There’s an interesting read over at The State concerning the star rating of high school recruits.

We all sort of knew that recruiting and its star rating is more of a crap shoot than an actual indicator of talent. A top 5 class can just as easily lead to a national title or absolutely nothing at all. Just ask Notre Dame fans how their Top 5 recruiting classes have done.

But somehow we continue to be enamored by “analysts” hired by Scout and Rivals who visit practices of a few recruits, then judge and award stars based on some arbitrary criteria. That job sounds very much like something I could do sitting on the couch watching game tape with a bowl of nachos on my lap.

It is interesting how ridiculously arbitrary the stars are, and how little meaning they actually carry. They’re as valuable as the gold stars you used to get in elementary school for trivial accomplishments like spelling apple correctly.

South Carolina defensive line coach Brad Lawing’s had this to say.

“That’s how ridiculous recruiting on the Internet is. I took Chris Culliver (USC safety) from a three- to a five-star in three weeks. All you’ve got to do is talk to the right people.”

If that isn’t a scam, I don’t know what is. Who’s to say no money has been exchanged for stars especially in a time when coaches are under ridiculous pressure to haul in “top” recruiting classes based on this arbitrary system comparable to shooting darts in the dark. How can coaches be evaluated based on a system when nobody can even distinguish the difference between 2 stars from 3 or 4 stars?

Lawing added that a danger of the rating systems is the fans are sometimes misled about the talent level of a prospect and a class overall.

“There are a lot of staffs getting fired for unrealistic expectations,” Lawing said.

Take the 2002 class for example.

Although Rivals hit the mark with “four-star” recruits Tamba Hali, Levi Brown, Calvin Lowry, Jason Alford, and Brandon Snow, they were completely off in Brian Borgoyn (OL), Mark Farris (OL), Josh Hannum (WR), Jim Kanuch (DB), Chris Wilson (RB), and JR Zwierzynski (RB). Players most Penn State fans have never even heard of I’m sure.

Sure, sometimes players just don’t pan out on the collegiate level, that’s not unheard of, but then there are times when recruiting services get it so wrong, its inexcusable.

Try Anthony Morelli’s 5-star Rivals rating compared to the 3 stars awarded to Daryll Clark.

Then there’s the 4-stars given to Austin Scott while Evan Royster and Tony Hunt only received 3.

The list just goes on.

So why should Rivals and Scout be given credit for the ones they get right when they are more wrong than right? They shouldn’t. It’s about time coaches like Brad Lawing call out these services for what they really are, a resource to occupy our time occasionally providing us updates on recruits and statistics, and not else more.

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