College football can be a little dizzying, with its ups and downs, computer formulas, and conference musical chairs. But we can always trust that the first Saturday of the season will bring what really matters into focus. 

As Andrew Luck, the cover subject of ESPN The Magazine’s College Football Preview on newsstands Friday, August 12, will tell you, sometimes going back to the basics – like throwing a football through a tire – will take you where you want to go. Other times, as the rest of the preview will show, you cannot put the past – old scandals and tired assumptions – behind you fast enough. However teams approach the new season, they all have the same thing in mind: winning the BCS.

With the college football season fast approaching, The Mag offers a wide array of content to help get fans in gear with features such as:

• “Coach Confidential,” where more than 50 FBS coaches dish anonymously about playoffs, payoffs, and scandals answering questions including: “What would most coaches have done in Jim Tressel’s shoes?”,”Who is more annoying, boosters or the compliance department?”, and of course, “Who will win the BCS?”;
• A look into the significant influence school presidents have over that of coaches, players, and even fans, in “Is Gordon Gee Serious?”;
• And some insight into “The Art of the Quarterback Sneak,” the one play that matters more than any other in college football, yet nobody is practicing it.

In addition, the new issue of ESPN The Magazine includes pieces such as “Signs of Trouble,” a statistical account regarding recent allegations that the Toronto Blue Jays’ home-road record imbalance is due to stealing signs, and “All the Rage,” an inside look into Manchester City soccer player Mario Balotelli, one of the most controversial and most talked about players in Europe.

 “College Football Preview” Issue Features: 

Power Rankings
The first-ever joint Mag/ESPN.com Top 25, complete with insights, obstacles and odds.

Goals to Go
We challenged four stars – QB Andrew Luck, DE Brandon Lindsey, RB Trent Richardson and DT Marcus Forston – to jot down three 2011 aspirations, Oprah-style. Now get after ‘em.  

30 is the New 20
It’s time you found out. The red zone you grew up with is worthless. Our new metric, the Value Drive, shows that the true measure of an offense is gauged from the 30-yard line. By Brian Fremeau

Chaos in Waiting
If the experience at West Virginia, where Bill Stewart allegedly tried to sabotage Dana Holgorsen, doesn’t kill the coach-in-waiting system, nothing will. By Ryan McGee

And Another Thing
How accurate is the man in the mascot head? A look at Lee Corso’s GameDay picks.

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