Rival 250 by State

Thanks. Illinois with only three. New York and New Jersey with only one. That's over 40 million in population with only five players in the Rivals 250. Mississippi with 3 million has 11. Something just doesn't make sense here. That simply cannot be right. You can't account for warm weather and year-round football making that big a difference.

(I'm pretty good at counting). That leaves 15 states not included. (I'm pretty good at subtraction). It is hard to believe that nearly a third of the states are not represented. I also noticed that West Virginia was among the states unrepresented. (I'm pretty good at noticing).

a case of Rivals having limited resources and focusing on states that they believe (probably through history) have the best prospects.

You also have to look at the sports of focus in those areas. I know in NYC where I grew up almost no school had a football team. The sports most played were basketball, soccer and baseball. And I agree also with the above poster that Rivals/Scout are probably only focusing on the recruiting hotbeds right now. That may change come the fall with the 2010 players' senior seasons. Edit: or this summer when they perform well at camps.

To be blunt, rural white America just doesn't produce a whole lot of top level D-I football talent. Not saying no talent, just not a lot. NYC is basketball territory. Illinois is also a "basketball state." (e.g. D-I football prospect from my high school just gave up football to focus on hoops: http://www.illinihq.com/news/mens_basketball/2009/03/23/tate_rayvonte_r…) The level of interest in the game is huge. Pahokee is a town of 6,000 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahokee,_Florida] that has recently produced 4 NFL players and sends numerous kids to D-I schools every year. And not because they "recruit" and have people moving there to play. They just have a very speedy, football-crazy population. What can you say? Are there undiscovered kids in Wyoming or upstate New York that could take them? I have no clue.

There is a rational explanation for states missing. For example, there's a lot of 7-man football in places like Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas, etc. because of small populations and large distances between schools. I'm sure someone can give me contradictory examples, but I've never heard of a good football player coming from Maine or Alaska. Rhode Island is the size of my plasma TV. Etc.

All great points. Particularly West Texas Blue. However, we are talking about 40 million vs. 2.8 million and the 2.8 million backwater has twice the players in the 250? Come on. I think whoever said that the recruitniks focus down South has nailed it. A Florida/Texas/Gulf States/California pedigree is worth a star.

The southern states definitely produce a lot more great players. I have been told that Florida isn't close to being Texas in terms of interest, but the gap between Michigan and Florida is huge. And the talent is incredible. I am serious when I say that I know of five or six HS teams that would give Grand Valley a run for their money, and could possibly beat them. For the record, they are (most years anyway): Lakeland Seffner Armwood Tampa Plant (recently arrived, but probably here to stay) Miami Northwestern Miami Booker T Washington Jacksonville Bolles I went to the nationally televised Armwood/Plant game and was amazed at the size and athleticism of the kids. I got ther early and watched some of practice from right across the fence from the "smaller" team; they were huge. Better yet, they were incredibly athletic. As far as the individual matchups would go against GVSU, I would take both Miami schools first. I can guarantee you that either school would field a faster team than GVSU.

I have never been anywhere where people walk as slowly as they do here. I have a theory. Northern athletes waste all of their speed in the winter hurrying to get out of the cold weather. Southern athletes take their time getting to where they are going because it is not so cold. They, therefore, save their speed for the field.

Looking at the prospects RR is offering, there is a strong correlation between where those prospects are from and the percentages above. That is to say, the offers are going to prospects from states highly represented on the list. We should all be pleased that this is happening. The biggest surprise for me was Ohio with only 11 top 250 prospects, the same number as Mississippi. More generally, the entire midwest is underrepresented. All told, the Big Ten states have just 24 top 250 prospects. That number is very low and bodes ill for the B10 in the future. As it stands now, only Michigan and Ohio State have been able to consistently attract top recruits from the talent rich states like Florida. Penn State might be able to go into Maryland and Virginia and consider that local, so they are somewhat higher than the rest of the B10 schools. That will likely mean the conference will be carried by Michigan and Ohio State, with Penn State as a legitimate team and maybe another senior laden team X making a run each year. All told, that's not a lot. We may be looking at a permanent decline in B10 football until 1. More schools are able to recruit out of area or 2. More local prospects emerge. It doesn't look good on either end. With respect to (1), there's no reason a southern kid will commit to a B10 program other than Michigan or Ohio State because the other schools have nothing to offer other than maybe playing time. At least Michigan and Ohio State offer exposure and I think our conditioning program will also be a draw along with our academics, which distinguishes us from all legitimate southern competition by the way. With respect to (2), I haven't followed recruiting that long, but I can't imagine the midwest having equal or fewer top recruits in the past. The number now is very small and must increase if everyone except Michigan and Ohio State is to have any shot at fielding a consistently legitimate team.