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Message: [QUOTE="Scooch, post: 365967, member: 628"] Just read this piece on the ailing Big Ten: [url]http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/page/football-120925Rittenberg/many-theories-big-ten-conference-poor-performance[/url] Couple things that made me think of SU... One of the key points was that money doesn't guarantee success. No conference banks more than the B1G, and yet they literally have no marquee teams at the moment. So while our ACC move fills our coffers, I'm not in lock-step with those who think it means we'll definitely be better down the road. This other point caught my eye. [FONT=Verdana][COLOR=#333333][SIZE=12px][I]"It all starts," Tiller said, "with the recruiting issue."[/I][/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][COLOR=#333333][SIZE=12px][I]The Big Ten's recruiting issue is a decreasing number of star prep players living close to its campuses. There are other factors -- population shifts to the south and the fact that southern high schools play spring football while their northern counterparts don't -- all of which increase the challenges for Big Ten programs.[/I][/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][COLOR=#333333][SIZE=12px][I]"That's a theory," Delany said. "You've got to look at the results, and you've got to attribute it to something, but I'm not a demographer, nor am I a football coach."[/I][/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][COLOR=#333333][SIZE=12px][I]Tiller was, for years, and he had to adjust to the changes, including mining the state of Texas for talent during his time at Purdue.[/I][/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][COLOR=#333333][SIZE=12px][I]"As a young person growing up in Ohio, the Pennsylvania-Ohio ability to provide a lot of players for a lot of different teams was there," Tiller said. "Penn State, I don't think, ever had to leave the state, and if they did, they went into [New] Jersey. I can remember when Bo [Schembechler] and Woody [Hayes] were slugging it out, and Bo would come down to Ohio and get half a dozen really good players, and they'd go up to Michigan and be stars right away. I just don't know if that's true anymore.[/I][/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][COLOR=#333333][SIZE=12px][I]"For a guy from the Midwest, it's painful. It's painfully obvious that they're not up to speed."[/I][/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][COLOR=#333333][SIZE=12px] [/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][COLOR=#333333][SIZE=12px][FONT=Georgia][COLOR=#141414]This clearly applies to our natural recruiting base as well: NY, NJ, New England, etc. The south and west is clearly churning out a ton more game-ready kids than the north and east. Unfortunately we have to play more teams that are rooted in the south and have easier access to these kids. But hopefully that also means we'll have better means of landing some of them. [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][COLOR=#333333][SIZE=12px] [/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][COLOR=#333333][SIZE=12px]I kno[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [/QUOTE]

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