re: Top 20 College jobs for recruiting by 247s JC Shurburtt

Ok. Why?

Let's start at 1.

Carroll @ USC showed what's possible when you pluck 15 of the top 20 from California every year and pair them with 10 other hand-chosen top 200 players from around the country. The probation and general suckitude of Lane has made everyone forget how dominant USC can be when firing on all cylinders.

Or how about the end, with the addition of Nebraska and Clemson? Nebraska is one of college football's most storied programs, with tremendous in-built fan support and facilities and one home-run hire from turning things around. Who knows, maybe Bo figures things out and gets the ball rolling soon. Nebraska's in-state recruiting woes aren't any different than Oregon's, who's also Oregon State next door in Corvallis. And yet Oregon's a top 15 recruiting set-up while Nebraska's not mentioned? Go check Oregon's recruiting rankings over the past decade, the best of their program's existence: Doesn't even average out to top 14.

Clemson has been a consistently talented team for decades, has rabid fan support, good facilities, history, etc. In the heart of the South, in general, and close to Atlanta and South Carolina talent in particular, regularly pulls top 15 recruiting classes, etc.

The list is too narrowly focused on the contemporary landscape.

For example, Bama is a better set up than Georgia because of history, fanbase passion, etc. Say, hypothetically, you took two super recruiters: Saban, Carroll, Sumlin, Meyer, etc. Put one at Bama and the other at Georgia and let them recruit for 5 years and then flip them and let another 5 years pass. The Bama teams will consistently pull higher recruits.

Another change: Miami for decades has taken the best talent from the most talent-rich part of America and deserves to be higher than FSU, despite the recent NCAA problems and FSU's resurgence. Another: even though they've both been stumbling for 5+ years(except for ND's unlikely 2012 season), Michigan and Notre Dame still sign extremely high-ranked OOS recruits all the time. I think Michigan has four 4 and 5 star OOS recruits already signed in the 2015 class, not to mention a top 5 recruit this year. These places truly recruit for themselves and have slightly undervalued, too.

Stanford is a laughable addition and much more likely in the medium term to slip into mediocrity than sustain itself as a top 25 regular. North Carolina is bizarre over South Carolina, Clemson, Va Tech -- all schools in the same region but with real passion for football. It's odd that the basketball legacy is cited as a huge bonus differentiating UNC, when imo it leaves the FB players to second fiddle status. Meanwhile, at Clemson, FB players rule the roost.