Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/hot-take-of-the-day-recruiting-rankings-are-too-political/
Of course we’ve already hit recruiting.
The thing is most of the teams at the top of the recruiting rankings regularly do have good seasons more often than not. And given how often teams win in the 2nd season with a new coach, it isn’t actually the recruiting that was wrong.
The political component would account for why Gundy places such a premium on evaluating/grading his own recruits …I will buy into that logic …however, i also buy into the logic that IF his approach/strategy is so sound…I would expect a greater degree of depth in the roster etc …
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No ‘hot take’ to see here. Just facts.
Gundy has said all that needs to be said so rankings don’t really matter. "We go after the high ranked guys and they are not interested so we move on. To me “moving on” is the real issue and makes negatively recruiting oSu easy for other programs.
oSu rarely gets their first option and if they do it is typically at a position that produces a significant number of 4-5 star players like S, DB, RB, QB, and WR. The top 6 programs in Big 12 are signing 4-5 star players at those positions so that is really just treading water. Worse yet, at positions of need, oSu ends up signing signing players at or near the bottom of the oSu offer sheet. Seeing that in print can’t help generate interest from higher ranked players.
It is getting those 4-5 star players at the other positions that is holding oSu back from consistently competing for championships. Recently oSu has even struggled to sign full classes of 3 star HS talent or hang onto the four star talent they have signed. Not a good look IMO for a program built around development.
There actually is a fix. Lock in their ranking when the first committable offer from a P5 is given.
If they were a 2 star and Alabama made a committable offer they stay at 2 you can update strengths etc… but ranking doesn’t change.
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What if the kid gains 50lbs? It’s going to affect how he projects.
That’s actually the point. Johnny def end is an u ranked recruit gets an offer from Indiana as a sophomore, scout, rivals, espn can change their narrative Johnny def end grew 60lbs and now is Johnny def tackle, great his scouting report changes but his ranking doesn’t. Now when Alabama or texas or uo come along and offer and the kid switches to his dream school they don’t get the ranking boost that comes from cherry picking others offers.
Politics for the scouting sites are out, they can project them however they want but once the first P5 offer is out their ranking is what it is short of injury.
When uo comes in with the 51st ranked class consisting of mostly 2&3 stars they poached from Oklahoma State and others and still wins the b12 you’ll see that stars aren’t the issue.
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So even though he’s objectively a better recruit he shouldn’t be categorized as such? I’m not sure why we should demand the recruiting services intentionally make their product worse.
The real problem is that these rankings are really done with one thing and ONLY one thing in mind. To make money. They are not doing an altruistic service here. So I am sure making a recruit from one of the larger fan bases look a little better happens so it sells more of their product.
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I understand what you’re saying but the scouting sites don’t get worse. They still update strengths weaknesses draft comps and projections but now you take away the blue blood offer rankings boost. Nothing about what they do changes they just can’t use rankings to lord over hs coaches for access. It’s a mute point because it’s not changing I was simply referencing the ‘not easy to fix’ comment from the article.
OU offered Spencer Rattler prior to him getting a 24/7 ranking best I can tell. Does that mean he should have never been ranked by them?
I probably said it wrong, first rank is the rank. If the first ranking is 5 star then that’s what it’s is, it also means a kid like Russ doesn’t get downgraded because he spurns ou maybe it makes the sites do a better job of ranking players to begin with. Just an opinion
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