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Last night after the Boise State/Oregon game I went to the Rivals Recruiting page to see just how successful Boise State recruiting has fared. I took a look at their rankings from 2002 thru the current 2010 class and compared their national rank to ours over this period. Although Boise State ranked higher than us in 6 of 10 years, the difference wasn't dramatic. But, their program over this timeframe has been, in my opinion, very successful while ours has not. Considering the disparity of "success" between the two programs, how can one reconcile the Rivals ratings. Is it because of schedule ? Coaching ? Or, is the Rivals system a very imperfect system. In summary, one would think (based if nothing else on season record) Boise State's rankings over the years would be dramatically higher than ours. But I defer on this issue to many of you who understand the process much better than I, to wit: Stallion, mrydel and others. I'm curious to learn more.

As Coach Jones found out last year C-USA is tougher that the WAC. BSU has maybe 3 teams to be concerned with all year and in C-USA anyone can beat anyone on any given week. Also, they do a decent job of redshirting and developing players.

as I've said many times there are shortcuts around Rivals rating system. Example-SMU doesn't get credit for Division 1A transfers of Shawnbrey McNeal or Marquis Frazier yet they a vital cogs in our future. No credit for a player like Markus Hunt who may or may not develop. No credit is given for late fall signees who may qualify late. No credit for guys who sit out a year a local CC to "clean up" their transcript. No credit for non-qualifiers-who walkon and pay their own way the first year. Some of these are examples of how SMU is getting around the Rivals ratings-I'm sure Boise St. has its own examples. Now I'm not an expert on Boise St. admissions and don't care enough to investigate but almost without fail when you do investigate schools that seem to miraculously out perform their rankings then you find those schools admitting those kind of players. To an extent SMU is too now. Finally, I still believe that recruiting services may have geographical prejudices in various areas of the country. Texas is so oversaturated with players especially in the Metro areas and hotbeds that I believe fewer sleepers are missed. Who exactly is recruiting areas like Utah or Idaho or Hawaii or the Big Sky country and do the recruiting services do as good a job on covering those areas as they do in Texas? I doubt it. Part of the rating system involves scout give recruits they have seen a score. What about the kids they have never seen. The Scouts in Texas see recruits at camps multiple times a year.

Thanks Stallion and SMU 86 for your input/analysis. Both make sense to me.

Also, coaching matters.

I understand how players coming out of Alaska and Montana are at a disadvantage visibility wise, but I thought Boise's largest recruiting base was California.

I think California is their largest recruiting base, but I noticed kids on their roster from all over -- Phoenix, New Jersey, Texas, Utah, etc.

SMU 86 wrote:As Coach Jones found out last year C-USA is tougher that the WAC. BSU has maybe 3 teams to be concerned with all year and in C-USA anyone can beat anyone on any given week. Also, they do a decent job of redshirting and developing players.

Parity doesn't mean quality

Alaric wrote:

SMU 86 wrote:As Coach Jones found out last year C-USA is tougher that the WAC. BSU has maybe 3 teams to be concerned with all year and in C-USA anyone can beat anyone on any given week. Also, they do a decent job of redshirting and developing players.

Parity doesn't mean quality

Let me rephrase that because the MAC is tough within itself. The teams in C-USA are better than the teams in the WAC as a whole. I talked to Coach Morrison and he told me that.

Boise State is the definition of a program that plays within a system. The system works in college football. SMU has joined them into adopting a system style of play that also works. SMU isn't far from joining Boise State in their success.

wow good bs Stallion....and good observations i must say as i couldnt figure the rankins out either but it takes a good coaching staff like all the ex-NFLers at SMU to see the potential in these non ranked players