RE: AAC Recruiting.
First of all, I have never used star ratings from Rivals and Scout because of the built in bias for BCS schools. One year, Tulsa verballed 7 three-Star Oklahoma high school football players. Five of those 7 were subsequently downgraded to 2-Stars. Oklahoma U verballed a 2-Star player one year and was immediately jumped to 3-Stars...and, by end of recruiting season, 4-Stars. Rather than Star ratings, I have followed football recruiting over the years using BCS offers in looking at NonBCS school recruiting. 247Sports is handing out 3-stars to any high school player with a heartbeat, about double if not more than Rivals. No wonder so many fans following their school's recruiting are all (falsely) hyped up over 247Sports.
Cincy, UConn, and USF lost their BCS status and four bowls to dangle before recruits: The guaranteed BCS bowl slot, Orlando, Charlotte, and Pinstripe. It was a given that these three schools could no longer maintain their recruiting, given this disastrous result, moving from BCS to NonBCS.
Cincy has only 5 recruits with BCS offers, substantially way, way off their 2013 recruiting. Cincy's main recruiting competitiors appears to be the MAC. At least, that is where most of Cincy's competing offers are coming from. UConn doesn't have a single recruit with a BCS offer, expect one. USF is weird. USF only has a few verbals but their aggressive Coach recruited quite well last year, very well, in fact.
Regarding Tulane and Memphis, they were among the two worst football programs in CUSA. Tulane's recruiting has picked up but it should. Tulane is located in Louisiana, a state with many good prospects and the Green Wave, while in CUSA, never cashed in on their good recruiting location. Tulane's recruiting has improved significantly, not because it is in AAC but simply because the Green Wave did such a poor job in the past. Memphis continues to struggle.
As for the rest of AAC, they are recruiting at about the level they did as CUSA members. Conference names can change but the recruiting pecking order remains the same. The TAMU, Texas, and Oklahomas get theirs first, then the Texas Techs, Okla States, Baylorss, and TCUs, and then AAC and CUSA schools. The trick for AAC and CUSA schools is to hold the state recruits who want to play in front of their family and friends and not let them get away to distant out of state BCS schools. In this regard, FAU seems to be off to an outstanding recruiting start in Florida. ODU is doing well within Virginia too. Rice, perhaps taking advantage of its two recent bowl appearances, has jumped its Texas Recruiting substantially and UTSA is off to a strong start in Texas.
(This post was last modified: 07-27-2014 11:51 AM by Tallgrass.)
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