Monday, August 28, 2006

Now You Tell Me?

The Wall Street Journal's Russell Adams had a great breakdown of the accuracy of predictions made by the preseason publications in this weekends Wall Street Journal. Lindy's comes in at No. 1. Sports Illustrated and Athlons don't do as well. Unless you read the ranking criteria, which Adams devised with help from a BYU stats professor, there isn't any heavy math or statistics.

While I enjoy the article, I could have used it two months ago before I spent fifty bucks on these preseason magazines.

Also, I hate preseason polls. They make it more difficult for a team that isn't hyped before the season to make it to the title game (just ask Tommy Tuberville). They also create an inertia for teams that have a lot of preseason pub, but who flop when the season arives. Ideally the first poll would come out in late September, but they sell way too much paper to go away.