National Signing Day Shenigans

Today is national signing day. The day were college prospects sign binding agreements to attend such and such school. Its kind of like NFL draft day except the best teams pick first, we know even less about a player's projection, and it seems creepy to follow around 18 years old.

Nonetheless here's a little breakdown

Class Ranking
Class ranking is determined by the number players times the average player ratings. As there are 3 different rating services, not every class has equal number of recruits, not every recruit ends up going to said school (UNC for example over-recruits and will have to "cut" a number of its recruits) , let alone the uncertainty of projecting high schoolers its hard to figure out whats what. Just to put into perspective Penn State's class is ranked #15 by ESPN, #10 by Scout.com and #26 by Rivals. Go figure that one out.

That said there's pretty good agreement on several facts on the ranking front

1) There's a general thinking is that either LSU or Alabma had the best class. The crown jewel in LSU is the reputed best running QB in the land in Russel Shepard while Alabama landed the best lineman in the country (DJ Fluker)

2) In terms of quality USC and Florida (average recruit rating) have the best haul. USC got the "best" QB in the country (Matt Barkley) and Florida got Andre Debose who will replace Percey Harvin.

3) The South dominates again. Those schools located in formerly Confederate territories took 10 out of the top 12 spots in rankings (the Yanks of the group being USC and OSU)


Surprises
1) North Carolina - Butch Davis, previously seen having a mental breakdown due to coaching the Cleveland Browns, is back in college football and has put together probably the best class in the history of North Carolina. The program is slowly inching its way up the ladder and it will be only a matter of time before you see them in a BCS bowl

2) Tennessee- The surprise here is that Lane Kiffin took the job 3 months ago. You'd expect the class to suffer. You'd be wrong. Kiffin assembled a super team of recruiter offering unprecedentedly large contracts to assistant coaches and as a result cleaned up in recruiting. In essence Tennessee is now a recruiting powerhouse.


Big 10 Recruiting
Along similar lines the big prestigious schools did best. OSU pulled in a top 5 national class, Michigan a top 12, and Penn State similarly a quality haul. The one oddity was Michigan State which got its first top 25 class ever. Meechigan's decision to go national and ignore its home state meant MSU hauled in 7 of the top 10 Michigan high schoolers. A number of Big 10 schools focused their recruiting efforts in Florida (e.g, Purdue, Wisconsin) given the relative lack of talent in the Midwest but obviously only the crumbs were left over after the major powerhouses had skimmed the top.


Random Names to Follow

• DJ Fluker - LT (Alabama) 6'7 350 lbs and can perform windmill dunks. Wow

• Tate Forcier/Denard Robinson - Both are QBs brought in specifically to run the UofM spread offense and one will start right away
• Carlos Hyde/Jamaal Berry - Both RBs are coming to Columbus in to compete for the opening left by Beanie Wells at tOSU
• Kevin Newsome - QB Penn State - Newsome decommitted from Michigan to sign up for JoePa. As such the obvious connection (and rivalry) should continue as Newsome is the heir apparent to senior QB Clarke.
  
• Ruben Randle WR (LSU) Consesus #1 player of this entire class