Chase GoodbreadTuscaloosa News
You think the NCAA transfer portal is a problem for college football coaches?
Try being Phil Steele.
The publisher of Phil Steele's College Football Preview magazine just wrapped up this year's edition later than he ever has before, sending the product to print on June 7, mostly because his insistence on publishing the most accurate rosters possible demands delay while as many transfers as possible make up their minds. This is the 30th year he's produced the annual — it debuted in 1995 — and it never gets easier. Between transfer portal activity that strikes just when he thinks the product is finished, and a magazine industry that's been shrinking for decades, his annual has had to evolve in a lot of ways to stay popular.
"Five years ago, I could go to press in mid-May with every roster correct after spring practice," Steele said. "Now, the portal has me re-writing position previews and changing rosters right up to the last minute."
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When Steele broke into the magazine business in 1995, his mentor's best advice was to make sure his product was first on the shelves. It was good guidance, because at the time, there were about 30 competing publications. Fans were quick to buy the first one available, and just as quick to dismiss all that followed. Today, in a market that's been reduced to two primary competitors (Athlon and Lindy's), Steele instead prefers to be last.
In the portal era, last = most accurate. And Steele is nothing if not maniacal about accuracy. Last year, when the NCAA changed the spring portal window to close April 30 instead of May 15, allowing him an extra two weeks to track transfer activity, Steele rejoiced. He spends most of May on the phone with head coaches, drawing insights that make his analysis more than just speculative. Any discovery of post-production errors make him seethe. The magazine previews every FBS team using the same format, and his goal is to make it a quicker, easier reference than the ultimate in quick and easy: the internet. Want to know who is playing left tackle this year at Arkansas? Or even Arkansas State? Flip right to it with a Steele annual, or dive down the online rabbit hole that, he says "will take you 10, 15 clicks at least."
As impossible as beating the internet with an annual magazine might sound, the reality is that Steele's product would've gone out of business 20 years ago had it been too vulnerable to online competition. His most loyal readers have become accustomed to the smallish typeface necessary to jam a season's worth of information into a single magazine, and a myriad of abbreviations that helps achieve the same goal. More importantly to Steele, they've also become accustomed to waiting on his product's release rather than grabbing the first preview mag available.
Steele knew he had something special when Covid-19 threatened the entire 2020 college football season. He had already laid out expenses for production of his 2020 preview when it began to look like there might not be a season. News stands only pay for what they sell, so Steele resolved to print just a small fraction of his usual press run, and distribute himself through sales at philsteele.com. Then Barnes & Noble reached out with a willingness to purchase copies up front and take on the risk of poor sales themselves.
"That's pretty unheard of," he said. "My plan was to print 15,000 instead of 150,000 until they called. Barnes & Noble saved my business, and because of that, we're almost exclusive with them now."
This year's Steele annual hits news stands on July 4.
And while it can't include every transfer — players in the portal can continue to choose their destinations throughout the summer — Steele is confident his delayed press date allowed him to include every player who should make an impact. True enough, players in the portal this late in the game are usually short on options.
But in Steele's game, there's only one option: wait as long as possible.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
