Fastest Turnaround Time Ever for Printer!
The 2025 College Football Magazine is finished, and the VIP copies are in the mail—just five days after we sent the last page to the press in what is typically a two-week turnaround! Not only was it the fastest turnaround ever at the printer, and printed right here in Ohio, but it’s also the largest magazine we’ve produced. Adding two more teams this year—Delaware and Missouri State—meant we had to expand to 360 pages, as we dedicate two full pages to every FBS team. This process is a seven-month journey for me and my staff, beginning in November and ending in June.
If you counted all the words and numbers in the magazine it would exceed one million words and numbers! That means if there was .001 percentage of typos there would be 1,000 errors. We have an even better record than that but this year there were a few key typos which I will talk about.
“Magazine Season” starts for me on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Some teams have finished their seasons, allowing us to begin compiling final stats and start the First Write-Thru process. I review all the daily readings for every one of the 136 teams and complete my first write-thru by late January. (More details on this process can be found here: https://philsteele.com/the-first-write-thru-process-of-magazine/)
I write all my analytical articles in February and begin preliminary work on the All-Conference teams. Meanwhile, my staff works on the right-hand pages, organizing game-by-game data and notes. The Second Write-Thru begins when Spring practices start, and we receive updated rosters. My staff prepares the detailed roster pages, removing players who left and adding new ones from the December transfer portal.
The First Write-Thru focuses on:
- What shape was each position in to start 2024
- What happened during the 2024 season
- What the team looks like for 2025
The first two items remain constant in the Second Write-Thru, but team wrap-ups change significantly depending on how the transfer portal impacts each roster. This phase, which also includes updating all nine sets of power ratings, runs from late February through mid-April.
The Third Write-Thru is when I speak directly with head coaches—ideally, all 136, though logistics make that difficult. These calls can last up to 90 minutes as we go over the depth chart, player evaluations, and expected contributors. This year, I spoke with coaches from 127 programs.
Let me give you two examples. Last year Jim Mora of Connecticut was not available until the final 5 days of the magazine, so I did not get to talk to him in 2024. I did this year talk to him once again. Also, this year we had Steve Sarkisian of Texas scheduled twice during the month of May. Both times something came up and the call had to be rescheduled. After the second reschedule I was doing about 6 coaches interviews a day so the times that Texas had to reschedule we did not have open so we could not make it happen. I have talked to coach Sarkisian at Washington, USC and Texas, just not this year.
The second transfer portal window, which opened in April and closed late that month, has made May an intense crunch. I didn’t start coaches’ calls in earnest until May and had to talk to 136 coaches within a month. We used to go to press in late May; now, we aim for the first week of June.
Tough Decision #1
It was the final week of the press, and I still had not talked to a bunch of coaches due to the much smaller window only having one month instead of a month and half. Normally I cut off the coaches’ interviews with one week to go but this year opted to talk to coaches of Arizona, Louisville, Utah, Vanderbilt, Baylor, Western Michigan, Nebraska, San Diego St, Akron, Iowa St, and even into Wednesday June 4 I talked to Louisiana Tech, Washington, Boston College and UCF. After I talked to the coaches, I could do my third write thru and finalize my 9 sets of power ratings. These call were all very informative, put my pages in the right order and well worth it.
What that decision did was put the magazine process behind. Now I was starting my nine conference forecast pages which take about two hours apiece on Thursday once my power ratings were complete. We knew we had a hard deadline of Noon on Friday if we were going to get the incredible turnaround time of the magazine but if we missed that deadline the printer had other jobs lined up behind us and it could mean not getting the magazine printed for three weeks as opposed to this incredible five day turnaround. We were basically out of time due the portal and the late coaches calls so we opted for an all-nighter. Todd, Jim and Chris all worked the entire Thursday thru the night and through 12:00 Noon on Friday. I finished the conference forecasts about 4:00 am on Friday and began to do my Top 40, then the Most Improved and finally the Surprise team lists. My conference coordinators usually have finished proofing their conferences the day before the magazine goes to the press, so they have time to proofread the extra pages that I just mentioned. Due to my decision to get more coaches calls in at the last minute, I cost us this proof.
Todd is the final set of eyes on each page, but he was trying to push out 360 pages by Noon and he was catching a lot of things but the final pages I was frantically typing to get them to the press has a couple of typos which were major.
On Monday, we received the digital version and realized that page one—while correct in text—still had last year’s Heisman images. We hadn’t reviewed that page much due to focusing on the team pages. We could have stopped the presses, but that would’ve caused a three-week delay.
Tough Decision #2
Send the pages. Yes, people will mock me for having last year’s Heisman pictures on the first page but the meat of the magazine is my priority and that is why I did late coaches calls and we pulled an all-nighter and had little time to proof the extra pages. We worked 7 months to get out the most accurate and by far most information of any magazine out there. Also the surprise teams I was typing as fast as I could and I type over last years text. I look at the “My #5 Surprise team is” in bold and then type in who my #5 surprise team is and then write what I think about it. Unfortunately, I did not notice the text before the “My #5 Surprise team is” and it had Mario Cristobal mentioned (last years #5 Surprise team) so that is wrong. Also wrong are some numbering issues which you will notice on the printed page. There are probably a few more typos on these pages that we did not catch but this gives you an idea of the printing process and how it works.
Digital Magazine is just fine
My VIP’s have been reading the digital version since Monday and have not noticed these typos because they are corrected. The digital version is also updated all the way through September so if a player is injured or added we put them on the page or if injured circle them and adjust the text to match. The digital version $19.99 is constantly updated.
What to do in the future to prevent these type of typos
If the transfer portal remains open late April, I will just have to push back the magazine another week which means it will not hit Barnes and Noble until July 11th each year. If they go to one transfer portal and make it earlier than no changes need to be made as I will be able to get all my coaches calls in before that first week of June as I will go back to having a month and a half vs one month to get in all the calls.
We are already in the process of removing every picture from last year’s magazine right now so the picture thing cannot happen again and the Surprise team will not have the mistakes that this years did as it will be proofed. Rest assured I poured seven months of my life making this magazine and my goal is to have it as close to perfect as possible so these type of mistakes are embarrassing but the quality of the product (team pages and predictions) and the same standard they have always been despite the transfer portal as we have captured 99% of the moves caused by the portal. This magazine is a labor of love for me as I am devoted to one sport and that is college football. I am very proud that the magazine is referred to as the “Bible of College Football” and have every intention of making sure that the quality of information remain the industry standard even though the transfer portal has made the process a lot more difficult than it was just five years ago.
