OT: Interesting NFL Draft stat
@footballscoop: Interesting RT @JamieNewberg: The states of Florida, Georgia, Texas and California produced 48% of ALL of the NFL Draft picks this weekend
Those four states account for nearly 30% of the population of the United States.
Lower expectations for the not-so-football-crazy northeast, and those numbers aren't terribly surprising.
come from the state of Texas, but they sure as hell didn't come from the University of Texas.
We lost less luster!
Yet not one Longhorn drafted.
How often do you see the top players in the country coming out of Ohio, Michigan or Illinois. The South and West have dominated highschool football for years and will continue to do so. Sad reality, but in my eyes if Michigan or the B1G want to compete with the SEC, they need to steal kids from SEC territory.
All you're going to do is pick up an early commitment and then watch the kid waiver, take visits, etc. as the SEC schools pile on. When you play your biggest game of the year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving it may be 30-35 degrees outside, when it's 65-70 where the kid is coming from.
These kids tend to take their time in recruiting too and wait until Signing Day. How many times are UF, LSU and Alabama 6th or 7th in recruiting rankings on Feb 1 and then finish in the top 2?
You can't build your team with kids from Florida if you're in Michigan. Why would you handicap yourself? You're recruiting against Florida...who is IN FLORIDA. FSU, Miami, UGA, LSU, Bama, Tennessee, Texas, TAMU, Clemson, S. Carolina and then all the Cali schools.
To think Michigan is going to recruiting Florida better than Florida is going to recruit Florida, or Michigan/Texas in Texas, Michigan/USC in California is far-fetched.
They get to recruit at home and we have to recruit on the road. That's basically what it amounts to. It would be like playing a 11 game series, all on the road. Can you win some? Sure. But they other team has clear advantages.
What you also do is piss off all of the HS coaches in the region (Rich Rod) and when they finally do have a top prospect that you want...they send that kid elsewhere.
Just identifiy the best talent and the best talent for your program, no matter where the kid is from and go get him. I don't care if that's Alex Malzone, David Sills or Kyle Kearns. If Malzone is the best, take him. Don't just take Sills cause he's committed to USC or Kearns because he's from California.
What they DON'T tell you in these stats is how many kids from these states played D1 college football and DIDN'T make the NFL Draft. You don't want to recruit the states with the highest number, you want to recruit the states with the highest percentage...and even that may be misleading because you could have a state with 2 of 5 D1 players in the draft that claims it has 40%, which is true, but you had 5 players total compared to Texas that has 500.
I would visit as many SEC schools as possible and enjoy the "hostesses," not to mention the bagmen. There's nothing like "southern hospitality."
Why are you surprised at Georgia? Not meant to be snarky. But Georgia puts out a tremendous number of elite athletes from its high schools - half the programs in the SEC are built on them. Every school in that conference needs to be involved in Georgia.
I was listening to Bill King the other day and he had someone on, the guy did a tour during spring of a lot of the schools down south. Said Clemson looked outstanding, but also said Georgia looked terrible and not one person on their defense looked SEC-caliber. Shocking to hear that from UGA, given their recruiting profile. One of their top DB's (Shaq Wiggins) just announced he's transferring as well. Will be interesting to see where they end up next year.
But I think there is about to be a changing of the guard in the SEC. Every decade their power teams change a little. I think Georgia, South Carolina, and Floridaare about to take al step back while Tennessee, Ole Miss, and a random third team like Arkansas or Kentucky step in and fill those "power slots."
Their bag men are going to buy their way into relevence. Go Rebels! Heh.
Ohio, PA, S. Carolina, Louisiana, and Tennessee would be the next 5 states if I had to guess.
Valdosta, GA has more prospects than some entire states do. I think one could build a dominant FCS or very good FBS program solely on players from Valdosta HS and Lowndes HS. Add in Atlanta, not the mention the rest of GA, and you have a very good state.
I know this was posted once before, but there was an excellent study done by the folks at Football Study Hall regarding the inputs for this process (i.e., where recruits come from, in this case) and where those players currently being recruited by colleges come from. They used Division I teams as a basis for this.
(LINK) to the study.
The stat mentioned by the OP correlates to the stats mentioned here to some extent - the top four states or origin for incoming recruits to colleges in their study were California, Texas, Florida and Georgia among the states that average at least 20 recruits per year (there are 27 states that manage this). Nearly 46% of recruits who sign to play Division I football in their breakdown came from those four states.
Not many draftees from the state of Michigan, whether natives or going to college there. It wasn't a great draft for the Mitten.