Just got a few of the Panini Collegiate Collection Team Sets (I've uploaded the checklists for the ones I have and will work on getting the images in place once the checklists are confirmed), and, I must say, I'm disappointed with some of the player selections made by Panini. My biggest complaint is that these sets are small (12-24 cards plus a logo card for each set) and, despite that, Panini chose to have multiple cards of the same player! Take Illinois for example. While the school doesn't have the athletic dominance of some of the other big schools (Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, UCLA, etc.), this is a school with guys like Dick Butkus, Lou Boudreau, and Ray Nitschke. Instead of including some of these legends, Panini has two cards each for Whitney Mercilus, Deron WIlliams, and Dee Brown.
Even the smaller sets (Northwestern is 12 cards) have duplicate players, and one of the 10 sets I have (Minnesota) has THREE separate cards for a player (Eric Decker--1 baseball photo, 2 football). The only set I got that has no duplicate players is Syracuse.
Other than that, the sets have a mix of old and new players, with an emphasis on the more modern guys. Generally, the sets are football heavy, with some men's basketball and a few baseball.
I guess I'm just really surprised that they couldn't come up with 24 (or in some cases even 12) unique players given the lengthy sports histories of most of these schools.
As I said, I have the checklists submitted for: Illinois, Iowa, Northwestern, Minnesota, Okla St., Wash. St., Syracuse, Utah, NC St., and South Carolina, and I'll work on the images as I get time...
.jpg)
