Posted by NoleCC

Hey folks, it’s time again to put forth my humble opinion of the best of the best out there for FSU fans. If you need to get the pre-football season rankings, check them out from August’s post, where Andrew Carter was far above the pack.

NoleDigest.com - I’m surprised it’s still around frankly. The Scout site for FSU has never been up to par, even if the information over there can be useful.  I don’t quite understand why it’s not, but for various reasons it continues to have the worst layout / coverage / forums combo of any of the sites.

Nole Insider - I had high hopes for the return of Scott Carter, but Nole Insider has a lot of rehashed ideas that are slammed in to “premium” content. The ESPN affiliation should give the site some credibility, but the layout is pretty awful, you have to register to leave a comment and the ad placements could be worked in to the site better to A) make more money and B) be less annoying to the user.

Garnet And Great - Garnet and Great continues to fill a wonderful niche, and it continues to be copied by the likes of Warchant, the Tallahassee Democrat and others with whatever version of “Where Are They Now?” they try to run. If you haven’t checked it out lately, you should, Rich does a great job.

Seminoles.com - The official site of Florida State. If you want the official word, head over there. The reason I’ve dropped it back here, from a much higher position is because the flow of information has slowed to a crawl for sports like soccer and softball. It’s a shame, whether it’s because of state budget cuts or something else, because Seminoles.com was quickly leading the way when it came to the coverage of EVERY FSU sport.

ChantRant - Okay I might get lambasted a bit for this, because I still love ChantRant, but lately it’s seemed like a lot of bashed, and less other side of the story like it used to be.  Maybe I’m wrong, and I still think ChantRant has a lot of stories you might not hear about otherwise, but some of the Bobby Bowden bashing gets old to me, but I also understand it’s Rich’s frustration with FSU football, which most of us feel one way or the other.

Warchant.com - I’ll reiterate what I said last time… It’s the most popular for sure, but everything is “premium” content. Funny, you can find most of it for free elsewhere. Sometimes before it shows up on Warchant. That said, it has the largest community of fans, and is worth a daily look. 

Nolefans.com - EVERY STAT YOU’LL EVER NEED. Thanks guys!

Tomahawk Nation – I had to think long and hard about where to rank TN, because I have a love / hate relationship with the site. The guys (formerly of the short lived FSUncensored) have done a wonderful job of reviving the dead SB Nation affiliate. They continue to get a lot of Warchant run offs, since the mods are strict over there, and the writers themselves are very active in the commenting section. So there’s a lot of good, to go with my complaints:

1. I absolutely hate blogs with “click here to read more.” All it does is waste my time.
2. The guys are great in my opinon when they are spitting out stats and facts, but when it turns into too much speculation and who to fire, cut, etc. it just seems like it does a disservice to FSU (like the ever witty tag line for the blog title that changes occasionally). That’s my opinion, and you, the reader get to agree or disagree with me. I’m fine with that. I just don’t take pleasure in continually talking about problems with FSU football, that we all know won’t be resolved or we have no power over.
3. I have to sign up for an account to comment. This does nothing for the user experience, and I’m not sure that it’s something the guys can control, but in reality it doesn’t keep spam away, nor does it do anything but hinder a passing by lurker from commenting occasionally.

NoleSports.com (Tallahassee Democrat) - They continue to do a good job, and there’s been less fluff and more filling this past year. That’s good for FSU fans, even if the rest of the Democrat lags behind.

Andrew Carter’s Chopping Block (Orlando Sentinel) - Andrew Carter kept a blistering pace throughout the 2008 FSU football season. He brought tons of extra info to his blog, and he has a wonderful way of keeping things simple and interesting.  Keep up the good work Andrew!

Two special mentions:

Two blogs I’d like to mention that aren’t pure FSU blogs, but are ACC sites are Heather Dinich’s ESPN.com Blog and ACC Sports Journal. Dinich did a solid job of covering the ACC throughout the football season, even if the ESPN honchos think their blog network isn’t paying off yet. And ACC Sports Journal has some freebies that fantastic. If Jim Young would like to send me a free subscription to the premium content, I’d be happy to review that too. Ha!

Others not mentioned:

There are a few other blogs out there that I choose not to include, simply because they’ve either caused problems here at ScalpEm, they’re just basically a rehash of press releases, or their blog isn’t ususally about FSU. If you think I’ve missed one that I should be watching, leave a comment or send me an email to let me know about your FSU site!

As always I leave ScalpEm out of the ranking, because it’s always number 1 to me. It’s like not voting for yourself in an election if I didn’t rank it #1. However, YOU get to choose in the following poll, and don’t worry I won’t be offended if  don’t come in #1 by a mile or two. I don’t do this for prestige, I do it for some sanity around the watercooler that is the internet.