Having written for this many years, you do get a feeling for certain things. Recognizing certain signs of the coming season. The media coverage goes from reviewing last season, to focusing on the coaches, to recruiting, to the big picture previews of the coming season. Then in the final month you have the player pieces and watch lists for awards followed by local media previewing the local teams.
I’ve taken to skipping watch list stuff in the last few years simply because they are little more than lines in bios for players and that’s about it. The Rimington Award for best Center — for instance — features a Syracuse player who never started.