Sorry for the dearth of articles, I've been really sick the past few days and have barely been able to get out of bed. Hopefully I can return to updating the blog on a regular basis and not just post the countdown filler.
Continuing with the preseason publication previews, I'm going to take a look at Blue Ribbon, which I find to be one of the better preseason publications out there. It's also currently apart of ESPN's college football preview.
Here's Blue Ribbon's predicted 2007 Mountain West Conference standings:
1. TCU
2. Utah
3. BYU
4. Wyoming
5. New Mexico
6. Colorado State
7. San Diego State
8. UNLV
9. Air Force
This seems like one of the better lists. In my mind, the top three are interchangeable, though obviously TCU has a far better chance of winning the conference. I also feel Wyoming has a stronger shot at finishing 4th than New Mexico, but I do disagree with where they place Air Force. I honestly feel Air Force will be better than last place. Though while they won't be good, they should be decent enough to finish in the middle to lower end of the conference, but definitely not dead last. That's reserved for UNLV or San Diego State, who have yet to show they're worthy of being ranked any higher.
Now how close has Blue Ribbon come to predicting Utah's finish over the years? Well let's take a look.
| Year | Predicted Finish | Actual Finish |
| 1999 | -- | -- |
| 2000 | 2nd | 4-t |
| 2001 | 4th | 3rd |
| 2002 | 1st | 4-t |
| 2003 | -- | -- |
| 2004 | 1st | 1st |
| 2005 | 1 | 4-t |
| 2006 | 1 | 3 |
I couldn't find results for 1999 and 2003. It would seem Blue Ribbon is a publication that's generally high on Utah, even after a season where they struggle. Coming off a 4-win season in 2000, Utah was picked by many to finish 6th or worse in the Mountain West, yet Blue Ribbon had them ranked 4th. That wasn't far off, as they finished 3rd that year. Even after 2005's 7-5 season, they had Utah still finishing 1st, which was pretty far off. Now this year they have Utah finishing 2nd, which hopefully is not too high of a prediction.
Soon, though I'm not sure when, I'll have a complete comparison of all the publications and it should give us an idea of which are the most reliable. I'm guessing though the end result will prove that these are just blind guesses and nothing more.