Why do football players want to play so close to home yet...?

Basketball, Track, and Baseball teams travel all around the country in the summer. Those kids don't mind leaving their bubble.

i'd say there are so few basketball scholarships compared to HS seniors that they would play anywhere...

in baseball there is not a single legit program in parts of the country... their best players would be stupid to stay at home

but every US kid no matter the sport at least thinks about where is best for his family to see him perform

Home is where the heart is

Anyone who doesn't play football has no chest, so . . . . no heart

I do think there's a socioeconomic factor at play here as well. A large amount of football recruits are lower on the socioeconomic scale so are more likely to stay close to their homes and support systems.

But for players in those situations in basketball and baseball the options are different. Baseball you can turn pro, and in basketball they might have already been away a lot and gotten a taste for something else like the other poster said.

that could just be the quality of the program. It's not so much trying to win at the school, but access to the best coaches then setting you up for longer career success.

Football recruiting is basically the only sport left where high schools and high school coaches control the 'game'... Every other sport out there recruiting goes through clubs (from girls soccer to men's bball).

This keeps it local... that plus the sheer numbers makes it more economically feasible for recruiting to remain more localized.

top football programs are spread across the country for the most part, so kids tend to stay more local. there are only a handful of top basketball, baseball, and track programs, so recruits are more willing to leave home than in football.

Football kids would travel what 8 times, and then in the fall/winter when school is in session. Basketball and baseball play parts of their seasons in the summer.

Football players, especially in the South, are often indoctrinated into wanting to be a part of their state's football program at an early age by the majority of the people around them. Basketball programs, for example, are usually much less of a cultural thing in most southern states. Those kids grow up watching nothing but SEC football on Saturdays. That is especially true in rural areas. All of those programs have resources, support, and a history of getting players to the NFL. Then you have the convenience factor for the family on top of that. The combination of those factors makes it hard for an out of region program to get a kid out of the south. They have to go above and beyond.

Football players in major urban areas follow much more of the trends seen in other sports, or at least it appears that way to me. Travel is easier for them, and they've been more exposed to other schools.

Also, bag men are local. Shoe companies are national.