The Carolina Panthers aren’t victims of the Sports Illustrated cover jinx. More like the SI cover conundrum.

The magazine has made some wacky predictions over the years. Remember when it picked the 1987 Cleveland Indians to win the World Series?

Like a curiously overwhelming majority of the national media, SI decided not to pick the Patriots to win the Super Bowl. I use the term “decided” because it seems a lot of experts are more determined to lay out the reasons why New England won’t win rather than make solid cases for who will win.

It’s shaky rationale. No one has every won three Super Bowl titles in a row, therefore, it can’t be done. Kind of like how the Red Sox can never beat the Yankees or win a World Series, therefore, last year should have never happened.

So this left the editors of SI with a puzzler – If the Patriots can’t win, who will?

The magazine could have approached the answer from several different angles –

1. Pull some team out of left field. Maybe the New York Giants or the Houston Texans. Makes a big splash on all of the talk shows. SI did this with the Indians’ pick.

You don’t make a big splash putting the Carolina Panthers on the cover. You put Michael Vick or Terrell Owens on the cover, not Jake Delhomme.

2. Again, get some free advertising on all the talk shows by picking an incendiary team that is generating controversy or will at some point during the season. The Philadelphia Eagles or the Oakland Raiders are the most obvious examples.

The Panthers are so boring, Bill Belichick thinks they lack personality.

3. Choose from one of the up-and-coming teams that made big strides last year and could make another leap this year. This is usually the favorite method of us sports media types, but surprisingly, the Seattle Seahawks, Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals aren’t getting a lot of notice this year.

The Panthers skipped this stage. They were an up-and-coming team that caught a few breaks in 2003-04 and made the Super Bowl a year ahead of schedule.

4. Go with this year’s media darlings, the Indianapolis Colts.

SI never does this with it’s predictions because it’s not very original. I’ll give SI credit, it’s pretty original with its predictions.

5. When all else fails, pick a team with name recognition and a devoted national following. The Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers will always sell a lot of magazines.

The Carolina Panthers aren’t even No. 1 in their home state. They don’t sell magazines there, here or Peoria.

So why did SI pick the Panthers to win the Super Bowl?

Disturbingly, because it actually thought the Panthers were going to win the Super Bowl.

On paper, it makes sense. Here’s a team that’s one year removed from the Super Bowl, one field goal removed from a Super Bowl victory, in fact. It’s a team that had some tough luck with injuries last year and then put on a dramatic run in the second half of the season.

And what’s not to like about the Panthers? They’re tough, they’re physical, they play good, sometimes great, defense, they can run the ball, and their QB is at his best with the money on the line.

But, see, that’s the problem. There’s another team the above description fits. The New England Freakin’ Patriots. The only difference is, they’ve won the Super Bowl, not once, not twice, but three times in the last four years.

The folks at SI know this, but much like the rest of their media brethren, they just couldn’t bring themselves to pick the Patriots because of, you know, that whole “three Super Bowls in a row” thing.

Well, now the Panthers don’t look so Patriot-like. They blew their home opener to a vagabond New Orleans team, losing their best defensive player, Kris Jenkins, in the process. They’ll lose to the Patriots today, too.

Of course, the folks at SI couldn’t have predicted that.