For tens of millions of people across this country, autumn Saturdays mean one thing and one thing only: college football. And to the truly devoted--the good folks of Ann Arbor and Baton Rouge and Austin--the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia is, in the words of Sports illustrated reviewer Chuck Hirschberg, their Bible. Now the faithful can look forward to another heaping helping of college football nirvana: three new reference books--each more than 450 pages long--tracing the complete history of the Big Ten Conference, the Big 12 Conference, and the Southeastern Conference. Inside each you will find the same exhaustive research, the same smart analyses, the same attention to detail that made the original book a must-own. You will also find a wealth of new information. We've updated and expanded the team profiles to include new entries on Best Backfield and Best Defense. We've added two new pages of statistics for each program and lists of first-round draft choices, all-conference teams, and members of the pro football and college football Halls of Fame.And we've commissioned new essays on the storied history of each conference--the people, places, and moments that make each unique. From legendary coach Bear Bryant to the Florida Gators' Fun 'n' Gun offense to the unforgettable Rose Bowl showdown between Texas and USC, it's all here, behind a handsome paperback cover and conveniently priced at $21.95. Yet one more reason to thank the lord for Saturdays.

For tens of millions of people across this country, autumn Saturdays mean one thing and one thing only: college football. And to the truly devoted--the good folks of Ann Arbor and Baton Rouge and Austin--the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia is, in the words of Sports illustrated reviewer Chuck Hirschberg, their Bible. Now the faithful can look forward to another heaping helping of college football nirvana: three new reference books--each more than 450 pages long--tracing the complete history of the Big Ten Conference, the Big 12 Conference, and the Southeastern Conference. Inside each you will find the same exhaustive research, the same smart analyses, the same attention to detail that made the original book a must-own. You will also find a wealth of new information. We've updated and expanded the team profiles to include new entries on Best Backfield and Best Defense. We've added two new pages of statistics for each program and lists of first-round draft choices, all-conference teams, and members of the pro football and college football Halls of Fame.And we've commissioned new essays on the storied history of each conference--the people, places, and moments that make each unique. From legendary coach Bear Bryant to the Florida Gators' Fun 'n' Gun offense to the unforgettable Rose Bowl showdown between Texas and USC, it's all here, behind a handsome paperback cover and conveniently priced at $21.95. Yet one more reason to thank the lord for Saturdays.

A comprehensive reference provides historical overviews of all 335 Division 1 teams, season-by-season summaries, ESPN/Sagarin rankings of top-selected college basketball programs, and more.

THE ESPN SEC FOOTBALL ENCYCLOPEDIA INCLUDES • expanded profiles and histories of all twelve Southeastern Conference football programs, as well as former SEC schools Georgia Tech and Tulane • original essays on what makes each SEC program unique written by such experts as Winston Groom (Alabama), Lou Holtz (South Carolina), and Buster Olney (Vanderbilt) • two-page record books for each school, with all-time and annual leaders • all-time teams, college and pro football hall of fame inductees, first-round draft choices, and retired numbers for every school • a complete bowl history for each team, including box scores • a history of the Southeastern Conference written by Chuck Culpepper, and the all-time SEC team as selected by Ivan Maisel, author of A War in Dixie

The most comprehensive reference book ever assembled on the history of college football From South Bend, Indiana, to Lincoln, Nebraska, Palo Alto, California, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Tallahassee, Florida, college football attracts the most dedicated fans in all of sports. This book is their Biblea rich and exhaustive reference guide to the games history, tradition, and lore. Based on three years of research by the nations foremost college football experts, the book features: lCapsule histories for each of the Division 1-A programs, the Ivy League schools, and the historically black colleges lYear-by-year schedules and scores for each school lStatistical leaders from each school lFight-song lyrics lBox scores for every bowl game ever played lWeekly AP and UPI polls dating back to 1936 lA four-color insert illustrating the evolution of each schools helmet design lEssays by the games top wordsmiths, including Dan Jenkins, Beano Cook, Chris Fowler, and more. lAnd a lively round-table discussion on the state of the game with ESPNs popular GameDay team (Fowler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit). Packed with tables and charts and designed in an easy-to-read style, the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia is sure to dazzle even the most knowledgeable fan.

For over 10 years, the ESPN Sports Almanac has been the definitive source for answers to most every sports question. From record-holders to champions, auto racing to the Iditarod, ballparks, business news, and Who's Who to the dearly departed athletes of the year past, the ESPN Sports Almanac 2008 tracks them in hundreds of photos, thousands of tables, countless facts and figures, plus expert analysis from ESPN's most popular personalities (Chris Berman, Dan Patrick, Stuart Scott, Mike Golic, Mike Greenberg, Dick Vitale, et al.). Add fan input from ESPN.com's SportsNation polls, along with ESPN's unique brand of humor, and this latest edition will keep the ESPN Sports Almanac the reigning champion and a New York Times best-seller.

The extraordinary story of how Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and Joe Namath, his star quarterback at the University of Alabama, led the Crimson Tide to victory and transformed football into a truly national pastime. During the bloodiest years of the civil rights movement, Bear Bryant and Joe Namath-two of the most iconic and controversial figures in American sports-changed the game of college football forever. Brilliantly and urgently drawn, this is the gripping account of how these two very different men-Bryant a legendary coach in the South who was facing a pair of ethics scandals that threatened his career, and Namath a cocky Northerner from a steel mill town in Pennsylvania-led the Crimson Tide to a national championship. To Bryant and Namath, the game was everything. But no one could ignore the changes sweeping the nation between 1961 and 1965-from the Freedom Rides to the integration of colleges across the South and the assassination of President Kennedy. Against this explosive backdrop, Bryant and Namath changed the meaning of football. Their final contest together, the 1965 Orange Bowl, was the first football game broadcast nationally, in color, during prime time, signaling a new era for the sport and the nation. Award-winning biographer Randy Roberts and sports historian Ed Krzemienski showcase the moment when two thoroughly American traditions-football and Dixie-collided. A compelling story of race and politics, honor and the will to win, Rising Tide captures a singular time in America. More than a history of college football, this is the story of the struggle and triumph of a nation in transition and the legacy of two of the greatest heroes the sport has ever seen.

Presents the statistics of professional American football players, coaches, and teams for each season from 1920-2006.

Amos Alonzo Stagg (1862-1965) grew up one of eight children in a poor New Jersey family, graduated high school at 21 and worked his way through Yale. His goal was to become a Presbyterian minister, but he dropped out of Yale Divinity School because he felt he could have more influence on young men through coaching. He was hired as the first football coach at University of Chicago after its founding in 1892. Under Stagg's leadership, Chicago emerged as one of the nation's most formidable football teams during the early 20th century, winning seven Big Ten championships and two national championships. After Chicago forced him to retire at 70, Stagg found another coaching position at College of the Pacific, where he was forced to retire at 84. He found another job and never fully retired from coaching until he was 98. His marriage to his wife Stella--his de facto assistant coach--lasted almost 70 years. Sports Illustrated wrote of him, "If any single individual can be said to have created today's game, Stagg is the man. He either invented outright or pioneered every aspect of the modern game from...the huddle, shift and tackling dummy to such refinements as the T-formation strategy." This biography tells the story of his life and many innovations, which made him one of the great pioneers of college football.

Fred "Duke" Slater was the greatest African American football player of the first half of the 20th century. Born into poverty, he developed into a two-time All-American tackle at the University of Iowa from 1918 to 1921. When the College Football Hall of Fame opened decades later, Duke was the only African American elected in the inaugural class. He then became the first black lineman in National Football League history in 1922, embarking on a remarkable ten-year career in the NFL. Incredibly, Slater was the only African American in the entire NFL for most of the late 1920s, yet he was widely recognized as one of the League's best linemen. But his pioneering influence extended beyond the gridiron. After retirement, he broke ground in the legal field as just the second black judge in Chicago history. On the field or on the bench, the inspirational life of Judge Duke Slater is a true American success story.