so I see Colorado just won the Naismith D1 title.  This seemed familiar, so I looked over the other leagues I am in, and saw that Colorado is also the current champion in Iba and Knight.  So, out of 5 worlds I am in (also Rupp and Tark), the same B- baseline school is the defending champ in 3 of them.  I can't speak for any of the worlds, so don't know who the champs are in those, but that seems like a high percentage, especially considering the baseline.

Having coached Wyoming for a number of seasons, it seemed that Colorado has a huge recruiting area all to themselves.  Would Colorado be considered the best D1 job out there, or is it just a random coincidence that they seem to be having such a good run?

Obviously luck of the draw on recruits being in that area is necessary, but anyone in Utah, Colorado, Nevada, parts of Idaho, and Wyoming are Colorado's for the taking assuming their prestige is high enough. The Pac 12 and rest of the Big 12 are outside of 360 in most of those spots and normally the MWC teams in that area don't have prestige/cash to be able to battle.

Miami is also much better in this game than what their prestige would have them at.

Speaking from experience, I can tell you that there is somewhat of boost at Colorado IF you can establish dominance in the Rocky Mtn recruiting area.  You do have a significant distance advantage in CO, WY, UT, some of Idaho and some of Montana.  Most of the recruits from NV are in the Vegas and Reno areas which are deep in Pac 10 country so I almost never recruited in NV.  Going into New Mexico means battling Arizona.  There's also a small area of Western Nebraska that produced some good recruits that were quite close to Boulder compared to my Big 12 mates.  

That being said, it can be feast or famine in those areas.  Each of those states could go very dry for a few recruiting seasons in a row.  Utah, maybe not so much, but I had a few seasons when there was no player on my team from Colorado.  

I've moved on from Colorado in Iba (a school that I thought I'd stay at until I stopped playing) because after I built it to where it was, I could see that the challenge wouldn't be as difficult for me.  With an A+ prestige in that area, I could pick up those Rocky Mtn players unchallenged and then pick off longer distance players with a large amount of cash in the bank.  That would get boring after a while.  

Depends on how full a world is. In a pretty empty world, Colorado can be dominant because they have a huge distance advantage to the rest of the BCS teams in CO, ID, UT, WY, etc.

In a more full D1 conf with competitive mid majors, Colorado is pretty mediocre. Recruiting against a full MWC at Colorado is extremely difficult. 

LSU, hands down.  Louisiana has a lot of low-level DI schools, generating an abnormally large number of in-state recruits just for them: <190 miles from LSU, and >190 for every other BCS team.  No one else in the country gets this kind of benefit -- 1-3 5-star recruits per year, theirs to take for free.  If the Big 12 is weak, they can go after the motherlode in TX.  If the SEC is weak, they have the advantage of filling half their spots for nearly free, freeing their money to fight up to 360 miles in MS, AL, TN and AR.  I would take LSU every day of the week.

Posted by jeffdrayer on 1/2/2014 2:11:00 PM (view original):
LSU, hands down.  Louisiana has a lot of low-level DI schools, generating an abnormally large number of in-state recruits just for them: <190 miles from LSU, and >190 for every other BCS team.  No one else in the country gets this kind of benefit -- 1-3 5-star recruits per year, theirs to take for free.  If the Big 12 is weak, they can go after the motherlode in TX.  If the SEC is weak, they have the advantage of filling half their spots for nearly free, freeing their money to fight up to 360 miles in MS, AL, TN and AR.  I would take LSU every day of the week.

i dont know man, hawaii sure can give LSU a run for their money!

Posted by gillispie1 on 1/2/2014 3:59:00 PM (view original):

Posted by jeffdrayer on 1/2/2014 2:11:00 PM (view original):
LSU, hands down.  Louisiana has a lot of low-level DI schools, generating an abnormally large number of in-state recruits just for them: <190 miles from LSU, and >190 for every other BCS team.  No one else in the country gets this kind of benefit -- 1-3 5-star recruits per year, theirs to take for free.  If the Big 12 is weak, they can go after the motherlode in TX.  If the SEC is weak, they have the advantage of filling half their spots for nearly free, freeing their money to fight up to 360 miles in MS, AL, TN and AR.  I would take LSU every day of the week.

i dont know man, hawaii sure can give LSU a run for their money!

Funny, I coach both (LSU and Hawaii!)

LSU, Colorado, Miami, and (in worlds with a strong ACC/weak Big East) BC.  Easily.

I don't think Miami belongs in the same geographically blessed boat as Colorado and LSU. There may be a few recruits that it has distance advantages on, but not to the same extent as the other two. Throw in the fact that no matter what other direction Miami goes, they'll actually be at a distance disadvantage, and I don't think the location is uber great -- certainly not like LSU/Colorado.