re: Why do so many of our 5 stars get downgraded after committing? Happens every year.

quote:

---

I don’t think there’s a conspiracy. I do think the recruiting services use program interest (i.e. offers) as a tool. So if Saban is all in on a particular player and the services have that player rated somewhat low, I think there is a chance that the services bump the player. Not as part of some conspiracy to pad Alabama’s class ratings, but because that level of interest from Alabama might make the services question their original evals.

---

I agree with this. It’s more incompetence and laziness and malice. The services use what a small group of schools are doing in recruiting to alter the top of the rankings. If a kid commits and shuts it down early and they aren’t overwhelmingly dominant and a sure-fire top 10 guy, then they move down because other players around them move up. Will Campbell is a great example of this, because he 100% proved that he should have been a 5 star on the field this season. That was a joke.

Some of you don’t have a problem with it, but it’s ridiculous because of the way the services hype themselves when it comes to projecting careers. 247 is constantly hyping their success rate on 5 stars getting drafted with nothing but deflection when it comes to busts or when a guy like Justin Jefferson breaks through. Their ability to evaluate players themselves doesn’t measure up to what they say or what we pay.

QB is the primary exception to this today. The top 5-10 QBs tend to commit pretty early now, but there is a lot of focus on them that other positions don’t get, and there are camps like Elite 11 where most of the top guys can be evaluated head to head over the last two years of their recruitments.