Saw the following on another board. NIU 73 out of 117 Division I schools? I have hard time believing our class is this low. These rankings most be produced by the same morons who thought NIU's basketball team would be one of the elite teams in the MAC.
2004 MAC Recruiting rankings per rivals.com
National Rank:
73 NIU
77 BGSU
77 MiamiU
89 UCF
91 WMU
93 Toledo
96 EMU
96 Akron
100 Central Michigan
101 Ohio
101 Ball St
108 Kent St
108 Buffalo
108 Marshall
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I don't follow football recruiting too closely, but just eyeballing it, that sounds about right. Joe specifically said in interviews this year we have never competed straight up w the big boys for a recruit and won. It doesn't surprise me at all the top class in the MAC is below the mid tiers in the BCS conferences.
Tops in the MAC still sounds pretty good to me, but I'll definitely defer to those who follow this stuff more closely.....
Recruiting is a big crap shoot anyway since these kids are so young. If evaluating young talent was that easy the Detroit Tigers would certainly be much better by now.
The worst thing is these services come up with lists and assign a kid 3 or 4 stars and then when he signs with a MAC school they drop him to a 2 or 3 star recruit. No way can these people look at every high-school athlete in the country and compare them to one another with any degree of certainty. These recruiting sites and so-called experts are just preying on those who are interested in the recruiting process to get your money in a subscription to their site.
I can certainly say from my observations that Miami definitely has a far better all around recruiting class than BG does (so far). BG only has one what I would call outstanding committment in QB-Turner from Dayton, Oh, but he may not see the field for three years.
I think that we pretty much debunked their rankings last year at this time. Remeber they make any B10, SEC etc. recruit a 3 star guy as soon as he commits. They do not do that for the lesser conferences. It is all pretty much a joke. Is NIU calss as good as Oklahoma, Texas, FSU, etc. no way, but it is closer to U of I and NU than ever before.
Also, Rivals only has 11 of our 20 verbals in its database. They couldn't possibly rank us against anyone when they don't really know who we've recruited.
BTW - The guy who runs the Wisconsin Preps site on Rivals published a Top 15 recruits in Wisc. list. Not a single NIU recruit was on it. He had various kids who aren't getting any D1 offers ahead of our guys. I then posed the question on his message board of "Based on your Top 15 list, do you think that NIU is doing a poor job of evaluating talent in Wisconsin?" He didn't answer. After waiting a few days, I challenged him again with the same question and added a caveat. I asked if he didn't rank any of the NIU guys because he hadn't seen them play. Again, no answer. The rivals network is actually a great source of info on recruits. They have little articles and a decent message board system. I frequent EdgyTim's free and pay boards. (You guys may be interested in checking out a thread about Greg Turner that I became heavily involved in.) As far as rankings go on rivals, I wouldn't put any stock into it whatsoever.
<a href='http://edgytim.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=1597&mid=29429714&sid=&tid=29429714&style=1' target='_blank'>http://edgytim.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=...9429714&style=1</a>
Tom Lemming seems to have a good handle on recruits. He has always been positive about NIu's efforts. (maybe thats why I like his reports). I did not subscribe to his service this year. Maybe someone else has that could comment on what he is saying.
Does anyone have any info on DE Zach Davidson of Racine WI (Park HS)?
NIU has offered but it appears he is holding out for a Big Ten offer.
If I am correct about this, the pressure must be on.
If I were a recruit, I'd have to be committed by now or I'd be hating life.
Judging from the fact he is a Milwaukee Journal Sentinell First Team All Stater, I'd love to see him at NIU.
Davidson will be attending Western Michigan.
That's just great.
I know NIU got Michigan's Zach Osburn, but now add Davidson and McHenry's Scooter Mcintosh
to the Bronco list.
And Davidson....
a chance to play with a bunch of WI kids close to home for a program on the rise.
I'd love to know why he picked WMU.
What retard website were you on alum that posted recruting results before signing day?
EVERYONE knows there are some big time recruits who change their minds last second...
So either your a little confused about the year of the recruits, or they are. But either way you don't rank classes against each other before they are filled out.
73 is probably low, and we will figure that out after february...and then in the following years. Britt Davis and Brost alone should raise us to the top 60...I don't see us falling behind many in the MAC, WMU is getting the kids who got pushed out of NIU with too many of their position, IE...Davidson...
I thought we were going to offer Greg Turner a ride?? Hard hitting safety........do we not need that??
As far as our class ranking....at least we are at the top of the MAC. The only time I remember hearing that we were even in the top 50, was the year we recruited both McCareins and Diem. Not sure why that is, because I think we were the only school to even offer McCareins a ride, but I remember the Northern Star, quoted some recruiting service that had ranked NIU. Tom Lemming gave an interview last summer, to ESPN 1000 in which he mentioned, without the interviewer even asking him, that NIU was doing a great and consistent job of drawing recruits, much more than our in state peers. We didn't need Davidson, and if he signed to play here, he would have been dropped from 1st team all state to 2nd team honorable mention.
Did anyone seen when Jon Brost was on the top 25 OL's list for ESPN about a month ago. He then signed with NIU and was all the sudden takin' off the list??
And last but not least has anyone seen the one kid on the rivals recruiting board that's like 6-9 260....kind of reminds me of Shea alittle bit a big guy who might be a project but could be a stud. According to rivals, we offered him a ride and so did Wyomming but it doesn't look like he has taken up anyone on a ride. Anyone know anything here?
crazywilly Wrote:What retard website were you on alum that posted recruting results before signing day?
EVERYONE knows there are some big time recruits who change their minds last second...
So either your a little confused about the year of the recruits, or they are. But either way you don't rank classes against each other before they are filled out.
73 is probably low, and we will figure that out after february...and then in the following years. Britt Davis and Brost alone should raise us to the top 60...I don't see us falling behind many in the MAC, WMU is getting the kids who got pushed out of NIU with too many of their position, IE...Davidson...
His list is per rivals.com. They put ratings on players and just add up the ratings for a total and rank classes that way. They don't even have all our committments, and I'm willing to be they don't have them all ranked, either. Plus, they've been known to change ratings after a player has committed to a big school - ie, Johnny might be a 2 star at the beginning of the season, but once he commits to Michigan, he's suddenly a 3 or 4 star player.
Bottom line - fun to talk about; means squat.
Based on what some of you have said about the ranking process, it appears little stock should be put into them. What's the point of ranking recruiting classes if a kid who signs with a Big 10 school versus a MAC school automatically is given a higher grade. Seems like the only relevant use of these rankings is in comparing your school versus the other schools in your conference.
Regarding Western Michigan's recruits, beware the Broncos in the next year or two. They are quietly building that program up the right way and getting some real quality talent. Having roots in western/northern Michigan, I know for a fact there is ample football talent in the state. Plenty still exists once Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame help themselves to the cream.
Many lament the fact that NIU doesn't have a true rivalry opponent within the MAC. Perhaps a great rivalry can be established between NIU and Western Michigan that would be great for both schools and the MAC overall. Competition in the MAC West should be something fierce the next several years. NIU, Toledo, Bowling Green and coming on strong Western Michigan. And don't forget Central Michigan either. Their new head coach (can't remember the name) is the guy who took Grand Valley State to two national titles in division II and has become a near legendary figure across the state. Will be interesting to see if he can build the Chippewa program into something.
More quality and stronger teams in the MAC is a good thing.
niu85alum Wrote:Many lament the fact that NIU doesn't have a true rivalry opponent within the MAC. Perhaps a great rivalry can be established between NIU and Western Michigan that would be great for both schools and the MAC overall.
I like them as a prospective rival too, but they already have their thing going with the Chips.
The most logical rival for us is Ball State, based on geography and their lack of an established rivalry game. Unfortunately, they tend to suck in football, and we've started to suck in basketball.
It's tough to get a rivalry going under those circumstances, but what the heck, it's worth a try...
Damn you no good %$#@!!! freaking birdbrain, #@@# mother******** Cardinals!! :chair: :chair: :mad:
:chair:
[quote="Flying Corn"] [quote="niu85alum"] Many lament the fact that NIU doesn't have a true rivalry opponent within the MAC.