You're a recruit: Which school do you pick?

Just Kidding.

Would:

-Texas (love the state and the demeanor of the people)
-Standford (academics )
-OSU (football tradition)
-Alabama (see above)
-Penn State

Would Not:

-USC/UCLA (LA people suck, I live in OC now)

And who's to say, I'd have to be honest?!

Beautiful campus.

Great academics.

Great national visibility right now; good chance to go the the NFL.

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Ok, seriously - it's all about the girls, so any Pac 12 Cali. school will do just fine, thanks.

They have to be near the top of the list.  I have never been able to understand why they can't recruit better.  They have great Academics, just a couple of small steps behind Michigan.  Madison is a great college town.  Atmosphere at games is incredible, just ask Ohio State about how tough it is to play there.  Plus, they have proven over the years that they can get the most out of their players.  They consistently finish in the bottom half of the Big Ten in recruiting, but will almost always finish in the top half in the standings.  They can turn a 4-star into a five star with no problem and have a pretty solid reputation for producing NFL talent.

The biggest drawbacks: Ridiculously cold weather and the women are cows.  I think I just figured out why they can't recruit.

I didn't grow up with college football in my blood (born in Pittsburgh, the only college football in my family tree was an uncle who played at Dartmouth in the 60s, dad went to RPI, mom didn't go to college, no fandom whatsoever for any school...), and I really only chose Michigan because of the academics and the fact it was far cheaper for engineering than anywhere else I could have gone and still received a solid education. When I was figuring out where to apply, I had my list narrowed to Michigan, Cornell, Cal, and Stanford.

Since I can't choose Michigan, and if I'm a 4-star guy there's no way I'm going to a non-FBS team, it's either Cal or Stanford. I'm also more of a "what have you done for me lately" than a "how was your team 20-30 years ago" person, so I have to go with Stanford.

Though, since I'd have a decent shot at the NFL regardless of what team I went to, I'd have to go to ASU, Texas, Florida, etc. just to compare the female populations. Those 30k+ women at ASU would be awfully tempting...

In dreaming of my kids alleviating much stress from me for paying for their college education, I would pick academics first, then pick a school for athletics like UNC, Texas, Stanford, Michigan, etc.

Penn State. Joe Pa is the biggest reason. There's something about him that makes me want to go there. And the stadium is insane. 

I'd go to whatever school would be the easiest to transfer to Michigan from. 

Without a doubt I would commit to Stanford, especially with the great coach they have now. And academics, even if I were to make it to the pros I'd want to go to an elite school like Stanford to get good business connections to invest my NFL paycheck.

I'd pick Cal.

Arkansas. SEC girls, and close enough to the Texas girls.

They have some hot cheerleaders.

Academics would be important to me, so that if i don't go to the nfl i have something else to do.

With that said, I would also like it to be a good football school. 

So, Stanford, Notre Dame (tradition lulz), or Florida.  Possibly Northwestern since their team has been getting better....

Comfort with the coaching style.

Quality of my likely position coach, and coordinator. If I had something approximating future NFL talent I'd want to go somewhere that would likely heighten my chances of making it to the NFL. Position coaching would be an important consideration.

Quality of the head coach. Stability in the coaching situation. Would I expect if the coaching situation went south(which my mean the coaches left for the pro's not necessarily were canned.) that the likely replacement would be good and/or that I like the academics and culture of the University that I would like to stay ie. if you weren't playing football, at all, would you be happy here?

Comfort with the academic and football culture. Probably wouldn't be as comfortable at Texas Tech than at UM/UW/Texas.

That would be some of them, I'm sure academics(overall quality and likely major.) would be one of the more important considerations.

Region. It would be some consideration, if my parents were alive, that they could see me play and that I could see them regularly. Personally, I prefer living in the west but, it would likely be a lesser consideration than some others listed above.

Hawaii

I would choose a tradition laden program (Texas/'Bama'/UM etc), to me there is no subsitute to being a part of something bigger than you, something that trancenses time and in the case of Zoltan space.

Oregon is overrated.  Yeah I know that sounds funny to say about the No. 1 team in the country.  I know they're doing great now with Phil Knight's money infused in the program, but historically they're not a power house.  But the main reasons I wouldn't go to Oregon are the academics aren't that great and Eugene is not an ideal place to spend 4 years.  If it was a college town, that'd be one thing, but Eugene is full of hippies.  If you want to be a PNW, go to Washington.  The academics are much better and you get to live in Seattle.  The football team is not on Oregon's level right now, but it's much better historically, it's on the uprise, and the coach (Sarkisian) seems like a coach you'd really want to play for (not sure I'd say that about chip Kelly).

If not restricting to the PNW, I'd probably go to any of the California Pac-10 schools (UCLA, USC, Cal, or Stanford).  Excellent academics, weather, pretty women, and all decent programs with well known coaches.  I'd also look at Texas, and probably Florida.

It would be Stanford in a landslide. The undergraduate education would be amazing, and I would be in a power conference.

1. Cal-weather, education and its cali

2. UCLA-see above

3. Stanford-see above

4. USC-see above

5. Oregon-amazing facilities, insane offense

6. UNC-powder blue, education and being a tar heel

7. Texas-burnt orange, tradition, education, not in the crazy deep south

8. Miami- The U, Miami

9. Wisconsin- consistenty and continuity gets in due to nebraska being in nebraska

10. Washington-Seattle, good school, Sarkisian is the truth

Honorable mention: Nebraska, LSU circa 06, Zona, Northwestern, Pitt, Boise State

My top five would probably be something like this:

Northwestern

Cal

Stanford

Texas

Oregon

Virginia

Good locations, good academics, and not a religous school in sight (peace out, Notre Dame).