5 nuggets from the Sporting News college football preview magazine

In an effort to save you $7.99 and a trip to Hastings, OBNUG will be mining each of the four major preview magazines for the best Boise State-related items. Now: Sporting News. Previously: Athlon Sports. Later: Phil Steele and Lindy's.

In the ongoing Bachelorette-type love drama that is preview magazines and the Boise State Broncos, Sporting News comes in as the handsome, strapping media tycoon with the fear of commitment. SN thinks the Broncos are all that and a bag of chips, but are they willing to make things official with a BCS bowl? Hit the jump to find out, and share your thoughts in the comments on whether or not you see SN's predictions coming true.

Warning: Spoilers ahead. If you are interested in purchasing the Sporting News magazine and being surprised at the rankings and pictures and typos contained therein, you may want to play Minesweeper for a few minutes instead of reading this.

On to the nuggets!

Nugget No. 1: No. 6 Boise State will face Florida State in the Orange Bowl

May it forever wash away the stink of Wake Forest vs. Louisville.

Nugget No. 2: Where is the love for the Boise State defense?

First off, thank you, Sporting News, for naming Billy Winn a first-team All-American and a member of the All-MWC team. Secondly, you are dead to me for not naming nearly enough other Bronco defensive players to your lists.

George Iloka is the only other defender mentioned by SN as All-Mountain-West-worthy. There is no Shea McClellin, which is a travesty. There is no Tyrone Crawford, no Chase Baker, no Byron Hout, or no Jamar Taylor. Sporting News, this is not the major league baseball all-star game. You do not have to include at least one player from every team. It's okay to have a BSU-TCU hybrid defense as your All-MWC defense.

In related news, Nate Potter is first-team All-America and Kellen Moore is second-team. I guess I'm okay with this.

Nugget No. 3: Six out of eight Mountain West teams will be bowl eligible

I highly doubt this prediction will come true since three out of the eight MWC teams are Wyoming, New Mexico, and UNLV. But hey, it wouldn't be a preview magazine if you weren't wrong a ton of times. 

Here is SN's predicted order of finish for the Mountain West with bowl games listed in parentheses:

1. Boise State (Orange)
2. TCU (Vegas)
3. SDSU (Kraft Fight Hunger)
4. Air Force (Poinsettia)
5. Colorado State (Independence)
6. Wyoming (New Mexico)
7. New Mexico
8. UNLV

The magazine also puts Fresno State (the WAC champion) in the Poinsettia Bowl, Nevada (the WAC's fourth place team) in the New Mexico Bowl, Toledo in the Human Bowl, Georgia in the Chick-fil-A, and Tulsa in something called the Dallas Football Classic.

Nugget No. 4: Sporting News is not very high on Georgia

The Bulldogs, picked by many to win the SEC East, are picked by Sporting News to finish third in the division and miss out on the Top 25 altogether. The magazine is sour on Mark Richt and can't help but point out that Georgia's win totals the past four years have steadily declined (11 then 10 then eight then six). And just when you think things are bad enough for the UGA preview, here's a Fran Tarkenton quote to kick everyone in the shins:

For the last three years our program has been god awful. I think the signs are that we have a program that is in big trouble.

Nugget No. 5: Did you know Nevada opens the season with four straight road games?

Man, someone in the Nevada athletic department really hates Chris Ault.

Note: Yay, someone!