Marker Week

[jakejc795]

Re: Marker Week

My guess at relative priority in a football recruit's mind regarding choice of where to go to play college football:

1) Competition Level combined with Playing Time - If a player is a borderline FBS talent who'll see more time on the field on an FCS team, that's a big difference to the player, I think.
1a) Relationship with coaching staff - Males in their upper teen years, contrary to popular opinion and a good deal of evidence, aren't in general stupid . . . they just tend to be focused on the "now." Combined with the lack of life experience and raging hormone syndrome, this can lead to, er, unfortunate choices. Not sure why I went there. Anyway, if a recruit just simply doesn't like the coaches, he's not likely to go there (and shouldn't). If he really clicks with a coach on the staff, or just generally gets a good feeling from the staff, he's much more likely to go there.
2) Program Success - Recruits don't want to play for losers. Nobody wants to play for losers. A program record of winning draws recruits.
3) Facilities/Fan Support - Now we're into the tiebreakers . . . if a recruit is trying to decide between college A and college B, all of the previous factors being equal, he's going to want to go to the one with the nicer, shinier, prettier digs. They also like playing in front of large crowds of adoring fans.
4) Where dad/mom/uncle/etc. went to school - This actually feeds back a bit to 1a and maybe 3. It's related to the overall comfort level the recruit has with the school, which comes next . . .
5) Overall desirability of the school--academics, weather, social factors, girlfriend/girls (!), big/small city, etc., etc. - Now we get into the mysteries which lurk in the minds of teenaged men. If the kid wants to be a football-playing engineer, that limits his choices. If he wants to be a doctor/lawyer, somewhat similarly. If he just wants to play football, that also limits his choices (i.e. institutions with higher academic standards might be less attractive).

You can probably shuffle things 3-5, but that's my opinion on what a high school football player who's being recruited for college ball will be considering--and keeping in mind that individual people might have any of these, or some other factor entirely, as their primary, overriding reason for wanting to go somewhere or not go somewhere else. People are funny that way.

I don't think "on-field sartorial choices" makes the list, except as an element of 5) (which could sneak up as high as 3) ).

Personally, I think the (ridiculous, greedy and cynical, imho) explosion of "alternate" uniforms is driven much, much, much, much more by the pro teams and big colleges' insatiable lust for more and more revenue from uniform sales than it is driven by any marginal recruiting edge it might give them.

Can't say I disagree with the hierarchy you detailed. The discussion I would be interested in having is whether increased uniform upgrades/alternates could necessitate increasing fees for items like the Jackrabbit Club and/or season tickets. Seems like it'd be a delicate balance whereby Admin. strives to stimulate investment from an expanded base without making the investments that are vital to ensuring athletic competitiveness unaffordable for large numbers of current and prospective fans.

[Nidaros]

Re: Marker Week

Way to logical but very detailed and correct.