Spring football has already begun for some teams and every year in late February, I put out my Projected AP Top 10 basically six months ahead of the AP Top Ten release. This year I got an extra day with February 29 and took advantage of it!
It is important to make the point that this is NOT my preseason Top 10 for next season, rather what I am projecting the Preseason AP Top 10 will look like to start the season.
My predicted Preseason AP Top 10 has been a PERFECT 10 for 10 in EIGHT of the 15 years that I have put it out! When I predict the AP Top 10 in February (about a HALF YEAR ahead of the actual AP poll), I have now hit on 143 out of 150 over the last 15 years! That means hitting all 10 teams in eight of the fifteen years and missing by just one team in the other seven years. Once again, predicting the top ten teams in the AP poll SIX MONTHS in advance, the record is now 143 out of 150 or 95.3%!
Last year was one of those years where I missed by one. When I did the AP Top 10 in February, Notre Dame had signed Sam Hartman and I figured that would put them over the top. I had Notre Dame as the #10 team in the poll but it was the Washington Huskies who were #10 in the preseason AP poll and the writers did a good job with that as they went undefeated all the way up to the national title game. I had the other nine teams correct.
This week I am starting the second write through process for each team. We have been working full tilt on the magazine since the end of November and are only half-way thru the exhaustive process. The second write thru process lasts about a month and a half. Once spring practices have ended, the third write through process begins which involves me talking to 120+ coaches spending about an hour with each going over their teams with them. We will send the last page to the press on June 5th. Last year we started shipping them out almost as soon as the finished product rolled off the press (about 10 days later). I would estimate we will begin shipping the magazine out to all pre-orders around June 16th this year and they will likely go out Two Day Fed Ex.
I know many of you order the magazine in advance so that you can be the FIRST in the country to receive one. When you sign up for the VIP deal you will receive your magazine well before it hits Barnes and Nobles on July 4th.
When you purchase the VIP deal you get the magazine before it hits the bookstores, the digital magazine for FREE, 4 weeks of my Inside the Pressbox newsletter for FREE, and my FCS magazine for FREE as well. That is over $200 worth of football info for just $39.95 right now. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS.
VIP members get the magazine before anyone else, and they are mailed on the FIFO basis so the first to sign up for the offer get the magazine shipped first. We are still on DAY ONE shipments if you sign up right now. CLICK HERE TO ORDER. If you wait, you may get day TWO or day 3 and in future months the price will go up and the bonus offers will decrease so the deal is the best right now. As mentioned we mail the middle of June, two day express so you will have it weeks before it hits the nation’s #1 Book Store Barnes and Noble on July 4th!
The VIP digital bonus was even better than expected last year as all VIP members had access to the magazine two days after we sent it to the press and were reading it for a full week before it was even printed (3 weeks before it hit the newsstand). Also, we did not open access to the digital magazine to anyone but VIP members for a full week after that! All VIP members had two full weeks of EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to the digital version!
The VIP DEAL gets you FOUR free issues of my Inside the Pressbox Newsletter which sells for $20 per issue. The newsletter gives you my personal analysis of every game for the weekend and also supplies you with my computer’s forecast for each game projecting each team’s rush yards, pass yards and points. It comes with 4 Free College Issues, but you can call the office and change that to 2 Free College and two Free NFL if you like.
The VIP DEAL also will get you my 2024 Phil Steele FCS magazine (digital only) FREE and this is a $25 value! Last year there were 117 games between FCS and FBS teams and you can become an instant expert on all 130 FCS teams getting the magazine in much the same format as the FBS magazine. Keep in mind most states have legalized gambling and they post numbers on FCS vs FCS games, and you will have remarkable line value on these games being an expert while the majority of folks know very little about the FCS teams.
This year I have added a SUPER VIP deal. The price is just $30 more or basically the cost of one magazine mailed to you. In the SUPER VIP you get TWO magazines and also access to Phil Steele Plus ($99) for a FULL year thru the Super Bowl! If you are thinking of subscribing to Phil Steele Plus again for 2024, just get the SUPER VIP deal and save $30 plus get two magazines and all the other bonuses. I may stop this offer soon. To get the SUPER VIP membership CLICK HERE
Click here to pre-order magazine. You can also order by calling 1-866-918-7711.
Here are the ten teams I feel will be in the 2024 AP Preseason Top Ten and over the last fifteen years 143 of my 150 (95.3%) Projected top ten teams in February made the actual top ten, so as I said earlier, I seem to have a pretty good feel for how the voters will rank these teams come August.
My 2024 Projected AP Preseason Top 10.
1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Texas
4. Alabama
5. Oregon
6. Notre Dame
7. Michigan
8. Penn State
9. Ole Miss
10. Missouri
This Top Ten is now part of the spring guide which I will post on the site early March. Also in a later blog, I will give the reasons for each team being in the Preseason AP Top this year. I feel confident that this will be another perfect 10 for 10 on these teams for the fifth year out of seven once the AP Preseason Poll is released mid to late August! When the AP Poll comes out a half of year from now make sure you check back to this blog to see how I did.
