Big East has to look beyond the five-stars

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, February 05, 2009  |  Comments( 1 )

College Football
Got something to say?

Log In above and share your thoughts on this topic with other fans!

When you think about it, college football recruiting is the opposite of boxing -- whoever sees the most stars wins. And once again on national signing day, the Big East finished about a constellation behind power conferences like the SEC, Big Ten and Big XII.

So does this mean that the Big East is an incurably second-rate league, doomed to be bullied forever by the bigger boys? No.

At this stage of the game, it's a matter of mutual attraction, The five-star athletes grow up dreaming of playing for Southern Cal or Miami or LSU or Notre Dame, where their friends back home can watch them on prime time. As a general rule, barring some familial or geographic connection, they don't grow up dreaming of playing for Louisville, Connecticut or Syracuse. As Bruce Hornsby once put it so eloquently, "That's just the way it is. Some things never change."

Yet that doesn't mean there isn't hope. In high school, the best-looking girls almost always date the best-looking guys, but that's not necessarily whom they marry.

Similarly, there are lots of high school athletes who are still developing physically, so their best days as football players are ahead of them. There is no sleeper factor in the star rating system, and a lot of big-time players slip through the proverbial cracks -- guys like George Selvie, who came to South Florida as an undersized center and wound up an All-America pass rusher. Or Pat White, who signed with West Virginia because Rich Rodriguez was the only coach who promised to let him play quarterback.

Conversely, some of the five-star kids will ultimately find their dreams shattered in years to come, as they slip down the depth chart behind other five-star types at the football factories. A few might even wind up in the Big East, as chastened transfers.

The Big East has two problems -- tradition and location. It takes both to vacuum up the top 100 prospects.

Syracuse, West Virginia and Pitt have tradition but not location. Rutgers (in the shadow of the Big Apple) and South Florida have location but not tradition. Louisville, Cincinnati and Connecticut have neither.

Not that Syracuse, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Morgantown and Storrs aren't perfectly fine cities. But if you're a high school stud with dozens of coaches on speed dial, you'll probably pick Los Angeles, Miami, Austin or Athens every time.

And so it went this year. Of ESPN's top 150 prospects, the Big East got commitments from four -- DE Ryne Giddens (No. 64, to South Florida), QB Eugene Smith (No. 97, to West Virginia), QB Tom Savage (No. 125, Rutgers) and DT Antwon Lowry (No. 134, to Rutgers). No one in the league reeled in a five-star recruit, although South Florida and Rutgers had an impressive list of four-star players.

Check back in two years, and see how much difference any of this makes. Did someone say Tom Brady? Sam Bradford?
Got something to say?

Log In above and share your thoughts on this topic with other fans! (1)

About Darrell Laurant

...Sorry, Darrell Laurant's bio is currently not available. Please check back soon!
read more
Article Tools Share!   |  RSS  |  Bleacher Report About Bleacher Report