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Message: [QUOTE="billsin01, post: 1643661, member: 837"] I actually have less faith in them than you do. I feel that a couple of things are true beyond even the point that you mention: 1) The rankings are probably somewhat accurate in terms of determining lets say the top 250 prospects in the nation. There will be younger kids who far exceed their rankings as well as busts, but it's almost impossible to avoid that so I give the services something of a pass on a lot of those. However, I would say that those rankings are really done by the schools and coaches themselves. When is the last time there was a top 250 guy who didn't have an offer from a P5 school? And let's face it, there have to be some out there. The point is that the programs tend to identify the top talent and the services generally report it. So Alabama, Ohio State, USC and others are going to have top classes. We don't need services to tell us that. So generally they are reporting what everyone in the industry already knows. 2) The biggest issue for most teams in terms of at least being competitive and going bowling every year is how many of these kids arrive and stay on campus for the majority of their eligibility? What's more, can they put together four classes in a row that get solid results on this front? To me that's a huge component of this -- I'll take four top 50 classes in a row with pretty good retention rates vs. four top 25 classes with a ton of attrition (grades, conduct, injuries, etc.). That may sound extreme and perhaps the difference isn't that big, but what happens after signing day is easily the most overlooked part of 'recruiting.' 3) Finally, and you speak to this with the Pughs and Joneses of the world, but it's one thing to look at a Florida lineman who signs with Ohio State and checks in at 6-8, 315 and moves like a tight end and say, 'he's going to be a total stud.' But it's another thing to look at a guy who signs with a school like SU as an afterthought from a football area without a great reputation (Delaware for Derrell Smith or LI for Jay Bromley, for example) or a guy who needs to transform his body in order to fulfill his potential (Keith Bullock coming in as a safety, for example) and predict which of those guys will be the real deal. Obviously it's just simply more difficult b/c there's more projection and more variables involved, but it's worth pointing out in the sense that even if Babers and co. greatly improve the recruiting, we're still realistically looking at classes with a handful of 2 stars and a ton of 3 stars. [/QUOTE]

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