Apparently it's because they don't have a dedicated midwest analyst. Which seems like a poor business model to me, but hey what do I know?
Not a poor business model when you have year round, wall-to-wall coverage of college football in Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. With the midwest, major programs are much more few and far between. You have Ohio and Michigan as the major college football states in the midwest.
But kids from Ohio and Michigan get recruited by schools nationwide. The employers might be in the south, but the talent is spread somewhat evenly.
True, however, it's all about the dolla dolla billz.
Standifer is almost guaranteed to be a 4* before the final rankings are done. But he'll probably start off as a 3* But the guys on Rivals are very high on him
Ringer just got a 5.7 3 star rating
Have they not done DEs? I would be surprised if Mario didn't get a 5.7. Especially since he's an Army AA.
Standifer is a 3-star, 5.7 rating.
Gant is a 5.7 3 star now
Holding out hope Ojemudia gets a random 5.8 4-star since he is an Army All-American.
Why would that be random? He's a 4 star on Scout and an ESPN 150 watchlist'er.
Because Rivals ranked most all, if not all of their 4 stars already.
It seems 5.7 is the highest 3-star and 5.8's are all 4 stars. So far, every single one of our 3 stars is a 5.7 which means they're right on the line. So any 3 star players we're taking could be 4 stars with an impressive camp or season.
(include standard disclaimer about recruiting rankings not being the be-all-and-end-all of football)
the early returns seem great. last year only 3/13 3* guys were 5.7 (7 were 5.5s). As of now, all eight 3* guys in the 2012 class are 5.7. Pretty astounding. That means our class breaks down into entirely 4* and 3 3/4* guys more or less.
Early returns look great, but last year several guys who committed early were given higher ranks that slowly slid over time. EG: Hollowell was a 4*, Greg Brown and Chris Rock both had 5.7; all 3 dropped over time. Senior campaigns may have played a role in some of the drops.
This is a little off topic.. but compare the user ratings for the Ohio commits and Michigan commits. Something tells me that Rivals' subscribers consist of more Michigan fans than OSU fans..