. I am on a constant magazine deadline for 7 months. This year’s magazine is 376 pages, and it is the biggest and best ever magazine I have produced. If you have a Radio/TV show or podcast you would like me to be on you can email Chris at media@philsteele.com and he will set you up. Chris did a fantastic job working with the schools this year and getting me to talk to coaches from 133 of the 138 schools sometimes with as many as 7 coaches in a day. Chris will get the shows for July/August booked with the same efficiency.
We are hard at work on the 2026 FCS magazine and starting work on the 2026 NFL magazine. The FCS magazine gives you two full pages on all 128 FCS teams and sells for just $25. Super VIP’s get the FCS magazine for Free! They also get the full year of Phil Steele Plus ($99 value) FREE. We have begun work on the NFL magazine as well and late July I will put up the Analytics articles like Turnover = Turnaround, etc in upcoming blogs for the NFL.
This month I am going thru every game for the upcoming season. I am looking at all 9 sets of my power ratings, looking at the past history for each matchup, factoring in the schedule, looking at the matchups (pass game vs Secondary, O-Line vs D-line, etc), the situation (letdown, look ahead, off bye) and then establishing who I have favored and by how much in each game. This will be posted in the Schedule predictor which will be up by July 5th. I will have a number on EVERY game. I am also going to sneak in a 5-day vacation in the month of June as the magazine deadline is done!
I will be putting up a Daily Blog every day from now thru the football season. I am doing a series on Hits and Misses of this year’s schedule and how last year’s schedule affected each conference plus will be going in depth with a 7-part series of how I come up with Home Field edge that is on each team page.
Phil Steele’s SUPER VIP Bundle is still available to purchase.
There is still time to become a Super VIP as you get two magazines shipped to you (and the price includes shipping! $70 value), the digital magazine for FREE ($19.95), the FCS Digital Magazine for FREE ($25), 4 issues of my Inside the Pressbox newsletter ($80) and a full season of Phil Steele Plus ($99 value) all for just $74.95. Click here to become a SUPER VIP member.
