BLUE

...the joy and despair of being a Wolverines fan.

February 25, 2007

GEORGIA v. MICHIGAN

I thought the issue of SEC vs. Big 10 recruiting demanded a little further investigation, until mgoblog got a hold of the topic Friday. Still, this is a more focused response to the defenders of Georgia, the team that I think is the most high-profile offender. It’s one thing to average 29 scholarships for two and three star players (Iowa State), quite another to do it at the four and five star level.

The team that caught my eye in the post on player quality – Georgia – signs an average of almost four more players a year than Michigan, about three above the number of scholarships available.  In the comment section of mgoblog, Georgia defenders claimed that up to two LOI don’t qualify academically and two end up in jail (…not really). Whatever the reason, the numbers deserved a closer look.

It turns out that six players over the last six years show up twice in the Georgia recruiting numbers, or one per year that comes back after, I assume, being academically ineligible when they went to enroll for the first time.  Michigan has no players that show up more than once in the Rivals recruiting commitment lists, although why Marques Slocum wouldn’t show again this year, I don’t know.

If we back out those players from the Georgia recruiting rolls, we come up with the following numbers.

So while there is some inflation in the Georgia recruiting statistics (dumb for Rivals to count a player more than once), Georgia still maintains almost a three player advantage over Michigan, which averages out to be about two more LOI per year than scholarships available.

If academics after enrollment (assuming that injuries and early draft entries are roughly even between the two teams) is the difference between Michigan and Georgia, then eleven extra players committed to Georgia since 2002 and eleven players, after spending some time on the football team, couldn’t make the grade (no amount of Googling could tease out any detailed information on the academic dregs of Georgia football – I was hoping to stumble across www.academicallyineligibledawgrecruits.com).

Is there a football advantage to bottom feeding in the recruiting world?  The answer is definitively yes, and it is a simple numbers game. The more bodies you can look at, particularly 3.56 star bodies (Georgia average), the deeper your program. And let’s face facts about academic ineligibility. My guess is that there is a certain, “Well, what can we do?” when Carl Tabb starts struggling with the grades, and there is a certain, “Ohmigod, omigod, advisors, advisors, where are the *$(#)damn advisors!” when Michael Hart starts struggling. Add this reality to a steady stream of extra players, and you have an academically challenged developmental squad.

Bottom line – made far more apparent by the mgoblog post than this one – is that teams feeding on a high number of recruits are playing a different, more cynical, less collegiate game than Michigan. And that is another great thing about Michigan.

Damn, that’s something else I have to give Lloyd Carr credit for.

Posted by Meeechigan Dan | Permalink | |