While I touched on the topic in today's minute over at CSM, I thought that this would be a better forum to discuss the possible demographic disadvantage of schools in the Midwest - specifically the Big Ten.Terry Pluto's Sunday talking points were very intriguing, as he discussed a theory that he has had for years. It is the same notion that has plagued businesses all across the Midwest, with a lot of families - and thus, students - moving out of the Midwest due to lack of opportunity. Families leave, businesses suffer due to lack of revenue generation, and then said businesses relocate to a more lucrative area; typically the South or even the West Coast (if not overseas).
Well, it appears that the same level of demographic shift is going on in college football, with a lot of talent relocating at the high school level, making it that much more difficult to recruit players to come back North. Terry's research has definitely backed up his notion, especially this season:
"I went through the list of the top 50 high school senior football prospects on ESPN.com, supplied by Scouts Inc. Not a single Ohio kid was on the list. Nor was anyone from Michigan or Indiana. There were three from Pennsylvania. The highest rated Ohio kid on a longer list of 100 was DeVoe Torrence, the Massillon running back at No. 64. He is committed to the Buckeyes."
In fact, 32 of the top 50 recruits in the country are from Florida, Georgia, Texas or Alabama - smack dab in the middle of SEC country.
Perhaps the Big Ten's bowl record against the SEC is telling us a lot more than how much more talented one team (or in this case, Conference) is than another. As families continue to flock south, the collegiate athletic programs will also continue to evolve in those areas. It wouldn't be surprising to see the number of recruits in the aforementioned areas increase over the next few years, as there may even be a lagging effect given the seasoning that future highschoolers will receive in the coming years.
There's a reason that shows like Friday Night Lights are not set in areas like Detroit or Pittsburgh. And as long as current trends continue, the talent gap could widen a lot more before it even begins to narrow.
Terry's Talkin' [Cleveland Plain Dealer]
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3 comments:
Hey man,
After the BCS champ. game I presented this theory to my friends at work and they generally agreed with me, so I'll just chime in here.
I'll agree with you that the midwest has a lack of talent on both the high school and college level.But I think the Big Ten's true problem is in its style of play which is very old school football. OSU's problem is that it has overly mastered the Big Ten style of play and because this year they played no one outside of the Big Ten, they only played Big Ten style of play. However, when an anomaly is thrown in such as Team DC via Illinois that plays a spread offense, well OSU is going to lose. This is the reason why OSU will always lose to an SEC team, because they are built for the Big Ten. In the SEC you see all different types of playing styles so you are ready for anything.
I missed the part where families are flocking to Alabama from parts unknown. That's just not true. Much of Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and the rest of the SEC are very similar to the midwest as far as economics and opportunities.
There is huge talent here because A) We live and breath football (you'd have to visit to really understand the difference - and I'm from Memphis, TN originally which is not footbal county, i've felt the difference) B) Let's face it, we have a disproportionate level of African American's in the South... That's where the whole "speed" thing comes in. C) just look at the size of our stadiums compared to the populations of our states. Right or wrong, we just make college football more of a priority.
For whatever the reasons, Southern States produce a LOT more NFL talent than Northern States ... I'm posting a map tomorrow that confirms this.
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