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the Rivals Database includes many kids who won't receive offers but it is some indication of the reception your coaches are getting in recruiting. Rivals has not yet rated its players. The following is the breakdown on players interested in the teams we are most likely to compete against. TCU 134, Texas Tech 85, SMU 83, Baylor 55, Houston 26, Rice 23. I couldn't find a single recruit interested in NTSU, North Texas Teachers College or North Texas Normal which is of course confusing. (some institution known as "North Texas" had 15 prospects interested in them.) These numbers include all prospects across the nation including kids who have already committed.

[This message has been edited by Stallion (edited 07-01-2003).]

Stallion,

Can you tell us how this compares to previous years?

How many of the above-mentioned players that are interested in the other schools would actually get into SMU academically. I know SMU has changed its policy recently, but I would not be surprised if there are still many players that do not give SMU much consideration due to the academic restrictions. For instance, TCU has kicked our 'you-know-what' in recent years in both football and basketball. Many of their players could not get into SMU. If they could have, it is possible that they may have considered coming here. My point is this: we are still on uneven ground with many of the other regional schools when it comes to admission policies. Stallion has posted numberous times on this point. I hope that the administration will continue to change this policy and allow the coaches to recruit from an even wider talent base. I also would like to see SMU'S policy on Juco players changed to allow the coaches to agressively recruit them in both football and basketball. We then could really make great strides in recruiting. With that being said, I believe Bennett is doing a great job so far.

I don't study numbers as closely as Stallion, Guru, Mickey, Lotus, and the rest of the recruit-niks on this site, but 83? I would have to think that number is a lot higher than in years past (at this point in the year). Do you know if that's true?

We've got a long wait until Signing Day, but it sure sounds encouraging!

I did this analysis last year at some point. Its hard to recall exactly but my feeling is that SMU and TCU's numbers are just about the same as last year-Tech's numbers are way down as they were even with TCU at this point last year-and Baylor's numbers are way down as they were a substantial number ahead of us last year. Houston did even worse last year at this point-Rice seems to be doing about twice as good as last year at this point.