What is the best recruiting service/site?
SIAP, I scanned the board and did a search, didn't see any thread like this elsewhere. I want to subscribe to a recruiting service to go with the awesome updates from TomVH. I have heard ESPN is crap so I guess I am looking for the advice from the Mgocommunity on what is a better service. Rivals or Scout?
November 15th, 2010 at 11:25 AM ^
My brother in law works with recruiting and he says that scout is the best, but I think rivals Is a lot easier and well presented
November 15th, 2010 at 11:42 AM ^
Scout's website design is done by 5 year olds. I have been to the free boards for both rivals and scout and it is a wasteland of stupidity.
If you go to the rivals, "main board" right now basically everything is a thread about Auburn and Florida or the SEC.
November 15th, 2010 at 11:26 AM ^
right here
November 15th, 2010 at 11:29 AM ^
Everything you'll find on Rivals or Scout relevant to Michigan will get posted here exactly 1.2 seconds after it goes live, if not 6.7 minutes before from TomVH or someone else.
Save your bacon.
November 15th, 2010 at 11:26 AM ^
whoever ranks Michigan's class higher, obviously.
November 15th, 2010 at 11:27 AM ^
TOMVH
November 15th, 2010 at 11:52 AM ^
Check it out.
November 15th, 2010 at 1:07 PM ^
You owe me 3 seconds of my life back. Which, in internet time is about a week. Yes, I'm guillable.
November 15th, 2010 at 11:29 AM ^
Just donate some money to mgo and call it even. mgo > scouts | rivals.
November 15th, 2010 at 11:36 AM ^
But then you don't get to read Tom Beaver's pidgin English and vague predictions. Wait that's probably a win for MGo as well.
November 15th, 2010 at 5:28 PM ^
You're wrong, MGoBlog > (Rivals + Scout) ^3*100
It's science.
November 15th, 2010 at 8:28 PM ^
... They don't like math.
But I can appreciate it as an engineer :D
November 15th, 2010 at 11:36 AM ^
Contrary to what is being said, not all information does come over. You usually don't get the back story or pre-developments among other things.
Tom does a great job but I wouldn't quit my scout membership.
Rivals probably does a better job overall in recruiting for all of CFB but inside info depends on the school. MSU's scout site is non-existent for example.
November 15th, 2010 at 11:58 AM ^
I currently subscribe to both, but if I had to pick one, it would be Scout.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:10 PM ^
Depends on the school and the region, but I think Scout does a better job with the Ohio/Michigan area (Allen Trieu, Bill Greene and others).
November 15th, 2010 at 11:42 AM ^
Sam Webb works for Scout and he seems to really be close to most of the recruits, but you can usually get most of his info if you just lisen to the WTKA recruiting roundup podcasts. He usually posts info at Scout and then talks about it a few days later.
They both offer free trials why not subscribe to both and see which one you like better?
November 15th, 2010 at 11:44 AM ^
I would have said rivals, but the mods over there are complete douches. Rivals tends overrate players. I just canceled my subscription at rivals. I got tired of the RR witchhunt/ Harbaugh circle jerk from the mods on rivals.
Just donate a few dollars to brian's cause and you get the same information on here from TomVH.
November 15th, 2010 at 1:51 PM ^
November 15th, 2010 at 4:18 PM ^
You have to call - and be prepared for a series of "How can we get you back?" sales pitches.
November 15th, 2010 at 11:53 AM ^
is really goodt at giving up recruiting info. For sure is my favorite place to go.
November 15th, 2010 at 11:53 AM ^
Scout puts out a lot of information, and a fair portion of it is BS. Also, Scout's site is ugly and difficult to navigate.
Rivals is generally pretty accurate, but doesn't produce as much info.
MGoBlog is a good source of info, but I agree with above posters that it's not all encompassing. A lot of people hold back info on here that they get on the premium sites, and for good reason.
I think Rivals is worth the $10 a month.
November 15th, 2010 at 1:17 PM ^
until then their site sucks. They have little information and most of it is late. I would go with Scout as long as Rich is around since Webb is best friends with the Singletary.
November 15th, 2010 at 4:21 PM ^
The Rivals board also has a bunch of disgruntled ex-insiders, some of whom still preach the gospel of Mike Gittleson.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:02 PM ^
In this economy, why waste money on a recruiting site?
November 15th, 2010 at 12:04 PM ^
touchtheboner.blogspot.com is a great recruiting site.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:19 PM ^
I'm sorry, did I do something to offend you? Have I ever talked shit about Midnight Maize?
November 15th, 2010 at 12:31 PM ^
He was talking about the fishing site....
November 16th, 2010 at 12:38 AM ^
I think he was just joking(like 95% of the things DB says). I read TTB daily. No beef with you Mags.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:04 PM ^
Well since ESPN's picture for Sammy Watkins isn't even him, I'd stay away from them.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:04 PM ^
I don't have any of the 3 premium services(ESPN,Scout,Rivals), so take this for what it's worth. I think, and others have said this as well, by player ratings, ESPN might be the best. Their star rating forecast has been more accurate than the other two. As for forecast of where players might be leaning, i think scout and rivals are better.
I was thinking about subscribing to all 3, but then I found MGOBLOG and was like forget it. I mainly care about Michigan so this was all the info I needed. Now, I have more money for taxis in the city.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:10 PM ^
I subscribed to Scout for a while and also was able to use one of my friend's passwords to rivals. I think Scout is a little bit better, but not so good that I wouldn't rather spend the 100 bucks a year that it takes to get a subscription on video games. Scout does a good job of telling you about recruits but also about updating you on what the status of the team is during game week. The bad thing about scout is a straight up awful interface and even worse message board system. Rivals has a little better presentation, but its message board is even worse. Also, Tom Beaver at scout can be a little high and mighty sometimes and does not admit to making mistakes, which is sometimes kind of annoying.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:16 PM ^
that's because tom beaver has never made a mistake.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:15 PM ^
Rivals site is def. much easier to use and looks a lot nicer. Whatever is on their main page is about it. Scout's site does look it was done by a 5yr old. But i prefer scout over rivals. The message board is updated by recruiters who work for scout all over the country. The one downside is you have a lot of "my own opinion" which gets old, but there are so many more worth while post from people who matter and actually know what they are talking about. I am on the Scout Forum "The Victors Club" all day. Def the best info.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:15 PM ^
like many have suggested, i took the money i used to spend on premium sites and donated it here. money well spent. instead of looking to pay rivals or scout, i suggest you do the same.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:28 PM ^
Rivals for football, Scout for basketball (really)
November 15th, 2010 at 12:32 PM ^
I have subsribed to both Rivals and Scout, and in my personal opinion Sam is the best mod between the two sites, but as another poster stated, you can normally catch his content and opinions on his radio show, or listen to the podcast at wtka.com. I like that Sam has a pro-Michigan view and you won't catch him publicly saying anything bad about LC,RichRod, or any coach on the current staff, or any staff in the future.
Rivals has a better presentation for sure, but the mods seem to be rather slanted in one direction in the RR debate, and their message board has more of a when is this all going to be over so Jim Harbaugh can take over vibe.
Scout's presentation is kind of hideous but their inside info on Midwestern , and Florida recruiting is better in my opinion. The mods on Scout put off a pro-Michigan/pro-RR vibe so the 70% of the subscribers tend to be the same kind of people.
If it is just recruiting info you are looking for in addition to TomVH, I would just listen to Sam's radio show on wtka.com or follow the podcast, and save the money.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:58 PM ^
Thanks everyone for the input. Just by browsing scout and rivals I could tell I like the layout of rivals way better than scout. I am just more interested in who has the best, most accurate information. Thanks again for all of the advice.
November 15th, 2010 at 4:14 PM ^
Scout > Rivals
I find that Scout has a lot more Michigan Football content than Rivals. The Victors Board is where I spend the most time between the two site. The only downside to Scout is Tom Beaver, as others have mentioned.
The important information can be found on MGoBlog but some of the background content tends to be missing, though you have to mine for it a bit on Scout/Rivals.
November 16th, 2010 at 2:38 AM ^
Seems like TomVH really gets the respect he deserves. Hopefully his website/service takes off. ESPN seems to have a consensus negative opinion, but they have been pretty accurate with some Michigan guys when they were the outlier with opinions on recruits, both for the positive and negative.