The Wild Disparity in Recruiting Services Rankings Of USC Trojan Verbals

For those who follow high school football recruiting, the names are familiar.

Scout.com, Rivals.com and ESPN.

All well respected services who judge the relative merits of prep gridiron players.

Even some not so well known, such as "PrepStar.com," offer their opinions on the talents these young players bring to the field of play.

And for college football fans, it is upon the opinion of these evaluators that their program's recruiting classes are judged.

For as any fan can tell you, the foundation of a successful college football team is built on the talent of their players.

To support their assertions, these services also provide a ranking of each player as well.

Most of them have fancy names such as the "ESPN 150" or the "Rivals 250."

PrepStar.com calls theirs the "PrepStar Dream 150."

But what does this all mean?

Well, for fans of USC, it means a ton of confusion.

While the Trojans continue to recruit some of the best high school players in the nation, you wouldn't know it by ratings some of these services supply.

The disparity of these ratings services for the players they rank can be down right confusing.

Specifically, for those high school players that have offered their verbal commitments, the rankings can range from very, very good to slightly better than average.

And that's just for the Trojans.

Lets take a look at these rankings side-by-side bearing in mind that the number assigned to each recruit represents where they fall on the services list:

Name:                         Scout.com            Rivals.com            ESPN             PrepStar.com

DeAnthony Thomas            3                           5                      63                        5

Jalen Grimble                    10                        174                    NR                      NR

Cody Kessler                    25                         70                     NR                      28

Victor Blackwell                28                        100                     55                       73

Max Wittek                      34                         113                   146                       98

Tre Madden                      59                          73                    NR                       66

Antwuan Woods               40                          NR                    42                       92

Marcus Martin                  53                          NR                    NR                      NR

*NR = Not Rated

As you can see, the opinions of these services vary considerably in regard to the quality of these recruits.

And for some, including DeAnthony Thomas, widely regarded as the best prep corner back in the nation, rankings such as ESPN's No. 63 are just plain baffling.

Of course, evaluating high school athletes is not a scientific endeavor and some difference in opinion is to be expected.

But when the 10th-best high school football player according to one service (Scout.com), in this case defensive end Jalen Grimble, doesn't even make the cut for two services and is No. 174 in the other, it tends to make wonder if there is any viable standard at all by which these players are evaluated.

In the final analysis, fans of the high school game could be forgiven if they consider these services and their rankings nothing but a crapshoot.

So take heart Trojan fans.

Trust the opinions of the Trojan recruiting brain trust and forget the ranking services.

At least their opinions are consistent.

And they are the only ones that count.