OSU and ND offered with the wealth of defenders in ohio this year and ND looking for maybe 1 in the entire class, plus Monte Kiffin and a Nebraska offer; If there is a 5 star in michigan this year, and I think there is, he is it hands down.

thanks, i just saw a lot of 3 stars but maybe i was trippin.

The reason for kids gaining more stars as others commit is due largely to the recruiting services wise, albeit disengenous practice of moving the uncommitted up to retain the interest of the fans.

For example, M fans take far more delight in watching the recruiting process of a player who has verbally stated interest in UM, and when that kid suddenly receives a 4th star from Rivals, the interest exponentially goes up. It's a time-tested practice of keeping subscribers interest piqued and goes back to the days when we received all our recruiting news via the US Postal service in the form of magazines.

Geographical location plays a huge role in the number of stars assigned to any given player also. It was just two years ago when one of the Rival writers let slip that "Alabama is so loaded this season, we couldn't possibly assign a 5* to all the deserving players."  Further on in his breakdown of the mechanizations behind the final rankings was, "It's important to keep interest up throughout all the regions; therefore, when we assign a 4 to an AL hs player that deserved a 5, it's very likely that a CO player who is really a 3* might end up with a 4th....." 

This is paraphrasing somewhat, but the decreased number of 5*s, when it's only an arbitrary measure separating the kids in the first place, is inarguably a guarantee that it's a crap shoot to determine who the real top 25 are.

Because statistics show that the number of stars does have direct correlation to future NFL picks, I don't think it unwise to conclude picking the top 300 - 4* and above, is not that difficult, but  because the talent gap is impossible to determine precisely, is also the reason so many 3*s excel and right on down to those with NR after their name come draft day. 

I did a breakdown on RR's last class after so many Fort members were voicing their displeasure at the number of 3*s, with many stating this was proof that RR just couldn't recruit the talent necessary to compete in the Big X. The final stats- Rivals using the "RR" final number, showed that his class was separated by .65 from a LC recruited class of three years earlier. Further, based on the fact his class had 6 more players, the final numbers were actually more favorable. Jibrel Black, for instance, who's final numbers came in at about 1/10 the finals of Richard Ash, was, imo, just as deserving of a 4* as was Richard Ash.

In the end, it all goes back to what Bo said years ago, "One third will be what you expected or better, one third will contribute, and one third will simply not produce. "

The most important thing in recruiting, as Charlie Weis demonstrated so clearly at ND, is not the number of 5*s you recruit, it's the number of 5*s you actually produce. Prime example of this can be summed up in two words, Denard Robinson.