I probably jumped the shark a long time ago, but this is just a clincher. It also shows how blogs, like radio and other mediums can be used for promoting and selling stuff. Sports Illustrated has a new book being released: The College Football Book.

I received a courtesy copy for review and a chance to talk to someone associated with the book. In this case, David Sabino. He does a lot of fantasy baseball and football these days for SI. This makes sense when you are the Associate Editor in Charge of Statistics. Some are really not impressed by his work. David and I talked on Friday over the phone.

You can listen to the 20 minute conversation — if you can put up with a slew of “ums” and “ahhh” from me. Clearly I need to work on this before I even consider more podcasts. I’ve broken it up into 3 parts, each 6-8 minutes long.

Part 1, is about David Sabino’s background and involvement in the book.

Part 2, covers some of the specifics on Pitt players in the book.

Part 3, is just a bit of a grab bag. Talking a little about the images in the book, future projects, and the changing media.

My thoughts on the book. The photos inside are beautiful as you would expect. There are some of the classic stories from Sports Illustrated through the years, including part of the essay on Tony Dorsett from 1976 written by Myron Cope — the accompanying photo of Dorsett breaking free of some gold helmet wearing defenders trying to arm tackle him is stunning. There are also pictures of Hugh Green and Dan Marino.

Sticking with Pitt players for a moment, the center of the book focuses on All-time College All-Stars. There was also the restriction of limiting it to only one player from a school. Dorsett did ton’t make that list. A tough call, but with Jim Brown and Herschel Walker ahead of him, it is hard to argue too strenuously. Especially since Hugh Green made the cut on the defense. As David Sabino explained, most schools consider their greatest players to be running backs or quarterbacks.

More shocking was Dorsett’s exclusion from the 70s all-decade team. Instead it was Johnny Rodgers (Nebraska), Billy Sims (Oklahoma) and Archie Griffin (Ohio St.). According to Mr. Sabino, that was pretty much by the numbers.

Obviously releasing the book around this time of the year, the hope is that it will be purchased as a holiday gift. It really is a beautiful book, and it is the sort of book that if you stick on a coffee table, will be picked up and paged through.

As I say in the conversation, I got the book a day or two before family came for a visit. My dad — who still loves SI — saw the book and just started paging through it. It just held his attention for a good 30 minutes.

Another bonus is on the decade pages, they show a sampling of program covers from the period. Some great historical stuff. It’s a little sad as program covers have gotten rather boring in my view. It’s hardly worth holding onto the same way.

If you want to get a copy of the book you can find it here and here. Suggested retail price is around $30, is actually sold online for about $20.