Customer Reviews

The Maisel Report: College Football's Most Overrated & Underrated Players, Coaches, Teams, and Traditions

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Not bad, but not great. It really states the obvious too much. Maisel will not bowl you over with any revelations here, but I would recommend this book to the fan that is not too familiar with the college game. Maisel is a witty writer, but his book concentrates mostly on the big names in college football. The SEC, Big Ten, and Notre Dame seem to take up most of the book's pages. Overall I liked the book, but I think the author missed a good opertunity to write a really great book.

I consider Ivan Maisel the best college writer out there today -- and yes, I've one of the many schmucks who has sent Mr. Maisel an e-mail disagreeing with one of his ESPN.com columns. He respectfully wrote back very politely.

He knows his stuff and in turn can turn a phrase with the best of them -- the line about the last time a college team won when Barry Bonds' hat size was smaller just a sample of a great one-liner.

He bashes some long-held myths out there, hits it spot-on, and goes from there. Just a great, fast moving read. Funny how Chris Fowler explains in the forward that college football is about opinion, and Ivan himself goes on further to explain the importance of opinion in college football and one "reviewer" (I use that term lightly) here says there's too much opinion in this book.

Bunk. That's what makes it fun, ratings, rankings, and opinion. Maisel has traversed the country and written millions of words on college football. His opinion is an educated one and an astute one. Plus, he has fun with it, making the book that much better.

If all the no-sense-of-humor college football die-hards can lower their blood pressure for a few hours, pick up this book and have fun. If they can't do that, pick it up anyway, but keep your doctor's number nearby. The book will surely get your blood boiling.

One of the best books ever on college football!

Like the quote on the cover, once I started, I just couldn't put it down. I started reading it at 10pm and, sure enough, before I knew it, it was well past midnight (very late for me on a Sunday night). I kept on finding more and more fascinating material sprinkled with witty interjections, I completely lost track of time. Therefore, I highly recommend NOT reading your book before bed...this book is just too darn good.

Being a Clemson grad, I thought I'd have issues with several of Ivan's opinions, but his thoughts are well organized and very convincing...I no longer consider them mere "opinions". I completely understand why Ivan Maisel is called the dean of college football. This book is a MUST read for anyone interested in collegiate athletics...

The Maisel Report: College Football's Most Overrated and Underrated Players, Coaches, Teams, and Traditions
By Deep Threat (Texas)
Those who love college football and good writing must have The Maisel Report. Ivan Maisel's latest book is full of opinions grounded in fact, not myth, that are guaranteed to pump up or piss off (maybe both) fans of every major program. Maisel gets it: the passionately held opinions of college football fans are what sets our favorite sport apart. Maisel also understands that opinions on college football are rooted in traditions as old as a century or events as fresh as last season. As Ole Miss fan William Faulkner wrote, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." If you can't start an argument with The Maisel Report, you're not trying.

The Hurricanes are the most overrated program in college history, huh? 5 national championships. Should have been champions in 1986, 1988, 1990, 2000, and 2002. So they very well COULD HAVE been National Champions 6 straight years. 6 straight years!! And if it wasn't for that garbage BCS in 00 and that garbage, BS pass interfence call in 02, they were definitely back-to-back-to-back Champs in 00-02. Absolutely dominated the 1980's. Fielded the greatest team ever assembled in 2001. Longest home winning streak in NCAA history. Most players in the NFL every single year. Record for the most first round picks in a single year. Record for the most first round picks of all-time. Hold a current streak of a Miami Hurricane scoring an NFL touchdown every single week since 2002.

There has NEVER been a more dominant dynasty as the Miami Hurricanes football program in modern NCAA history. And they continually prove how absolutely awesome their program is by not only the quantity of NFL players that they send to the NFL but by the quality of the players that they send to the NFL. Ex-Hurricane players perenially dominate the Pro Bowl and All-Pro teams.

You, Ivan Maisel, are an absolute freaking joke.

Or, MAYBE just MAYBE Ivan Maisel doesn't know what the word overrated means. I think that makes more sense because no one can possibly be this stupid. Because if you're going to talk about overrated, you would have to talk about Nebraska, Michigan, Notre Dame, etc. Teams that, like Nebraska, run gimmicky offenses and put absolute garbage in the NFL. Or teams like Notre Dame and Michigan, who have been playing football since the inception of College Football, when there were like 20 schools playing and claim a bunch of fake national titles in the 20's, 30's and 40's. Michigan has 1 National Title in the last 50 years! Impressive. Michigan is constantly ranked in the top 10 every single year yet constantly finish with 4 and 5 losses. At least that's more than Notre Dame can claim. Notre Dame has not been relevant in 20 years.

I think that about sums up how stupid Ivan Maisel is and how meaningless his opinion is. Quite possibly the most ridiculous statement I have ever read in my entire life. Congratulations Maisel. That's a pretty big accomplishment.

I enjoyed this book very much. I am a lifelong college football fan (SEC especially). Not only is it extremely entertaining, one can also learn a few things along the way. If you have a strong allegiance to a particular school's football program, you will be extremely gratified in some instances and take exception with Mr. Maisel's opinion in other instances. But that's just the nature of the college football beast. A very fun read, and I thank Mr. Maisel for writing it.

Like many Amazon readers, I love college football. And I consider myself a very well informed fan. However, I recently picked up (and couldn't put down) "The Maisel Report." I found out how much I didn't know about college football - or, more accurately, how much I thought I knew that was wrong.

The author, Ivan Maisel, is a journalist who blogs on college football for ESPN, so I wasn't surprised by the quality of the writing or by the level of detail included in the book. But it's incredible the way he ties history into an analysis of today's game - if you don't believe me, just read how the history of the Confederacy led up to the primacy of today's Clemson-South Carolina rivalry.

Too much misguided theory and ego in this one for me too stomach. Worst time spent on reading such trash. Do yourself a favor and save your money.