College Football Recruiting 101: Stars Mean Everything...and Nothing At All

College football recruiting news has become increasingly popular every year.  This is mostly due to the demand by fans that they just want more information.  The season isn't enough anymore—they want to know the future of their program before it happens, so they follow recruiting services such as Rivals and Scout.

Also, games like the US Army All-American game and the Under Armour All-American game have put high school football and recruiting in a national spotlight.  These kids are becoming well-known before they even set foot on a college campus.

Oftentimes, the perception of your team's recruiting can be far from the truth.  You never know who exactly your team offered or didn't offer.  There are just some things you don't know as a fan.

As someone who follows recruiting pretty closely and has a pretty good grasp of how rankings and such things work, I wanted to give you a little information on recruiting—how things can work, and how you should view who your team signs in February.

What do stars mean?

The recruiting services give out stars to players like you are in third grade and completed your homework on time.  Stars are a way of grading a player.  The question is, how are they graded?  What goes into a player's ranking?  This question is what makes recruiting rankings a little questionable.

Are they graded strictly on current talent?

Are they graded on NFL potential?

Are they graded on how quickly they will make an impact in college?

All three of these are different and you could have a player that's got great potential down the road, but he may not be a first-year starter in college.  So you never know exactly what these stars are supposed to be telling you.

Until recruiting services are more clear on exactly how they rank players, there will always be questions raised on certain players, and how one service has him a four-star and the other service has him a two-star.

As an example, here's a breakdown of the 2008 Preseason Coaches All-SEC team that was just released.

Five-stars: Nine players

Four-stars: 27 players

Three-stars: 24 players

Two-stars: 11 players

So there were more two-star players that made the team than five-stars.  Some of these guys could have just developed later in the process than others.  You just never know sometimes.

Do four and five-stars directly translate into championships?

No.  People seem to think that because you land a four or five-star kid, you are automatically going to win 10 games a season from here on out.  Highly-ranked players do not equal a championship—what they do is increase the probability that you win a championship.

If you have a legitimate blue chip guy, and you recruit an entire class of them, then the chances of your program winning just went up.  They do not guarantee wins, but they increase your chances.

Also, you never know when a four or five-star player has peaked in high school and doesn't continue to get better in college—yet another reason you can't bank on a ranking to win championships.

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