Ranking HS Freshmen and Sophmores

quote:

---

For those of you who follow recruiting, what validity, if any, do you put in these rankings? Does it target kids to watch? Do kids ranked that early have an advantage because they continued to get looks throughout their HS career?

---

They only rank a small number. I think Moses only got his ranking this past spring.

I don't care one way or the other and really don't put any stock into it. It really only gives stars to kids who are obviously physical standouts. What I don't want is early stars influencing later results. Just because a kid is a 5 star in his soph campaign, doesn't mean he's a 5 star when everyone else starts growing by the time they are seniors.

I agree.

What you don't really want happening is the ESPN effect to 247 and rivals. They need to continue to perfect their craft. As the industry grows we need better analysis, more analysts, and more coverage in areas that don't offer much coverage. They need to make it their goal to rank every legitimate prospect in the country.

I know this is not possible, but it should be their goal. What we don't need is 247 going out and trying to rank freshmen and sophomores rather than concentrate on juniors and seniors. They start to do that before they perfect the abovementioned issues and it will turn into ESPN; a company more concerned on broad strokes over everything sports related with no legitimate information and only general information.

Now, you can probably easily rank sophomore standouts with no issues. THey are at the same camps and can be seen with all the other kids. Plus, they're easy to pick out because they are physically more gifted at a younger age.

So, no problem with what they are doing now. But they shouldn't go any further. Stick to what they are doing now which is covering an ever growing niche market better than ESPN could ever do.

I had a friend ranked in the top 50 freshman in Georgia for basketball. In his senior year, he did not make the team.....

quote:

---

Ranking HS Freshmen and Sophmores

---

Like preseason rankings, it's something to write, and it's something to read, but it's mostly guesswork and has almost nil value.