6-Year B1G West Standing vs Recruit Ranking points to importance of recruiting

6-Year B1G West Standing vs Recruit Ranking data points to importance of recruiting

Out of boredom, I have crudely plotted the data for the B1G West standings and the average recruit rankings for 2011 thru 2016 - The Kill/Claeys Era.

Draw your own conclusions, and do what you want with these.

My take on this is that the Gophers have been frequently predicted early in the season to finish 5th in the B1G West. The crude data shows those predictions to be consistent with the year end standings average of 4.67 for the years 2011-2016.

The interesting thing is when I compiled the data for the average recruit rankings, the Gophers also come in 5th place in the B1G West with an average recruit rating of 82.69.

To summarize the 6-year data:

Team / Avg Standing / Avg Recruit Ranking / Avg Nat'l Ranking
WISC 1.67 -- 84.69 -- 42.67
NEBR 2.50 -- 86.77 -- 27.00
IOWA 3.00 -- 83.71 -- 48.00
NoWn 4.17 -- 84.25 -- 53.67
MINN 4.67 -- 82.69 -- 58.33
ILLIN 6.00 -- 82.54 -- 57.33
PURD 6.00 -- 82.42 -- 67.00

Wisconsin is lower in both average recruit ranking (84.69 vs 86.77) and national team ranking (42.67 vs 27.00) for the six year running data than Nebraska, but outperforms Nebraska.

The data points to the importance of recruiting (and coaching). If the Gophers are to challenge the four teams above them in the B1G West, they must be able to consistently recruit at least a few four star prospects to attain average recruit ranking in the 84s or higher or a national rankings in the 40s or better.

One of Mark Coyle's missions was to hire a football coach who can recruit. The sex scandal gave him cover to jettison Claeys for PJF. I like Claeys as a coach, but his recruiting needed to go to a higher level.

Jerry Kill brought stability to the program and the average rankings was growing gradualy year after year albeit slower than we'd like. PJF needs to aggressively recruit the next four years for the Gophers to become contenders and a destination school for upper tier recruits.

We hope that the coaches PJF assembled are as good as advertised because we need all the advantages we can garner.

It is a tall order to contend for the B1G West. IMHO, this is the best chance that we have to actually realize that.

I can't wait 'til the season starts.

GO GOPHERS!

Thanks for putting that together. If you have the time it would be interesting to see the entire Big Ten ranking data, not just the West as the data gets more skewed with small sample sizes. The eastern teams also tend to have the higher recruiting rankings, in general.

Alternatively it would also be interesting to put together Big Ten recruiting rankings with one of S&P+, FEI, etc to filter out some of the noise of SOS, etc. and it increase the data sets beyond wins and losses.

Pompous Elitist said:

Thanks for putting that together. If you have the time it would be interesting to see the entire Big Ten ranking data, not just the West as the data gets more skewed with small sample sizes. The eastern teams also tend to have the higher recruiting rankings, in general.

Alternatively it would also be interesting to put together Big Ten recruiting rankings with one of S&P+, FEI, etc to filter out some of the noise of SOS, etc. and it increase the data sets beyond wins and losses.

Click to expand...

When I started to compile this data together out of interest in the B1G West rankings and standings, I thought about just exactly what you are requesting. However, it is too much for the time that I have. But, it will be a prudent thing to do. We can even go into the B1G West in greater detail.

We haven't even touch what happened to all those signees each year. How many of them stick around for four or five years. How does that impact the results? What about players that were ranked lower, but become stars. Conversely, heralded players whose stars never shined. Then, there is the coaching aspects.

I gathered data from 247SPorts and from the B1G archives on http://www.bigten.org/library/stats/fb-confonly.html
If someone has more time to do all of both the B1G East & West including stats, that will be great because it will give us a greater insight.

My main concern is how do we actually mound a concerted effort to challenge the four teams ahead of the Gophers? In particular, Wisconsin.

I think PJ Fleck is a winner who can mount this challenge successfully. The goal and the vision can't be more clear with PJ Fleck and Mark Coyle. Jerry Kill helped push the Athletic Village and helped make it a reality. That is his legacy. It is too bad that they couldn't keep him around at some capacity. The purse strings have been loosen up for the most important revenue sports and hire in decades. This is our time!

Thanks Hungan1..At some point talent takes over versus X's and O's. Players make plays, coaches don't.

ruppertflywheel said:

Players make plays, coaches don't.

Click to expand...

Thanks Denny Green.

If you go back to 2013, our average rank is right at 4 in the division with NW averaging 4.5. The 2013 season is when the Kill/Claeys stamp on this program really showed. Much to be optimistic about for Gopher fans.

Ski U Master said:

Thanks Denny Green.

Click to expand...

They are who we thought they were


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