Michigan Football Players and the States/Regions They Call Home
Earlier this morning, Maize.Blue Wagner posted a fantastic diary detailing the "Best Michigan Player From Each State". In order to finish his diary, he did an extraordinary amount of research into the amount of players hailing from each state (and Canadian provinces), which I'll base this post on. To be clear: I did not compile these numbers myself. Any and all credit for the research it took to get my raw data belongs to Maize.Blue Wagner.
I started by breaking down states by athletic conferences, with states able to double-count (Ohio skews the Big East numbers in a huge way) and took a look at who Michigan likes to deprive of talent. The results look something like this:
Big Ten | |
Illinois | 491 |
Indiana | 181 |
Iowa | 47 |
Michigan | 2601 |
Minnesota | 34 |
Nebraska | 13 |
Ohio | 683 |
Pennsylvania | 141 |
Wisconsin | 70 |
Total |
4261 |
SEC | |
Alabama | 6 |
Arkansas | 5 |
Florida | 69 |
Georgia | 13 |
Kentucky | 26 |
Louisiana | 18 |
Mississippi | 1 |
South Carolina | 7 |
Tennessee | 13 |
Total | 158 |
Pac 12 | |
Arizona | 9 |
California | 69 |
Colorado | 24 |
Oregon | 4 |
Utah | 6 |
Washington | 16 |
Total | 128 |
BXII | |
Iowa | 47 |
Kansas | 13 |
Missouri | 37 |
Oklahoma | 11 |
Texas | 53 |
Total | 161 |
ACC | |
Florida | 69 |
Georgia | 13 |
Maryland | 16 |
Massachusetts | 46 |
North Carolina | 7 |
South Carolina | 7 |
Virginia | 17 |
Total | 175 |
Big East | |
Connecticut | 13 |
Florida | 69 |
New York | 133 |
Kentucky | 26 |
New Jersey | 50 |
Ohio | 683 |
Pennsylvania | 141 |
West Virginia | 11 |
Total | 1126 |
Non-BCS |
|
Delaware | 1 |
DC | 13 |
Hawaii | 2 |
Idaho | 4 |
Maine | 2 |
Montana | 18 |
Nevada | 2 |
New Hampshire | 4 |
New Mexico | 2 |
Rhode Island | 3 |
South Dakota | 13 |
Vermont | 3 |
Wyoming | 5 |
Total | 72 |
Within the Big Ten:
Excising the Big Ten from the numbers:
As I said before, states double-counting skews numbers, especially Ohio in the Big East, and to a lesser extent Iowa in the BXII. Since I can't simply pretend Cincinnati and Iowa State aren't BCS schools likely to offer in-state talent, I decided to compare by region.
I'm sure there's some criticism headed my way for how the states are broken down (I have an entire book devoted to defining the concept of "Midwestern"), but I'll explain my rationale here. I went with six regions: Midwest, Colonial, Left Coast, Rocky, Cowboy and Dixie.
Midwest was the most straightforward, including the Big Ten footprint plus Missouri and Kansas.
Midwest | |
Illinois | 491 |
Indiana | 181 |
Iowa | 47 |
Kansas | 13 |
Michigan | 2601 |
Minnesota | 34 |
Missouri | 37 |
Nebraska | 13 |
Ohio | 683 |
Wisconsin | 70 |
Total | 4170 |
Colonial is the former colonies that didn't secede, plus Maine, DC and Vermont.
Colonial | |
Connecticut | 13 |
Delaware | 1 |
DC | 13 |
Maine | 2 |
Maryland | 16 |
Massachussetts | 46 |
New Hampshire | 4 |
New Jersey | 50 |
New York | 133 |
Pennsylvania | 141 |
Rhode Island | 3 |
Vermont | 3 |
Total | 425 |
Left Coast is made up of states with a Pacific coast. Hawaii is included in the Left Coast states simply because there was no other semi-logical choice.
Left Coast | |
California | 69 |
Hawaii | 2 |
Oregon | 4 |
Washington | 16 |
Total | 91 |
Rocky states include Colorado, Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, Utah, Wyoming, and Alaska for the same reason Hawaii is "Left Coast".
Rocky | |
Alaska | 1 |
Colorado | 24 |
Idaho | 4 |
Montana | 18 |
North Dakota | 9 |
South Dakota | 13 |
Utah | 6 |
Wyoming | 5 |
Total | 80 |
Cowboy is Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Cowboy | |
Arizona | 9 |
Nevada | 2 |
New Mexico | 2 |
Oklahoma | 11 |
Texas | 53 |
Total | 77 |
Dixie is the former Confederacy, minus Texas and with Kentucky and West Virginia added.
Dixie | |
Alabama | 6 |
Arkansas | 5 |
Florida | 69 |
Georgia | 13 |
Kentucky | 26 |
Louisiana | 18 |
Mississippi | 1 |
North Carolina | 7 |
South Carolina | 7 |
Tennessee | 13 |
Virginia | 17 |
West Virginia | 11 |
Total | 193 |
By region, Midwest included:
Basically, breaking this down to its simplest form, Michigan, throughout its history, has been totally dependent on Michigan and Ohio recruiting to survive. Even with a "national brand", the vast majority of players (84.6%) come from within our conference footprint and 77.1% of players from the footprint hail from Michigan or Ohio. I hope this was informative, and again, make sure to go read and posbang Maize.Blue Wagner's diary.
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