Coverphobia

I intended to get on here to bitch about the Buckeyes being on the cover of the latest Sports Illustrated. You know, the “SI Jinx” and all? Now, I’m not sure where to start, but I do have a few thoughts on the subject.

First, what is SI thinking when they sell the same issue of a magazine with SIX different covers? As if I don’t know. I do believe it will sell magazines. But does it have anything to do with the “SI Jinx?” I seriously doubt that anyone at SI would openly capitulate to the idea that what happens after a cover is printed is predicated on the actual cover. Openly. Nonetheless there are five other teams that appear on these regional covers: Notre Dame (blech), USC (blech) Texas, LSU and WVU. This fact is known; all of these team can’t win the whole enchilada.

Secondly: So there are 6 groups of fans around the country right now that are crying about their team being Jinxed by the evil-doers at SI. Sports Illustrated states that in the 2600 some odd covers they’ve had, somewhere in the neighbor hood of 37% have demonstrable misfortune or decline in performance following a cover appearance. The vast majority of these failures were on the individual level like golfers, tennis players, drivers, boxers and the like. When we are talking about College Football and the preseason preview I’d be surprised if the primary team on the cover won the Championship 10% of the time. Vegas odd for the preseason is rarely going to be below 3:1, so the team on the cover is bound to fail. Right? Right.

Thirdly: Jinx Schminx. Even though Ohio State Football has been on four SI covers (prior to this one) in their college preview issue and hasn’t won the championship that year, I stand here unwavering. These were usually after a year when we did win it all or came very close. These years were also not complete failures. Mostly these seasons OSU had just one loss and very high finishes in the final poll.

Having said all that, in my mind, this year’s SI College Preview is this one. GO BUCKEYES.