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The Stars - Rivals VS. Scout

amconley

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Gold Member
Apr 14, 2006
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Our class would be a top 10 class if we used the Scout stars. Can this big a difference be?
 
As others have said Scout and other services are more generous with their stars. Trust ESPN and Rivals. They are generally correct in their assessment of overall recruiting class rankings. Sometimes they miss on a player or two, but generally the teams at the top of those rankings are competing for national championships. See Alabama, Clemson, FSU, Ohio St.
 
What you need to remember are who the guys handing out these ratings are. I'm sure that a few pro football scouts started their careers as journalism majors, but i'd bet their aren't many. These guys basically write independent blogs. They basically rate the players by who has offered them, because they have no idea what they are looking at other than a highlight tape made by said players dad. Matt Elam was a 5 star. Why?... because he was huge and Alabama offered him. Saban probably offered him just on his size alone, but if he didn't drop 80 lbs. of bad weight by his RS Freshman year, he would have been transferring.

On the other hand TY Hilton torched us when he was playing at FIU... And no one else wanted him. How many stars do you think he had coming out of HS? that's right.. a whopping 2 stars. Why?? Because no one had given him a big offer.

Coaches evaluate talent and can see where those players fit in their program. Journalists look at stats, a highlight reel, and a list of offers. That's why you see underrated guys turn into monsters and overrated guys flame out. Anyway, that's my take on it...
 
I joked about Yoda's question, but I wonder if he applied the "Scout stars" to EVERYONE'S class--or just ours--before computing his Top 10 ranking? The math has to be done that way, or his premise is flawed. (Hard to believe for a guy with The Force...)

As far as stars generally, it's the same old issue people keep raising... Any rating system will have misses, and there are more of them with literally thousands of chances (prospects) in each class like football. But that doesn't invalidate the rating system. A system like Rivals is more often right than wrong which makes it valid--the more right, the more valid.

That also means it's not the only tool that should be used to evaluate players. Just one tool in the toolbox...
 
They had an article in the Houston Chronicle the other day about the Star System and what guys on the current Patriot & Falcons teams were rated. Between the two teams there are approximately 25 2 star guys playing in the Super Bowl. And the most famous player, Tom Brady had zero stars. Of course that's because his college career predated the star system.
 
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