Thursday, February 2, 2012

staying alive, and warm



I read briefly with interest some of the speculation about the new recruiting "classes" of the big universities. We're talking about football, here, you understand. There is never a list about the recruited academic scholars; or if there is, the lists garner little or no publicity.

I don't put much stock in these things, and I certainly don't listen to any of the studio-bound sports experts who can engage in olympian sized conversation over even small items of sports "news".

What I did find interesting was the large number of schools from the south --- places like Florida and Georgia and Alabama on the list. Does this mean that we have raised a generation of pansy football players who, above all else, wish to stay warm?

1. Alabama
2. Florida State
3. Texas
4. Florida
5. Georgia
6. Ohio State
7. Michigan
8. Miami
9. Clemson
10. Notre Dame

4 comments:

Sparty said...

For years I followed football recruiting and the accompanying rankings with great interest - until I learned that the relationship between these rankings and performance on the field was very inexact. The recruiting "classes" of certain schools are always ranked highly, Notre Dame's for example, but the won-loss record of many of those schools don't reflect those rankings.
Player development and a keen eye of a coach are more important than the opinions of a guy running a recruiting blog.

Spring football practice at the high school level, common in the South but rare in the North, helps explain all those highly ranked southern schools (and southern athletes on northern teams) - and the population shift to the sun belt over the past 40 years.

Bud said...

I have a hard time imaging that people will rush to the sunbelt just to get warm.

Sparty said...

Hard to believe - but,then, it might be the summer air conditioning and the non-union jobs that corporations created down there, too.

WNNCO said...

It would appear that the southern schools (SEC group for example) have better programs and better coaches. This is usually evidenced by the fact that they often kick everybody elses butts.

It was always interesting to be at the 24 Hour Daytona Sport Car Race, at the end of January, and see that there was a high school football game being played at a high school near the track. Foorball in the south is another one of the religions.