re: No offer for OL Ishmael Wilson

There are legitimate professional recruiting services that all schools use to aid in recruiting, but Rivals, Scout, 247 etc. are not among those. The internet sites are for the fans.

In reality, there is not much information useful to a coaching staff that can be gleaned from the internet sites. A school with a small recruiting budget will be recruiting predominantly athletes that the internet sites deem as lesser recruits (2* or below) and these sites offer little to no film on these athletes, not to mention contact information, qualifying information, background information, evaluation of talent, etc. and may have had limited access to "evaluate" such a player.

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Not undermining anything.

Professional services, not the internet fan sites (Rivals, Scout, 247 etc.), provide the Recruiting Dept. with info on prospective recruits in much more detail than the internet sites. LSU pays close to $100K per year to these professional services.

By the time Rivals, etc. start to compile lists, the LSU Recruiting Dept. has already been in contact with over 90%+ of the athletes that LSU will be recruiting in subsequent years. Many of the athletes that LSU recruits have already started to receive mail from LSU in their freshman and sophmore years of High School.

Recruiting relationships are built over the span of several years. Waiting for an internet fan site to publish a list, and not even a comprehensive list, would be starting the recruiting process behind the proverbial eight ball and would be coaching suicide.

Hell, Rivals and Scout didn't even have film on Mo Claiborne until after he committed to LSU, but LSU was recruiting him for over 2 years.

Don't over-estimate the value of Rivals, Scout or the other internet recruiting sites to a Recruiting Dept. These sites are marketed to the fans.

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You really aren't saying anything new here except for the 100k figure. I am interested to know how you would know such a detailed amount unless A) it is public knowledge and I am just unaware or B) you work within the program.

I will say that 100K is professional services fees is pennys for the amount of information they most likely provide.

Again, I believe you discredit the recruiting sites because you consider the ranking lists prepared for fan entertainment. You have yet to mention all of the relationships the staff have with publishers of these sites across the country -- that is where the real value comes from these fan sites.

As much as the coaches would love to have access to limitless amounts of information across the nation, there are in fact pockets of prospects each year that come through these organic channels. All it takes is a local guy in a very small town to take some footage, give it to his team's publisher and post it to YouTube/the rivals/247/scout board to get reviews, and then a the publisher sends the footage to the coaches if he deems it worth a look.

The actual rankings lists are pretty trivial at the end of the day for the top programs, but the resource network can easily be tapped into for free.

The real challenge is identifying the talent when they are freshman and sophomores -- which is where the professionals service fees would come in along with the network of high school coaches.

I think we are agreeing more than we are really acknowledging but are coming at this from different sides of this topic.

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In 2007, LSU spent $84,220.85 on 20 different recruiting companies that provide information on high school athletes including video, physical specifications and performance data. In 2008, LSU spent $65,250.10 and two years ago, $106,896.57.

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They could've just spent $10 a month for a Scout or Rivals subscription.

Lynx, did you happen to catch Frank Wilson's interview right before signing day disussing the 2012 Class? LINK

He is not too impressed with the internet fan sites.

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All it takes is a local guy in a very small town to take some footage, give it to his team's publisher and post it to YouTube/the rivals/247/scout board to get reviews, and then a the publisher sends the footage to the coaches if he deems it worth a look.

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Yeah, I can just see Andrew Bone over at Bama On Line or the Idiot over at Orangebloods calling Les to tell him about a potential recruit.

Now a local guy with ties to LSU contacting the Recruiting Dept., that's a different story.

Quick story...ex-Tiger football player sees kicker at High School game, contacts Athletic Dept. about the kicker, Athletic Dept. contacts High School requesting film, scouts sent to see Kicker, impressed, Kicker recruited and signs with LSU.

There are many means for a prospect to come to the attention of the Recruiting Dept., but Rivals, et. al. would not be a primary source by any stretch of the imagination.

Could a prospect come to the attention of the Recruiting Dept. through Rivals, etc.? Anything is possible, just not probable because the "Boots on the Ground" have most probably already filed some type of report with the Recruiting Dept. long before said prospect is on any published list issued by any of the internet recruiting sites.

Additionally, why would the LSU Athletic Dept. spend at times in excess of $20,000 for a legitimate recruiting service's materials if the internet sites materials were on par with the real recruiting services materials?

Am I the only person in this thread that realizes the NCAA prohibits schools from using a subscription to services like Scout and Rivals? Schools cannot use services that have highlights from 7v7, private (ie sponsored) combines, etc, which means Scout and Rivals.

That rule didn't get changed again, did it?

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Am I the only person in this thread that realizes the NCAA prohibits schools from using a subscription to services like Scout and Rivals? Schools cannot use services that have highlights from 7v7, private (ie sponsored) combines, etc, which means Scout and Rivals.

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As long as the coaching staff doesn't advertise those sites, I'm pretty sure they can look at whatever they want. I could be a coach who makes millions a year and have a staff of the best talent evaluators and recruiterss at my disposal, but I'd still spend the $10/month on a fan site for shits in giggles.

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I'd still spend the $10/month on a fan site for shits in giggles.

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About what it is worth - shits and giggles.

Maybe the coaches are tired of have OOS guys yank their chain. Rebuild the walls around our state again.

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If you want to make the case that programs use the recruiting services as a baseline database, ok. But, no program worth anything uses those services for the evaluations themselves.

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I agree with this.

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I know you've always seen yourself as a recruiting expert. IThe truth is that you are an amateur who takes the formed opinion of these recruiting services (whose opinion is formed in large part by talking to insiders within the college programs themselves), modifies their opinion slightly based on your evaluation of the "film", and then spout off your analysis as if it were your own.

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I give the coaches tons of credit where I think it is due -- talent evaluation is not difficult.