re: Are we really losing ground in recruiting or have our players been undervalued?

Excellent post. That kind of sums up my point. Are we going to be standing toe-to-toe with the other elite programs is the next 2-3 years with our rating going down or is it that the staff is finding extremely talented kids that are under the radar.

Under the definition of star ratings:
5-star: player who will be a superstar, AA player
4-star: four year starter, All conference player
3-star: 2-3 year starter, solid core AQ player
2-star: 1-2 year starter or role player for AQ program
1-star: Mid-major

That's just my assumption of how the recruiting services rate players. Our coaches have proven that they can develop and evaluate with the best programs but our rankings seem to have gone down over the past two seasons. Will it have an affect on our success?