Athlon's sports mag has us 48th.. OM-69th
- Thread starter jackbaddawg
- Start date
That's a very good sheep conspiracy theory.
I think a better theory is that they basically take the results from the previous year, adjust slightly for key losses or key pick ups, and then regurgitate it back out. I really don't think these magazines spend that much time evaluating teams, and honestly they don't have to.
They release their magazines during a period when most college fans are so starved for football that they will buy up anything that looks pretty and has any articles about their team. It doesn't matter what they say or how good their information is. As long as they have the player names right, they'll keep selling magazines.
I think a better theory is that they basically take the results from the previous year, adjust slightly for key losses or key pick ups, and then regurgitate it back out. I really don't think these magazines spend that much time evaluating teams, and honestly they don't have to.
They release their magazines during a period when most college fans are so starved for football that they will buy up anything that looks pretty and has any articles about their team. It doesn't matter what they say or how good their information is. As long as they have the player names right, they'll keep selling magazines.
G
Goat Holder
Guest
I'm just happy to see a preseason preview of MSU without a whole page devoted to how much furboy has improved.
I guess it's possible they could have done some marketing studies, but my guess is they just talk up most every team and especially teams in states that historically buy more of the magazines. I doubt they spend much more than 5 minutes deciding where to rank either MSU or UM. I'll be generous and say they spend an hour or two on their analysis of the teams.
Very little market research is done. Maybe one every four, five years just to have demographics for advertisers. On the inside, they don't care where they are ranked (meaning Bama picked to win the West to move magazines). As for the cover, yep, it is usually who will move the most magazines. That's why Ronald Steele will be on a cover for a college basketball preview and SWAT won't, sadly.
DogStuckAtUM said:
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That's why they usually have so many covers. In Mississippi, they'll have a cover with an MSU and an OM player on the front. In Tennessee, they'll have a UT player on the cover. In Georgia, they'll have a UGA and GT guy on the cover.
In Memphis, I can usually find both the OM/MSU Athlon and the UT Athlon. Of course, the inside is exactly the same, but they highlight the cover story for particular regions to help sell magazines. My UT friends all buy the UT cover, and my OM/MSU friends buy the OM/MSU cover. That's the extent of their market research. Put a shiny cover on it with the right players on the front, and college football fans will eat that **** up. We care what you say about our team, but it has little effect on the decision to buy or not buy.
There's also a pretty good article about the Egg Bowl rivalry when you click on Mississippi State.
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