re: Did LSU benefit that much from winning the national title?

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I've always bought into it because most of the recruiting is done while the team is still the defending nat'l champs. We really couldn't cash in on the NC last year in recruiting because there is only a month and change between the NC game and NSD and many kids have made up their minds by that point. All year this year, we were able to talk kids into coming to play with the defending national champs.

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Excellent point. I'm just wondering if these three other reasons aren't why LSU has been successful in recruiting the past couple of years:

Saban was a great recruiter.
Les is a great recruiter.
Louisiana is the flagship university of a talent rich state and surrounding states.

Granted winning those titles helped, but it seems that sportswriters are convinced that winning the titles are the main reason we've been so successful recruiting wise.