Football Recruiting --Analysis of States

[Po Monkey Lounger]

Special Report: Origins of DIA Talent


Brett Brackett By FOS Staff
http://www.FightOnState.com
Date: Mar 14, 2006

For the past six years, Front Range, a mainstay of PSU's online community, has conducted the Annual Recruiting Survey, which breaks down the origins of football talent across the nation. This year Texas regained the national title as leading producer of DI football players, ahead of California. See where the rest of the states ended up, including Pennsylvania.

The compilation is complete for the 2006 recruiting season and the biggest producer of talent this year was, again, Texas. The total Division 1A recruits for the Lone Star State increased by 30 from last season, to 355. California was again in second place with 316 recruits, just one more above last year's count. Florida closed the gap, with 39 more this season than last, up to 290 recruits.
See the 2005 Annual Recruiting Survey

The top 10 was shaken up somewhat this season, with Mississippi and North Carolina replacing Louisiana and New Jersey. The drop-off for Louisiana recruits was interesting (62 to 50), very possibly reflecting the dispersal of recruits by Hurricane Katrina. It’s very possible that some former Louisianans appear as recruits from some other state, as the research couldn’t display this phenomenon.

In general, even more so than last year, the availability of data on the Internet has made the sixth annual survey the most reliable yet. Only one recruit – a product of the Fork Union Military Academy - could not be attributed to a high school. All junior college transfers were assigned to a high school with the resources available online, such as individual team profiles and junior college team rosters.

The same exceptions apply this year as in the past. The service academies are not included because their recruits are not announced. As in the past, the Sun Belt Conference is not included for three main reasons. First, the conference generally does not compare with the other D1 conferences competitively (admittedly a value judgment on the part of the author). Second, every year a number of Sun Belt teams report recruit lists that include upwards of 32 or 33 recruits. Third, it hasn’t been done before so we now have a database consistency without that conference. The omission of the Sun Belt keeps the survey consistent with those done in previous seasons.

One notable observation is the addition of two Florida programs to that conference which has undoubtedly increased the total for the state of Florida.

Here is a list of the total number of commitments per state for the Class of 2006:


Here is a list of the total number of commitments per state for the Class of 2006:

1. Texas 355
2. California 316
3. Florida 290
4. Georgia 138
5. Ohio 126
6. Alabama 78
7. Pennsylvania 71
8. Illinois 64
9. Mississippi 61
10. North Carolina 53
11. Virginia 52
11. Oklahoma 52
13. New Jersey 50
13. Louisiana 50
15. Michigan 49
16. Tennessee 43
17. Maryland 37
17. Arizona 37
19. New York 36
20. Colorado 35
21. South Carolina 33
22. Hawai’i 30
23. Missouri 27
23. Washington 27
25. Indiana 26
26. Utah 24
27. Kentucky 21
28. Wisconsin 18
29. Minnesota 17
30. Nevada 16
31. Arkansas
31. Connecticut 14
31. Massachusetts 14
34. Kansas 12
35. Nebraska 9
35. New Mexico 9
35. Oregon 9
38. Idaho 8
38. Iowa 8
40. Distric of Columbia 4
41. Delaware 3
41. Wyoming 3
43. New Hampshire 2
43. West Virginia 2
45. Alaska 1
45. South Dakota 1
47. Maine 0
47. Montana 0
47. North Dakota 0
47. Rhode Island
47. Vermont

Six Year Rankings

The rankings of our Annual Recruiting Survey have been relatively consistent through the years. With six years worth of data, it’s interesting to see how the states rank over that period of time.

Here is how the top 14 states have stacked up over the past six years:

1. California 1900
2. Texas 1878
3. Florida 1373
4. Ohio 758
5. Georgia 696
6. Pennsylvania 423
7. Alabama 422
8. Michigan 390
9. Louisiana 377
10. Illinois 354
11. Mississippi 330
12. New Jersey 320
13. North Carolina 306
14. Virginia 284





Normalizing by the states' population in millions to get the recruits per million (ratio) yields for the Top Ten and the other Big 12 states:

State Div 1 Pop. Ratio

Miss 61 2.9 21.0
Flor 290 16.2 17.9
Alab 78 4.61 17.0
Tex 355 21.5 16.5
Geo 138 8.41 16.4
Okla 52 3.5 14.9
Ohi 126 11.4 11.1
Cali 316 34.41 9.2
Colo 35 4.41 8.0
NoCar 53 8.2 6.5
Penn 71 12.1 5.9
Illinoi 64 12.2 5.2
Mizz 27 5.71 4.7
Kans 12 2.71 4.4
Iowa 8 2.91 2.8


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Some interesting information.

[Deltamud77]

That is some really surprising info. I always figured MS would lead the way per capita. The surprise to me is that Louisiana was so far down the list.

[SWAG]

Thought Arkie Land would be higher with all the talent Gumbo bost of.....must be getting it elsewhere?

[Po Monkey Lounger]

"Thought Arkie Land would be higher with all the talent Gumbo bost of.....must be getting it elsewhere"

Yeah, it must be hard to think clearly with one of those plastic Hog hats and a rubber hog snout on.

[JDgator]

How can it be that Florida always produces such talent, but UF manages to screw it up somehow and end up 15th or worse?

I guess UF, Miami, and FSU divid up the best recruits while all those Texas boys wanna be longhorns.