OT: NSD edition

Arkansas has never been top notch in recruiting. We got some good talent on both sides of the ball with this class. If Bert is happy, I am happy

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Arkansas has never been top notch in recruiting

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Which is why we don't compete for SEC championships. Obviously, you can be happy with where we are (I'm mostly bummed about only signing 19 or 20 kids and depth issues), but just don't expect (barring unprecedented success) a reversal of the trend.

On the bright side we get to see in person our basketball recruiting failures when Kevaughn Allen plays tonight.

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Obviously, you can be happy with where we are

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When I think about it, it ticks me off especially when you see programs like Ole Miss killing it in recruiting. We have never been a recruiting juggernaut for reasons that I cant explain.

I think the reasons are pretty easy. Look at demographics between Mississippi and Arkansas.

Comparable population size:
Mississippi: 2,992,333
Arkansas: 2,978,204

Racial make up:
Mississippi: 37.5% black => 1,122,125 black population
Arkansas: 15.6% black => 464,599 black population


MIssissippi has 10 ESPN Top 300 football recruits in 2016, 6 signed with Ole Miss.
Arkansas has 2 ESPN Top 300 football recruits in 2016, both signed with Arkansas


When you're talking "recruiting rankings", just a couple of kids can swing the "final ranking" wildly. If you have 8 more "Top 300 and can convince half to stay, you'll probably finish 10-20 places higher than the state school that has only 2 in the top 300.



Edit: And before this sounds racist since I mentioned race, all 12 players mentioned (10 from MS, 2 from AR) in the Top 300 were black. A large percentage of the Top 300 was black. Far higher than the average population size of the United States. So I think it's a fair point of logic to say "If the United States is 13% black, but 90%+ of the Top 300 recruits are black, then it's fair to look at racial demographics when determining recruiting hot beds"

Perhaps.

Percentage wise, we're performing at a similar level in recruiting relative to in-state demographics. We're both pulling the same out of state talent levels, we may even have the edge.

It's harder to make recruits leave their home state and possibly the team they grew up watching and rooting for than couch sitters like us believe.