NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Recruiting Rankings are a big deal these days just because college football fans need something to talk about during the off-season. The Rankings matter to recruits because they feel that special star ranking will be the key to colleges “discovering” them.

News Flash: It doesn’t work that way.

Take a look at Andy Staples’ latest article in which he re-ranks the recruiting class from 2007 in accordance to actual production as opposed pre-college projections. The big shocker on the list is Boise State and his reasons for their under-rated 2007 ranking are extremely interesting.

2. Boise State

2007 Rivals rank: No. 68

Record since 2007: 36-4

2009 record: 14-0

Conference titles: Two

2009 Starters: DT Chase Baker, C Thomas Byrd, DE Shea McClellin, QB Kellen Moore, WR Austin Pettis, OT Nate Potter, LB Aaron Tevis, CB Brandyn Thompson, DE Billy Winn, WR Titus Young.

Analysis: Want to know why the Broncos are such a trendy pick to bust into the BCS title game next season? This class. The class of 2007 produced a nucleus of 10 starters who have led Boise to a pair of undefeated regular seasons and won a BCS bowl game. This class brought quarterback Moore to the blue turf as well his top three receivers (Young, Pettis, Efaw), who combined to catch 173 passes for 2,340 yards and 25 touchdowns in 2009. Add a few key members of the defense that shut down TCU in the Fiesta Bowl, and you have a class that could make history.

So how did the evaluators at Rivals — and Scout and SI and everywhere else — so badly underestimate this class? Simple. Boise State doesn’t have a huge fan base. There aren’t as many potential subscribers, so, from a business perspective, it doesn’t make sense to spend as much time evaluating Boise State recruits as Alabama or Texas recruits. That’s probably the biggest flaw in recruiting rankings; the teams outside the traditional power structure can be vastly underestimated. Because if you look only at the teams that traditionally finish in the top 15, the rankings are usually pretty accurate.

If you are serious about getting recruited don’t wait for a media site to assign Stars to a profile, start building real relationships with schools now.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Athletic Scholarships, College Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.