I know this has probably been brought up a million times but the talent out West seems to be consistently slim, which is not true to reality. I understand the idea that there are more big 6 schools on the East Coast but I think there is something wrong with me recruiting better classes at a small DI in North Carolina compared to a Pac-10 school.

Not necessarily, just look at the population #'s. Its like 50% of the population of the US lives within 300 miles of Philadelphia.

61% of the US population lives in 18 eastern states (TX, NY, FL, IL, PA, OH, MI, GA, NC, NJ, VA, MA, IN, TN, MO, MD, WI, MN).

If I get to throw in IA, AR, AL, SC, LA, KY, CT, MS, WV, NH, Maine, RI, DE and VT that is about 75% of the population.

PAC 10 land is deserted. OR/WA/CA/ID/AZ/NM/NV/HI have about 18.5% of the population and CA is responsible for 37 million or 12%.

So there aren't many people to choose from out there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population

The important thing as far as HD is concerned is the ratio of schools to recruits, not just raw number of recruits. The west has fewer recruits, but also less competition for those recruits.

That said some schools do have advantages/disadvantages based on location.

Quote: Originally posted by reinsel on 4/07/2010Not necessarily, just look at the population #'s.  Its like 50% of the population of the US lives within 300 miles of Philadelphia.61% of the US population lives in 18 eastern states (TX, NY, FL, IL, PA, OH, MI, GA, NC, NJ, VA, MA, IN, TN, MO, MD, WI, MN).If I get to throw in IA, AR, AL, SC, LA, KY, CT, MS, WV, NH, Maine, RI, DE and VT that is about 75% of the population.PAC 10 land is deserted.  OR/WA/CA/ID/AZ/NM/NV/HI have about 18.5% of the population and CA is responsible for 37 million or 12%.So there aren't many people to choose from out there.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population 

I would be more interested in DI prospect populations, being a Southern Californian I know for a fact that in reality SoCal is a hot-bed of talent.

Regardless, the point of my post is that there has to be a solution to this problem in HD without overpopulating talent out west giving the Pac-10 an unfair advantage. I just don't know what it is... but I do know something needs to change.

I buy into "every school should have equal number of recruits" as much as I buy into every kid athlete should get a participate ribbon at the end of the day.

I think overall HD is proportionate with the the number of top talent in the west as there is in RL. However, they go wrong in being too socialist in spreading the wealth to areas that don't deserve it.

According to Rivals top 150 over the past few years there were:

2007 28 top 150 recruits in the west (WA, OR, CA, ID, HI, CO, NM, AZ, MT)

2008 (data missing from their web site)

2009 33 top 150 recruits

2010 23 recruits

2011 16 recruits

In Phelan for next season there are 29 and in Knight there are 30. Which is about in line with the norm in RL.

But in these two HD worlds, Knight has:

3 of those recruits from WY, 2 from ID and 5 from CO.

Phelan: 2 from HI, 3 from CO and 5 from ID with 1 from WY.

Basically 33% of the recruits come from these states where in RL only about 5% actually do - if that.

The difference in RL is that the highest conscentration of top 150 recruits on the west coast come from SoCal and this isn't the case in HD. They get moved to placed like ID, CO and WY.

Not to say occasional recruits can't come from Chayenne, WY but there shouldn't be more top 150 recruits from ID as there is in all of southern california (and coming close to the entire state of CA for that matter).

First time I've ever heard of Texas as an eastern state... (or MN, MO, WI; IL and IN are pushing it.)

Generating recruits based based on where they are in real life would amazingly myopic and completely disastrous.

Other than that, I think it's a great idea and a really legitimate beef.

Sometimes the talent out West is so fantastic, there are more good players than there are scholarships. Other years it's thinner and those schools have to be more creative. As has already been pointed out, the fact that there are fewer recruits is mitigated by less competition. I would say that being a BCS school in Cali is about the easiest place to recruit in the country.

The current system isn't perfect, but I honestly think it's the best solution for HD.

I guess east/west is a bit of a misnomer, but my point is PAC10 country isn't very populated compared to the Big12/Big10/SEC/ACC/BigEast land that overlaps quite a bit.

Quote: Originally posted by aidiamo on 4/07/2010I buy into "every school should have equal number of recruits" as much as I buy into every kid athlete should get a participate ribbon at the end of the day.  I think overall HD is proportionate with the the number of top talent in the west as there is in RL.  However, they go wrong in being too socialist in spreading the wealth to areas that don't deserve it.According to Rivals top 150 over the past few years there were:2007 28 top 150 recruits in the west (WA, OR, CA, ID, HI, CO, NM, AZ, MT)2008 (data missing from their web site)2009 33 top 150 recruits2010 23 recruits2011 16 recruitsIn Phelan for next season there are 29 and in Knight there are 30.  Which is about in line with the norm in RL.But in these two HD worlds, Knight has:3 of those recruits from WY, 2 from ID and 5 from CO.Phelan: 2 from HI, 3 from CO and 5 from ID with 1 from WY.Basically 33% of the recruits come from these states where in RL only about 5% actually do - if that.The difference in RL is that the highest conscentration of top 150 recruits on the west coast come from SoCal and this isn't the case in HD.  They get moved to placed like ID, CO and WY.  Not to say occasional recruits can't come from Chayenne, WY but there shouldn't be more top 150 recruits from ID as there is in all of southern california (and coming close to the entire state of CA for that matter). 

Agreed.

(In Knight, what is up with the lack of talent in Cali this year?)