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Soccer Recruitment – Recruitment Rankings Do Not Guarantee Success On The Field

Despite their popularity with fans, recruiting rankings (rankings of college football programs based on the perceived quality of their high school recruiting classes each year) sometimes have little to do with the success of those programs. in the field in later years.

Of the eight teams ranked in the top 10 in recruiting by each of the three national recruiting websites for 2006, six of them (USC, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Penn State, and Notre Dame) did not make the top 25. in the end. Associated Press poll after the 2010 soccer season.

Most of the players recruited in 2006 would have completed their final year of eligibility in the fall of 2010, when they were expected to be among the most experienced and skilled players on a particular team, which contributed the most to the team’s success in games. during the season.

A senior recruiting class in high school could be expected to spell the best performance for a varsity team as those players move into starting positions on the field as they are college seniors. In the 2010 season, that didn’t happen with quite a few teams with top-ranked recruiting classes in 2006.

But that is not all.

Even more telling is that many of the most successful college programs in the field in 2010 were far below the recruiting rankings for their high school recruiting classes in 2006.

For example, TCU, which ranked No. 2 in the latest AP poll for the fall 2010 season, and Stanford, ranked No. 4, were not in the top 50 recruiting classes designated by a major recruiting site in 2006. The same site ranked Oregon Drafting Class of 2006 only at No. 49, however, Oregon played in the national championship game and finished No. 3 in the final AP poll after the season. Fall 2010. Other recruiting websites also rated the 2006 recruiting classes for these teams low.

This discrepancy between high school football players’ perceived potential and their ultimate performance points to one of the big challenges in college recruiting for high school: knowing which new high school players will be able to adapt. to the physical and emotional demands and the faster pace of college play. Other factors include the nearly 50 percent turnover rate among NCAA Division I head coaches every three years. New coaches often bring in different offensive and defensive schemes that may not fit the skills and talents of players recruited by a previous coach.

Interest in high school recruiting and college recruiting rankings based on the perceived quality of recruiting classes from various colleges peaks with the annual National Signature Day, typically scheduled for the first Wednesday in February. every year. National Signing Day is the first day that eligible high school football players can commit in writing, by signing a National Letter of Intent, to play in a particular college football program.

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