firmbizzle Wrote:quo vadis Wrote:bitcruncher Wrote:The blue chip guys go to SEC programs because they have a better chance at competing for a meaningful championship there. BCS affiliation does that. Memphis doesn't have it. The SEC programs do...
I agree that, all else equal, one of those Memphis area blue-chip recruits that fimbizzle says currently go to SEC schools would rather go to a "bcs" school than a "non-bcs" school. So if it was a choice between going to Memphis-CUSA or Memphis-Big East, he'd choose the Memphis that is a member of the Big East.
But, in the real world, the kid wouldn't be facing a choice of Memphis-CUSA versus Memphis-Big East, it's Memphis versus ... Tennessee or Alabama. And Memphis-BE over either seems extremely doubtful.
And as i noted above, the BCS system has actually been GREAT for Memphis and other similar low-tier programs. Whoever heard of Utah, Boise, Fresno, or Hawaii before the BCS era began? It's opened all kinds of doors to play on the big stage for the Memphis-level programs.
Ask one of the Cincy or Louisville if they haven't recruited better against Ohio State, or Kentucky.
I don't know. Here are the team recruiting rankings from Rivals.com for UL, Cincy, and UK since 2002, which covers before UL/UC joined the BE, and after (no need to do tOSU since they are consistently in the top 10 the whole time):
UK, starting in 2002 and through 2008: 94, 63, 45, 67, 36, 54, 57
So we see that Kentucky was really bad in 2002, then improved significantly, and has since settled down in to the 50s range.
UC: 100, 92, 80, 94, 102, 89, 67
So we see that UC was consistently bad, between 80 and 100, before and after joining the BE, until 2008, when they moved up to 67. If anything, they were improving before joining the BE (02-04), then fell back somewhat, before last year's surge up to 67.
UL: 59, 35, 64, 45, 34, 41, 55
Hard to figure UL. They surge from 59 to 35 between 02 and 03 when not a BE member, then fall back to 64, then surge up to 34 after joining the BE, but now have fallen back to the 50s.
Overall, hard to see any pattern indicating that UL/UC recruiting has improved since joining the BE, or that UK has been hurt as a result.