B1G Recruiting Grounds

[zrob]

Illinois & New York need to start pulling their weight and do a better job of producing good HS football players. It's crazy how view good ones they produce, considering they're like the 4th & 6 most populated states.

Am I missing something? I understand a tiny bit with NY as it's not as popular there I guess... But WTF Illinois?

Maybe I'm an idiot and there's a valid reason but it seems ridiculous. In order for the B1G to catch up with the SEC or even surpass them we need the populous states in the upper MW and NE to do better with HS FB.

 

[zrob]

Sorry for the long post, I've been annoyed curious about this for a long time. Would love to know what others think, or any answers I'm not smart enough to think of 😕

 

[Landomatic]

If you want a simple reason, the weather alone will always be a factor, so I would imagine that has something to do with it. But more than that, it's just something that's engrained into the fabric of society and a long standing cultural thing. We're talking generations and generations. It's never changing. The emphasis on high school football in the south will never be surpassed. Or even close.

It's been discussed to death on here, but it's definitely one of the reasons we should have never joined the B1G. Losing recruiting inroads to Texas certainly wasn't the only reason it was a bad move, but it was most certainly a factor. And when you're playing from a position of weakness (recruiting footprint), the sum of the parts start to add up pretty quickly.