ESPN Class Rankings
Looking at the ESPN class rankings, I am trying to figure out what asinine methodology they must use to come up with their results. Michigan is currently #19, with 1 five star, 6 four stars, 18 three stars, and 2 two stars. South Carolina, ranked one spot ahead, has 5 four stars, 11 three stars, a couple JC transfers, and a bunch of two stars and unrated players*. Similar comparisons exist in Michigan's favor for #15 Stanford, #16 Texas A&M, and #17 Clemson (Michigan also seems to be about equal in quality to #13 Miami and #14 Ohio State, but the numbers are less clear there).
Anyway, I just can't make heads nor tails of it. The only thing that could possibly make sense to me is if ESPN evaluates classes by the average player ranking, in which case signing a greater quantity of 3-stars might have hurt Michigan.
*This includes players who didn't qualify in 2009 and are making another go at it. ESPN did not count them on their class rankings page.
UPDATE: Well, about 5 seconds after posting this, ESPN updated their rankings. Michigan is now #14, and beat now-#16 OSU.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:01 PM ^
I think I saw earlier today on ESPNU that U-M had only 2 of the top ESPNU 150.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:04 PM ^
That's nice to see - I think we were #20 on ESPN this morning.
By this time next year we will be back in the 5-10 range, maybe better.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:04 PM ^
All day I have been following NSD, and ESPN has been lagging on nearly all of their coverage, none more so than their rankings. As of 7:45 tonight, they still had only seven Michigan recruits having submitted LOI's while this blog and many other sources had confirmed all but Dorsey signed by about noon. I live right next to ESPN, and an insider told me that ESPN's biggest weakness right now is having a good hold on college football recruiting. That was obvious today.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:08 PM ^
By the end of their show at 7:00 pm they had UM at 19. That being said who the hell knows?!? Scout has us at 9 or 10 and Rivals at 73 or something.
Edit: that is Rivals sarcasm btw.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:12 PM ^
ESPN's class rankings says Michigans has 3 top 150 recruits yet I only count 2 (Gardner, Dorsey) who am I missing?
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:32 PM ^
Probably Cullen Christian
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:17 PM ^
don't waste your time, they give out stars regardless of the actual player ranking they randomly hand out (at least they used to not sure if its updated) and it has a strong bias towards the south.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:31 PM ^
I agree that their methodology is somewhat disingenuous, but I was confused when I noticed that their rankings weren't even corresponding to their supposed methodology, which turned out to be the result of a failure to update their system. This suggests a surprising lack of infrastructure to the recruiting portion of their website, as I would have thought that they could just automate the class ranking system, unless the ratings aren't formulaic, which would be dumb considering their relative lack of recruiting experts.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:41 PM ^
I was somewhat of the opinion that their class rankings is purely opinion and not really based on a formula in the same way scout, rivals and even superprep use. Not positive on that but it would explain a lot; on the recruits themselves there is definitely bonus points for being in the south, going to an SEC school, and playing in "their" all-star game.
Plus the rankings are all about driving headlines. ESPN has hooked their wagon to the SEC, quite literally, why wouldn't they try to boost those players and classes to increase TV ratings. So don't worry about team rankings, their system is fail from the beginning
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:07 PM ^
ESPNU was tripping over its own tongue trying to promote the dominance in recruiting by the SEC. They consistently rank SEC commits higher, and consistently rank SEC teams overall rank higher. It is grossly biased. According to them, the Big Ten only got 13 of the "ESPN 150", and the SEC got 51. Even USC gets dogged by them. Unwatchable TV all day long from them.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:22 PM ^
At all.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:22 PM ^
Espn = fail most of the time. They give out their star rankings based on whether Lou Holtz can say their name without soaking somebody.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:28 PM ^
Plus one to you for connecting Lou Holtz and ESPN blowing recruiting analysis on an annual basis.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:29 PM ^
Is it possible for him to NOT soak somebody when trying to say anything?
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:31 PM ^
MSU #32......urrrr lol
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:54 PM ^
back off, brah.
They own the f%$#ing state.
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:24 PM ^
I just looked on the ESPN site about an hour ago. It looked like Penn St. was #11, Michigan #14 and OSU #16.
We are #12 on Scout and #20 on Rivals.
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:23 PM ^
I was making the recruiting rounds just recently, ESPN now has us @ #14. I don't put much stock in recruit rankings, but was a little curious.
February 4th, 2010 at 2:09 AM ^
He's the third. #42 overall.