Reference And Information Services

ESPN College Football Encyclopedia - The Complete History of the Game

4 stars (Best of its kind, but watch out for all the flaws) - This is the best college information resource I have seen. It has always been difficult to find an ACCURATE source of college football scores; this comes closer to that goal than many others' previous attempts. The year by year poll information is particularly helpful. The essays are interesting, and the brief summary information on each of the schools is very good. But I have found too many nitpicky errors to be entirely satisfied. One problem is the lack of "key" information, which makes deciphering a lot of information difficult. What does "RB" mean in the final polls? I THINK it refers to the R Billingsley poll, but the book is silent. I know some of the key information on Southern California's list of games is wrong--USC never played in Pendleton or Albany, Oregon, and the Key fails to explain that the neutral site reference to "FIE" means Fiesta Park in Los Angeles. And lots of neutral sites are not listed at all. I have not "audited" the book to see if all the scores are accurate, but the amount of errors here and there causes concern. But, this is a must book for the serious college football researcher, with enough "prose" info to be of interest to the casual fan. 3 stars (Great resource, but not without faults) - I'd really echo what the first reviewer wrote, that this is a valuable book hurt by some poor editing. And since this publication is meant to be a complete and authoritative source for college football, those mistakes detract from its overall value. The capsule looks at each program are great. Not only can you look back at scores and performance from past years, but the leaders for each team are a useful resource. It's fun to look at certain schools, to see how their fortunes have risen and fallen over long periods of time. The historical polls are also enjoyable to look at, for much the same reason, seeing which teams have stuck around near the top for long periods of ti...
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