Interesting article on economy hurting B1G...

Certainly an interesting take, though I am skeptical.  Not of the population growth trends, those are undeniable.

But it's a stretch to make a bold claim like "the economy is causing the B1G to lag behind the SEC" without anything other than 2 disparate states and anecdotal evidence.

When it comes to articles in the STEM areas, "Peer review or it didn't happen."

It makes sense, but the southeast has had some employment issues as well. So it may be a factor, but I think institutional level differences are at least as important and macro economic ones.

Did you notice that the article is from Al Jazeera?

I think we're looking at a situation in which football is king in the south and the weather makes year round play much easier on the southern recruits.  Put in a natural tendency for kids to want to stay close to home and you have a recipe for SEC/Big 12/Pac 12 being stronger.  I don't think employment has much to do with it as the age of people migrating en masse for factory jobs is over.  The more mobile groups are the ones who are....... not likely to produce a lot of division 1 football prospects.  

...obviously those cheating SECer's have an advantage considering they been unofficially paying players.

The loss of General Motors jobs in the north has had a huge impact on Midwest athletics. My family moved to TN, basically my entire school's and district's athletes were comprised of "northern brats" as we were called who had to relocate due to Michigan's economy (most played college ball in some sport in the south.)



Since I graduated from college down here because out of state tuition was too great, it's nearly impossible to get a job in Michigan having a MTSU (largest institution in Tennessee) degree and Tennessee address. I've tried at times for about fifteen months to relocate.



Now, if I don't find a job in Michigan and continue to work in Tennessee, my *future* kids would more than likely go through the same thing. It's a tough predicament, but most importantly the B1G just needs to win BIG games if they are going to incline this upcoming generation to migrate north to play sports.

population loss and changes in the economy. Michigan is 9th largest state with almost 9.9 million population. This is about the same as Georgia and more than almost any other southern state. I believe, there are still enough kids here in the Midwest to build competitive teams. Perhaps with the crappy weather that we have, one needs a much larger population to field competitive teams.

By the Michigan has about 20% less population than Ohio and Pennsylvania. But we produce far fewer elite football players, I think. It must be the water.

I blame poor coaching for the weakened economy in michigan. No evidence, just based on my gut.

Overall, I don't think it's that hard of an argument to make that decreasing economic possbilities will mean smaller populations and less recruits.  My only problem with this argument is that top end schools like Ohio State still seem to have no problem getting recruits.  If this is possible, it puts a huge question mark on the validity of this argument.  

Now, I will say that it will have a huge impact on your lower end schools like an Illinois, Minnesota, and Purdue, but ultimately, I think it has much more to do with winning than anything else.  If the Big Ten starts having teams ranked consistently, wins big matchups, and wins bowl games, I think you will have no problem recruiting.

Midwest businesses have been failing to execute for decades

Too many nickel packages and not enough dime packages.

It's cold / cloudy for 6 of the 9 months of the school year.  The girls aren't as hot.  Football isn't nearly as king for the vast majority of the conference.  

Please spare me the academic BS.  Besides Northwestern, name me one school that rejects 4-5 star players who are clearinghouse eligible.  Note: Demar Dorsey couldn't even get into Louisville.

I think there is some truth to what the article says but it is not the only factor. Michigan used to get a lot of guys from the deep south, even into the 90s (Anthony Thomas, James Hall, Jarrett Irons, Chris Perry, Juaquin Feazell, Marcus Knight, Tommy Hendricks, etc.) and while they still get some from Texas and Florida, a lot of the top players are reluctant to leave the south.

For the kids in HS right now, the segregated football teams in the south forcing players to go to UM, Syracuse, MSU, and the like is a generation or two away. I imagine there was some reluctance by black players to go to places like Mississippi and Alabama even into the 70s and 80s that is pretty much gone now.

It is not the lack of jobs that is concerning to Midwest football. It is the lack of manual labor jobs that has an effect. Football is mostly affected by those families because they are the ones who let their kids play the reputably dangerous sport as opposed to others.



1. The northeast United States is doing fine with respect to jobs generally, yet they rarely produce football talent. They also have little reliance on mfg jobs.



2. California is a good place for finding football talent, but that is just because it is so big. The growing areas of Northern California (with white collar jobs), lag far behind in producing talent. California lags significantly behind Texas and Florida for top talent, despite being much bigger than both (almost twice as many people as Florida).



The reality, that not many here are willing to admit, is that football is considered a barbaric sport in civilized areas. It is the rare exception to get kids from white collar backgrounds. It is a sport that people in physically demanding jobs don't seem as concerned about and one which, although dangerous, is better than the other two most viable options after HS -- go to work in a factory or join the armed forces.



So, as the Midwest attempts to diversify its economy and rely more heavily on engineering, financial services, etc. it will be STRENGTHENING its own economy while losing many manual labor families to places where companies can treat the working poor families with less cost -- and less help. (Texas, Alabama, etc.).



But, since there is so much money in the Midwest focused on sports, those kids will continue to head up there for better opportunity.