Analyzing the ACC's recruiting landscape
Justin Rowland
EagleAction.com Recruiting Analyst
Talk about it in The Eagles Nest
Today EagleAction.com takes on the task of checking out the recruiting landscape across the entire ACC, at both the challenges and benefits each school has to offer recruits.
Really, an entire book could be written on this topic, but this will be rather succinct.
The ACC is a diverse conference; much more diverse than it was before two heavy rounds of expansion, when the league had the unfortunate reputation and unofficial title of "Florida State and the eight dwarves."
Reality was very different last year with the league acquitting itself well on the national scene. The sheer number of draft picks from the league is impressive, and in fact, the league has a stronger NFL presence than many seem to realize.
The ACC benefits from a large population base that once spanned Maryland at its northernmost tip down to Clemson, and then into Florida upon the Seminoles' inclusion in the league. However, unlike other conferences, the ACC has one main difficulty: It's 'home states' with the most talent on a year to year basis generally send more players to other conferences. Even with Florida State and Miami giving the ACC two of the three Power Five institutions in the state, the Sunshine State is all about exports and it's an equal supplier to SEC and ACC schools - as well as schools everywhere else.
North Carolina, NC State, Duke and Wake Forest usually bring in a lot of players from their home state, but the Old North State also sends out many of its top players to other schools -- some in the ACC, some not.
And South Carolina's high school talent is often split between Clemson and South Carolina.
Georgia's rise as a superpower in the prep talent world could stand to benefit the league but for the fact that the SEC has recruited that state better, and some of that is due to Georgia Tech's inability to gain a foothold in their own backyard.
Expansion has given the league's new northern members a better opportunity to recruit the South, just as it has opened up new potential pipelines in Connecticut and Massachusetts (see: Duke), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (see: UNC, UVa, others), and elsewhere. In terms of simple geography the league's pool to pull from is enormous and impressive. While some have pointed to a demographic winter looming for Big Ten schools -- one reason for the rise in satellite camps, one reason for Notre Dame's association with the ACC, and evidenced by Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State going outside the Midwest more frequently -- the ACC's demographics forecast isn't grim at all.
The issue for the ACC has always been cultural. The stadiums aren't quite as big, with a few exceptions. There haven't been as many championships. Some of the states are basketball or (now) baseball states. And
Expansion has also made it a lot more difficult to speak of the league's identity as a whole. That's in every respect, including recruiting. The map is messy, with lots of overlap with other leagues within home states.
Associated Press
Addazio and BC have a clear recruiting niche in the college football world.
The ACC's unique recruiting map
With the map expanded there's no need to think about that for a while. There are several things that could enhance the ACC's recruiting power.
First and foremost the product on the field is essential. In terms of the college football pecking order the SEC and Pac-12 are generally given the most praise. The Big XII's long-term forecast might be questionable and the league members might despise Texas' disproportionate power, but that league has generally not been picked on quite as much as the ACC for its on-field success or lack thereof.
Over the past decade the ACC and Big Ten have been the most criticized conferences. In the ACC's case that had a lot to do with even Florida State being down. Expansion coincided with a down period for the schools that held the most promise, both in recruiting and based on historical results -- Florida State, Miami and Clemson. FSU and Miami have a combined eight championships, but they looked rather pedestrian as the league hyped its first championship game formats, and the fact that there hasn't been a Florida State-Miami title game is amazing.
Just improve the results of the field. Simple enough, right? Well, what comes first? Better recruiting or better results? It can work either way and there are plenty of examples to prove that.
First, let's establish that the ACC needs to win more -- more championships, more marquee games early season and postseason, more bowl games -- for the league's perception to improve. This is especiallyimportant for the ACC. In fact, it may be true that the ACC's recruiting power is more dependent on on-field results than any other league.
Bear with me. The SEC is mostly Florida, now Texas, and the Deep South. Basically, it's mostly made up of states that they're going to take most of the talent from anyways. The SEC improving its recruiting power means taking a greater share in Texas, South Carolina and Florida -- it's "shared states". That's significant, of course. But really, the league could suffer a major title drought and prolonged disappointing results and still have a massive pool of talent ensuring a high "floor" for recruiting.
The Big Ten's on-field success or failure is only going to have so much of an impact, because the league's Midwest talent base is only so valuable. Its national reputation as a league will mostly impact its members' ability to reach into Florida or Georgia to take 'next-level' players (except for Ohio State; they can recruit with anyone), as well as places like Maryland.
The Pac-12, like the SEC, is guaranteed a certain level of talent every year by virtue of its isolationism and apparent monopoly on all west coast talent. So that league's reputation stands to determine, at any given point, its recruiting power in places elsewhere, like Texas.
The Big XII relies very heavily upon Texas and its long-term problem is that Texas is being partitioned more than ever, in recruiting, and the other states in the league do not provide much of a talent base for a 10-member league.
But the ACC is really unique. The ACC shares Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The North Carolina schools are in a constant struggle to build a fence that never seems to get built. Maryland, a state with a lot of four-star talent most years, is now a Big Ten state although still available for poaching. New Jersey and Pennsylvania are in the league's line of sight but they aren't really ACC states, per se, even with Pitt in the league. Virginia's a very nice feeder state for the conference but like North Carolina and Maryland, outsiders are always lurking.
So the ACC's reputation at any given point has a tremendous impact on the league's members' ability to recruit in some very contentious areas that are not exclusively ACC territory. They have always had to deal with the chore of recruiting against the SEC. Now, increasingly, the league will face a Big Ten that's looking for new places to recruit, and there will be more head-to-head there with the battle lines being in the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast and even in the Southeast.
Justin Rowland
EagleAction.com Recruiting Analyst
Talk about it in The Eagles Nest
Today EagleAction.com takes on the task of checking out the recruiting landscape across the entire ACC, at both the challenges and benefits each school has to offer recruits.
Really, an entire book could be written on this topic, but this will be rather succinct.
The ACC is a diverse conference; much more diverse than it was before two heavy rounds of expansion, when the league had the unfortunate reputation and unofficial title of "Florida State and the eight dwarves."
Reality was very different last year with the league acquitting itself well on the national scene. The sheer number of draft picks from the league is impressive, and in fact, the league has a stronger NFL presence than many seem to realize.
The ACC benefits from a large population base that once spanned Maryland at its northernmost tip down to Clemson, and then into Florida upon the Seminoles' inclusion in the league. However, unlike other conferences, the ACC has one main difficulty: It's 'home states' with the most talent on a year to year basis generally send more players to other conferences. Even with Florida State and Miami giving the ACC two of the three Power Five institutions in the state, the Sunshine State is all about exports and it's an equal supplier to SEC and ACC schools - as well as schools everywhere else.
North Carolina, NC State, Duke and Wake Forest usually bring in a lot of players from their home state, but the Old North State also sends out many of its top players to other schools -- some in the ACC, some not.
And South Carolina's high school talent is often split between Clemson and South Carolina.
Georgia's rise as a superpower in the prep talent world could stand to benefit the league but for the fact that the SEC has recruited that state better, and some of that is due to Georgia Tech's inability to gain a foothold in their own backyard.
Expansion has given the league's new northern members a better opportunity to recruit the South, just as it has opened up new potential pipelines in Connecticut and Massachusetts (see: Duke), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (see: UNC, UVa, others), and elsewhere. In terms of simple geography the league's pool to pull from is enormous and impressive. While some have pointed to a demographic winter looming for Big Ten schools -- one reason for the rise in satellite camps, one reason for Notre Dame's association with the ACC, and evidenced by Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State going outside the Midwest more frequently -- the ACC's demographics forecast isn't grim at all.
The issue for the ACC has always been cultural. The stadiums aren't quite as big, with a few exceptions. There haven't been as many championships. Some of the states are basketball or (now) baseball states. And
Expansion has also made it a lot more difficult to speak of the league's identity as a whole. That's in every respect, including recruiting. The map is messy, with lots of overlap with other leagues within home states.
Associated Press
Addazio and BC have a clear recruiting niche in the college football world.
The ACC's unique recruiting map
With the map expanded there's no need to think about that for a while. There are several things that could enhance the ACC's recruiting power.
First and foremost the product on the field is essential. In terms of the college football pecking order the SEC and Pac-12 are generally given the most praise. The Big XII's long-term forecast might be questionable and the league members might despise Texas' disproportionate power, but that league has generally not been picked on quite as much as the ACC for its on-field success or lack thereof.
Over the past decade the ACC and Big Ten have been the most criticized conferences. In the ACC's case that had a lot to do with even Florida State being down. Expansion coincided with a down period for the schools that held the most promise, both in recruiting and based on historical results -- Florida State, Miami and Clemson. FSU and Miami have a combined eight championships, but they looked rather pedestrian as the league hyped its first championship game formats, and the fact that there hasn't been a Florida State-Miami title game is amazing.
Just improve the results of the field. Simple enough, right? Well, what comes first? Better recruiting or better results? It can work either way and there are plenty of examples to prove that.
First, let's establish that the ACC needs to win more -- more championships, more marquee games early season and postseason, more bowl games -- for the league's perception to improve. This is especiallyimportant for the ACC. In fact, it may be true that the ACC's recruiting power is more dependent on on-field results than any other league.
Bear with me. The SEC is mostly Florida, now Texas, and the Deep South. Basically, it's mostly made up of states that they're going to take most of the talent from anyways. The SEC improving its recruiting power means taking a greater share in Texas, South Carolina and Florida -- it's "shared states". That's significant, of course. But really, the league could suffer a major title drought and prolonged disappointing results and still have a massive pool of talent ensuring a high "floor" for recruiting.
The Big Ten's on-field success or failure is only going to have so much of an impact, because the league's Midwest talent base is only so valuable. Its national reputation as a league will mostly impact its members' ability to reach into Florida or Georgia to take 'next-level' players (except for Ohio State; they can recruit with anyone), as well as places like Maryland.
The Pac-12, like the SEC, is guaranteed a certain level of talent every year by virtue of its isolationism and apparent monopoly on all west coast talent. So that league's reputation stands to determine, at any given point, its recruiting power in places elsewhere, like Texas.
The Big XII relies very heavily upon Texas and its long-term problem is that Texas is being partitioned more than ever, in recruiting, and the other states in the league do not provide much of a talent base for a 10-member league.
But the ACC is really unique. The ACC shares Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The North Carolina schools are in a constant struggle to build a fence that never seems to get built. Maryland, a state with a lot of four-star talent most years, is now a Big Ten state although still available for poaching. New Jersey and Pennsylvania are in the league's line of sight but they aren't really ACC states, per se, even with Pitt in the league. Virginia's a very nice feeder state for the conference but like North Carolina and Maryland, outsiders are always lurking.
So the ACC's reputation at any given point has a tremendous impact on the league's members' ability to recruit in some very contentious areas that are not exclusively ACC territory. They have always had to deal with the chore of recruiting against the SEC. Now, increasingly, the league will face a Big Ten that's looking for new places to recruit, and there will be more head-to-head there with the battle lines being in the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast and even in the Southeast.
