Monday, July 11, 2005
TEXAS/ARKANSAS FOOTBALL BONANZA!
I'm a football junkie.
While I already have the Phil Steele College Football preview issue, I needed another magazine to satisfy my football withdrawals. Before I bought the Phil Steele issue, I had already bought the Pro Football Weekly NFL preview issue and the Athlon Sports college football preview issue. Okay Jeremy, 3 football magazines is enough.
Well, I guess you just don't know me that well, do you?
Football is a religion here in the South. Never is this more evident than when I picked up Dave Campbell's Texas Football and Hooten's Arkansas Football preview issues. For those of you scoring at home, the Texas Football issue was $9.95 while the Hooten's issue was $14.95.
When I lived in Washington, I had heard about the Texas Football magazine. It's a magazine I've always wanted to read. This is the first year that I've been able to read Texas Football. That's mainly because this is the first year where I've been able to buy the magazine in the state of Arkansas. The only Arkansas-related item in Texas Football is a small paragraph on Arkansas State (my school, as of next month), an opponent of North Texas in the Sun Belt Conference. I can't say "rival" because let's face it, North Texas has dominated the Sun Belt Conference the last 4 seasons.
The Texas Football magazine is in its 46th year of service and is run by Dave Campbell. If there's one state that knows football, it's Texas. The cover features quarterbacks Vince Young of Texas and Reggie McNeal of Texas A&M. In the 352-page issue, Texas Football covers Texas and Oklahoma teams in the Big XII Conference, along with the Texas teams in Conference USA (Houston, Rice, SMU, UTEP) and the Mountain West Conference (TCU). There's also previews for the Division 1-AA teams in the state of Texas, including Sam Houston State, who defeated Eastern Washington in the quarterfinals of last year's D-1AA playoffs. And of course, there's the high school preview section (5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A, 6-Man). The NFL teams in the Lone Star State also get a few pages (Dallas and Houston).
Not to be outdone, Hooten's Arkansas Football is a 424-page effort. Obviously, Arkansas is a much smaller state than Texas, but the Arkansas Football magazine is bigger than the Texas Football issue. However, the cover of Hooten's Arkansas Football is a drawing of the "Ultimate Hog QB", as Hooten's did a feature on what intangibles would make the perfect Razorbacks quarterback. The first 60 pages is nothing but Arkansas Razorbacks football, by the way. I'm going to Arkansas State, but unlike some Indians fans/students, I understand why Hooten's is going to include more coverage on the Razorbacks. They're an SEC team while Arkansas State is a Sun Belt team. And in this state, it's Razorbacks 24-7. I've known this to be true in my 2-plus years of residency here. As for Arkansas State's coverage? Four pages. Yeah, four pages. Again, that's not a big surprise to me.
Hooten's also covers the smaller colleges in the state, with the Gulf South teams and the SWAC (UA-Pine Bluff, or UAPB). But the interest for most people here is the high school coverage, as Hooten's covers every single high school team in the state of Arkansas, big and small.
While reading these two magazines, I wondered what would a Washington Football magazine look like? Maybe I could use my journalism degree in a few years to start the Washington Football magazine myself, who knows?
In the Washington Football magazine, you would have to cover Washington and Washington State, that's a given. But what about the other schools in the state? I think it would be a neat deal to feature Eastern Washington, Central Washington, Western Washington, and Pacific Lutheran in the same magazine. Believe it or not, not everybody in the state of Washington went to Washington or Washington State. If there was to be a Washington Football magazine, I'd have no doubt in my mind that people would be interested in buying it. Not only would this magazine include the college teams, the high school teams in the Evergreen State would be featured as well. Hell, throw in a preview of the Seahawks, similar to Texas Football's takes on the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans.
Anyways, I don't think I'll be buying another football preview magazine until the Sports Illustrated college football preview issue comes out next month. Five is enough, for now. Let's see if I stay true to my word in a few weeks.
While I already have the Phil Steele College Football preview issue, I needed another magazine to satisfy my football withdrawals. Before I bought the Phil Steele issue, I had already bought the Pro Football Weekly NFL preview issue and the Athlon Sports college football preview issue. Okay Jeremy, 3 football magazines is enough.
Well, I guess you just don't know me that well, do you?
Football is a religion here in the South. Never is this more evident than when I picked up Dave Campbell's Texas Football and Hooten's Arkansas Football preview issues. For those of you scoring at home, the Texas Football issue was $9.95 while the Hooten's issue was $14.95.
When I lived in Washington, I had heard about the Texas Football magazine. It's a magazine I've always wanted to read. This is the first year that I've been able to read Texas Football. That's mainly because this is the first year where I've been able to buy the magazine in the state of Arkansas. The only Arkansas-related item in Texas Football is a small paragraph on Arkansas State (my school, as of next month), an opponent of North Texas in the Sun Belt Conference. I can't say "rival" because let's face it, North Texas has dominated the Sun Belt Conference the last 4 seasons.
The Texas Football magazine is in its 46th year of service and is run by Dave Campbell. If there's one state that knows football, it's Texas. The cover features quarterbacks Vince Young of Texas and Reggie McNeal of Texas A&M. In the 352-page issue, Texas Football covers Texas and Oklahoma teams in the Big XII Conference, along with the Texas teams in Conference USA (Houston, Rice, SMU, UTEP) and the Mountain West Conference (TCU). There's also previews for the Division 1-AA teams in the state of Texas, including Sam Houston State, who defeated Eastern Washington in the quarterfinals of last year's D-1AA playoffs. And of course, there's the high school preview section (5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A, 6-Man). The NFL teams in the Lone Star State also get a few pages (Dallas and Houston).
Not to be outdone, Hooten's Arkansas Football is a 424-page effort. Obviously, Arkansas is a much smaller state than Texas, but the Arkansas Football magazine is bigger than the Texas Football issue. However, the cover of Hooten's Arkansas Football is a drawing of the "Ultimate Hog QB", as Hooten's did a feature on what intangibles would make the perfect Razorbacks quarterback. The first 60 pages is nothing but Arkansas Razorbacks football, by the way. I'm going to Arkansas State, but unlike some Indians fans/students, I understand why Hooten's is going to include more coverage on the Razorbacks. They're an SEC team while Arkansas State is a Sun Belt team. And in this state, it's Razorbacks 24-7. I've known this to be true in my 2-plus years of residency here. As for Arkansas State's coverage? Four pages. Yeah, four pages. Again, that's not a big surprise to me.
Hooten's also covers the smaller colleges in the state, with the Gulf South teams and the SWAC (UA-Pine Bluff, or UAPB). But the interest for most people here is the high school coverage, as Hooten's covers every single high school team in the state of Arkansas, big and small.
While reading these two magazines, I wondered what would a Washington Football magazine look like? Maybe I could use my journalism degree in a few years to start the Washington Football magazine myself, who knows?
In the Washington Football magazine, you would have to cover Washington and Washington State, that's a given. But what about the other schools in the state? I think it would be a neat deal to feature Eastern Washington, Central Washington, Western Washington, and Pacific Lutheran in the same magazine. Believe it or not, not everybody in the state of Washington went to Washington or Washington State. If there was to be a Washington Football magazine, I'd have no doubt in my mind that people would be interested in buying it. Not only would this magazine include the college teams, the high school teams in the Evergreen State would be featured as well. Hell, throw in a preview of the Seahawks, similar to Texas Football's takes on the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans.
Anyways, I don't think I'll be buying another football preview magazine until the Sports Illustrated college football preview issue comes out next month. Five is enough, for now. Let's see if I stay true to my word in a few weeks.
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