Game 5: Akron @ UMass – 3:30 pm

[Blue & Gold]

4 hours ago, ZipsVoice said:

So, back on October 6th I asked the question "I don't know the answer to this, and I'm too lazy to check it out, but how many of the 130 NCAA D1 schools have kids on their current roster hailing from say, I-70 as the southern border and Sandusky as the western border, as an indication of how the rest of the nation views NEOhio high school football talent?" 

It's a rainy day and I was bored so I did a little research.  Instead of looking at the whole 130 D1 schools (I'm not that bored!) I looked at the current rosters of all the MAC Schools, all the Big 10 schools, and threw in Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Marshall and West Virginia too.  I went from the PA border to Elyria, and from Lake Erie to Canfield.  Now this is just based on being on the roster, not if they are starting, getting any PT, riding the bench, practice squad fodder, whatever.  I do have to say, we sure have a helluva lot of long snappers and punters/kickers on this  list from NEO!  Here's what we have - The MAC has 110 players from the area selected.  Akron leads by far with 37, and that's after taking Burkhart off the list.  Here's the list:

Akron - 37     Kent State - 21     Toledo - 17     Ohio - 14     Bowling Green -7     Miami - 6     Buffalo - 5     EMU - 3     Ball State - 2      NIU, CMU, WMU have none on their roster

 

The Big 10 (or 14) have a total of 50 players from the area selected.  Here's how they stack up:

Ohio State - 17     Michigan State - 11     Michigan - 7     Northwestern - 5     Penn State, Purdue and Minnesota each have 2     Rutgers, Indiana, Nebraska, and Wisconsin each have 1.  Maryland, Illinois and Iowa do not have any.

 

The "other" schools have 24 players from the area.  I was very surprised to see that Cincinnati leads with 16!  Notre Dame has 4, Pitt has 3 and WVU has 1.  Marshall has none.

 

So the idea of Akron "not recruiting locally" seems to be debunked.  Both Terry and Tom have done it.  

 

Where did the recruits come from?  You'll not be shocked to see that St. Ignasius leads with 13 players, followed by Hoban and St. Ed's with 10 each.  Massillon Washington and Mentor each have 9, and I remember Arth addressing the Mentor market as one to go after when he got here.  Cleveland Heights, Hudson and St. Vincent-St. Mary each had 6 players on these rosters, followed by Avon, Glenville, Canton McKinley, Padua, Solon and Stow with 4 each.  Benedictine, Brush, Copley, Lorain and Strongsville each added 3 to the list.  Aurora, Bedford, Brecksville,  Coventry, Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Euclid, Firestone, Warren Harding, Jackson, LaBrae, Medina, Midpark, Nordoonia, North Royalton, Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, Perry, Springfield, Ursuline, and Westlake each had a pair, and 40 other schools had 1 player each.

 

So, this is what currently populates the rosters of 14 schools from the Big 10 and 12 from the MAC, plus 5 "Bigs" in our area.  I guess the three surprises for me were 1) how much we have tried to mine this area and how little we have to show for it during both coaching staffs; 2) the numbers at Michigan State; and 3) the numbers at Cincinnati!  I know I might have missed a few players playing farther away, and I'm sure there's enough ammo here to post a lot of "Yeah, but's", so have at it.

 

Damn fine work!  Thank you!  Very enlightening.

Edited October 16, 2019 by Blue & Gold