Next year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover odds bring us to a milestone in the history of the issue. The 2013 issue will be the 50th edition of the famed SI Swimsuit Issue. The first edition was printed in 1964 with Babette March making her first and only appearance on the cover. In the history of the Swimsuit Issue, 40 models have graced the cover.

Continuing with our annual tradition of Swimsuit Issue prognostication, today we take the official unofficial early look at who will make the cover of next year’s SI Swimsuit issue.

99-1 Athlete
Steve’s theory of the SI Swimsuit cover inset says that a good indicator of future cover girls is the small inset used occasionally on the SI Swimsuit Issue cover. Brooklyn Decker’s 2010 cover was preceded by an inset in 2009. Bar Refaeli had an inset in 2007 before making the cover in 2009. And Kate Upton got an inset as a rookie and took home the cover in 2012. Alex Morgan’s bodypaint shoot got her the inset in the 49th issue so the theory suggests an athlete covering the issue is coming in the near future. However, with the last back-to-back appearance by an athlete coming backing in 2008 & 2009 with Danica Patrick, I doubt we’ve already seen a potential athlete cover girl in the issue yet. It would also be appropriate for a magazine called Sports Illustrated to have an athlete on the cover of a milestone edition of the Swimsuit issue.

70-1 Anne V
Poor Anne (Full name: Anne Vyalitsyna). She’s made eight appearances in the Swimsuit Issue since 2005 which marks a record for number of consecutive appearances. At this point, you really have to wonder is appearance #9 is in the cards for her. If SI does bring her back one more time, do they take pity and put her on the cover this time? Pity is probably the wrong word to use but if Anne was going to make the cover, SI have been given plenty of opportunities to make it happen. I even had her as my choice for the 2011 cover when she set the record for consecutive appearances. At this point, it would seem more like a going-away present than a reward for her work in the issue.

50-1 Nina Agdal
SI hasn’t officially announced who the 2012 Rookie of the Year is but based on blogosphere buzz and common sense, the ROTY is Nina Agdal. If you check out even a couple of blogs for men, you’ll be familiar with her. Of all the women on the list only Kate Upton is likely to have been featured more often. The reason why Nina finds herself at the bottom end of the list is name recognition. She just isn’t as big a name as the other women on the list. A lot of times, the cover of the Swimsuit Issue doesn’t come down to who has earned it or who has the best pictures but who has a big enough public profile to sell copies. Nina might be popular online but I don’t think she quite has enough name recognition yet. If I’m still doing this ahead of the 2015 issue, though…

35-1 Genevieve Morton
If Kate Upton ever has a non-unionized South African equivalent, it would be Genevieve Morton. Should you believe Wikipedia, their measurements are surprisingly similar with Upton measuring in at 33-25-36 and Morton at 34-25-35. And like Upton, Genevieve is also an SI Swimsuit cover girl in her native country. Upton made the most recent SI Swimsuit cover in the US while Gen was on the cover for last November’s SI South Africa Swimsuit Issue. All those similarities between the two and I can’t explain how Gen finds her way to the bottom half of the list. Sometimes it’s all about when you arrive on the scene and 2010 was just not as good to Gen as 2011 was to Kate.

30-1 Alyssa Miller
Speaking of similarities to Kate Upton, Alyssa and Kate are both Guess models as well as 2011 Swimsuit Issue rookies. That’s where the similarities end. Upton became the overnight sensation with various magazine shoots and shoots for swimwear and lingerie companies. Meanwhile, I’ve only ever seen Alyssa do an Intimissimi lingerie apart from her SI and Guess modelling work. Without more work outside the pages of SI, I can’t see Miller getting to the cover of the Swimsuit Issue. As an interesting aside, Miller always dreamed of playing professional soccer. Well, she did end up in Sports Illustrated but she didn’t end up there because of her athletic prowess. I guess that makes her a bit like Alex Morgan.

25-1 Cintia Dicker
My fondness of Cintia is well documented on the blog so I won’t bore you with my love for the consensus hottest redhead in the world (sorry Christina Hendricks fans). Cintia has appeared in the last four Swimsuit Issues and it’s usually that fourth or fifth appearance that sees a model land the cover. Despite her consistently good photo shoots and love from the blogosphere, she just hasn’t gotten much buzz for the cover. If you look at the names ahead of her on the list, you can understand how she gets overlooked for the cover. Unfortunately, that didn’t change after the most recent issue so I don’t have high hopes for 2013. And looking at the crop of more recent additions to the SI Swimsuit model ranks, I’m not sure if the timing will ever be right for her to be on the cover.

20-1 Izabel Goulart
Izzy is one of the seemingly thousands of models that Brazil has produced. I really have to get down there once in my life. Anyway, Goulart probably has one of the best resumes among current SI Swimsuit girls despite the fact she’s only made two appearances in the issue. From 2005 to 2008, Izzy was a Victoria’s Secret Angel and it’s quite easy to see what VS saw in her. She has also modelled for a who’s who list of designers and been photographed by the top photographers in the world. However, the frequency of her work has lessened considerably since 2008. But if you’re looking for a darkhorse to pick up the 2013 cover, she would a smart one to put money on.

15-1 All-Star Cover
Back in 2006, Sports Illustrated ran a cover featuring eight of their past cover girls, including such legends as Elle Macpherson, Rachel Hunter and Daniela Pestova. That was for the 43rd issue (making it the 42nd anniversary of the issue). The 50th issue would be a logical point to do another reunion cover featuring legends like Elle and Tyra and current stars like Bar, Brooklyn and Kate. (Maybe even Anne V could make the cover in a group picture.) However, SI is usually pretty good at differentiating between issue numbers and anniversaries so I’m not sold on them going big for #50 rather than the 50th anniversary.

12-1 Irina Shayk
It’s pretty standard for Sports Illustrated to feature the prior year’s cover girl in the following Swimsuit Issue. So it wasn’t a surprise that 2011 cover girl Irina Shayk was in the 2012 issue. What was a surprise was that her shoot was on par with cover girl Kate Upton’s shoot. Granted, Irina always has good photo shoots with SI but this year might have been her best. It’s been a while since we’ve had a model get her second cover (the last was technically six members of the All-Star cover in 2006 but the last solo second cover was Daniela Pestova in 2000) but I doubt you’d hear anyone complain if Irina was able to accomplish the feat in 2013.

7-1 Chrissy Teigen
For the last couple of years, I’ve had Chrissy near the top of my favourites list but she just can’t quite seem to find her way to the #1 spot. But when it comes to modelling appearances during the year, Chrissy probably does fewer than anyone else on this list. Now that she’s making more red carpet appearances and has her own TV show on the Cooking Channel (Cookies and Cocktails), her public profile has gotten to the point where she has name recognition to sell some issues. That’s not bad for a woman whose first documented modelling appearance was for IGN in 2004. The fact that she’s one of the best personalities on Twitter doesn’t hurt either. She definitely has a shot at the cover next year.
 

5-1 Kate Upton
Any of the top four could have easily been dropped in the top slot as favourite for next year’s SI Swimsuit cover. However, just like last year, the model with the biggest buzz from the immediate aftermath of this year’s Swimsuit Issue dropping is Kate Upton. She’s done interviews on Letterman and Kimmel. Her modelling work has her on the cover of Esquire and Muse in addition to SI just in the month of February.  She’s so big a star now that she’s designing her own collection for Beach Bunny swimsuits in addition to modelling for them. She’s the biggest name among the current pool of SI Swimsuit models and maybe even the most popular model in the world right now but a lot can change between now and next February.

Obligatory Legal-ish Disclaimer: This post is for entertainment purposes only. If you gamble your money based on the ramblings of a man who’s never bet a dime in his life, it’s your own damn fault. Hell, no ones know who will be in the issue yet.