I think you are right.. Same reason there are so many more talented baseball players down here.  Kids can play all year around.    I think there were 2 or 3 first rounders taken within a couple miles of my house this past draft.

lowiq wrote: just a theory and i dont have enough knowledge of the great lakes states to be sure---

one reason you have more "late bloomers" in the big ten states is the differances in the high school rules and weather restrictions.

having spring practice down here gives a high school player 4 more years of intense TEACHING/COACHING at a time when there is no game planning/preperation going on. the coaches can concentrate 100% on working with the kids on technique and individual skills.

how many times have you heard college coaches mention the most important thing to them about bowl prep is the 17? practices where they can work a lot with the younger players that get ignored or are scout team during the regular season?

well because of spring practice southern kids get that for 4 years while northern kids dont.

another thing i have mentioned on here before as a theory is having the big kids running track. most of the top programs down here MAKE the big kids stay busy all year around.

lots of the best football programs in the south will have a "fat boy" relay team on the track team. they arent competitive with the sprinters but you will be suprised how much they will compete with the other big kids. they dont want to be the slowest fat boy and spend 2-3 months running wind sprints every afternoon during track practice while the big kids in other parts on the country are playing xbox.

they also MAKE tham either wrestle, play basketball or be on the competiton weight lifting teams that are really big in florida and georgia.

if they arent the starting heavyweight on the wrestling team so what? they are spending another 2 months working their tails off in the practice room.

basically the average dl from the south will spend the off season wrestling/playing basketball, then running track/spring football then all summer long team work outs and camps/workouts. folks in other areas act shocked they seem more athletic????? they arent sitting on a couch all winter and spring.

a kid from a state that doesnt have spring football and great weather to work outside all year around gets to a college program and suddenly they do have year around strength and conditioning and they do have spring football and BOOM-its a miracle-the kids improves and starts reaching his potential.

you look at it as a big ten coaching staff "developing" a player better. i look at it as a big ten player finally getting the same advantadges in college that the sec kid got in high school and catching up. that 4 year head start and work ethic /competitiveness for the sec bigs gives them a lead.

Stratbuck wrote:

cincydawg4 wrote: Is it true that Big Ten football players are expected to ATTEND CLASS and are not given good grades for just signing up?

If so, there in lies the problem.

This probably isn't as far from the truth as we might think.  Much more scrutiny in the BIG.

I think it varies by program, but I'd say the Big Ten programs are more attentive on average than, say, North  Carolina.  

You ever seen the women at Ole Miss?
Weather is a factor, co ed's and those type things.  On a three day weekend trip, all the talk about academics sounds great in the story write up's post the visit, how many of those kids truly mean that.
Cooper's tidbit about Cowherds notes is dead on.
Urban already proved that this year pulled manchild SSDE Joey Bosa, SEC style ND/DT Mike Hill out of South Carolina, and getting a LSU type WSDE/Viper Tyquan Lewis out of North Carolina.
Meyer will also land elite speed/explosion southern LB's Mike Mitchell and Trey Johnson as well.
You can throw out all the regional 4 star rankings you want that people get so enamored and fooled with, those LB's like Mitchell and Johnson are so much more athletic and faster than Ohio LB's like McCray and Gedeon, it is not even close.  Just watch SEC football vs. Big Ten, you can see the difference in athleticism, speed and explosion.
The Big Ten has not DL like Bosa and Hill coming in either, those are true SEC style disruptive and explosive DL.
Cowherd may be a lot of things, he is admitted college football recruiting nut.  He admits to it, he follows it closely.
He nailed it on the head.  
Michigan and an 11-1 MSU vs. Alabama recently both showed how far the talent disparity was, which was suppose to be top 10 Big Ten teams vs. a team like Bama.  4 star Michigan and some Ohio talent vs. explosive athletes out of the Big Ten, they were both beat down.
The bowl seasons the last two years showed the same, and probably the Big Ten gets mauled in the bowls January 1 for the same reason this year.
There is no coincidence Notre Dame is better, they got a lot of disruptive front seven players on defense out of Florida, Georgia and the south.

AceTommyBoy wrote: No one is saying that Indiana, Purdue, or Minnesota should land these elite players.

But why can't Wisconsin, Michigan State, or Nebraska? Is Ole Miss really a better program than those schools? Are those Big Ten schools even attempting to recruit these elite players?

Michigan State's other loss that season was 37-6 @ Iowa.

brutus79 wrote: You ever seen the women at Ole Miss?
Weather is a factor, co ed's and those type things.  On a three day weekend trip, all the talk about academics sounds great in the story write up's post the visit, how many of those kids truly mean that.
Cooper's tidbit about Cowherds notes is dead on.
Urban already proved that this year pulled manchild SSDE Joey Bosa, SEC style ND/DT Mike Hill out of South Carolina, and getting a LSU type WSDE/Viper Tyquan Lewis out of North Carolina.
Meyer will also land elite speed/explosion southern LB's Mike Mitchell and Trey Johnson as well.
You can throw out all the regional 4 star rankings you want that people get so enamored and fooled with, those LB's like Mitchell and Johnson are so much more athletic and faster than Ohio LB's like McCray and Gedeon, it is not even close.  Just watch SEC football vs. Big Ten, you can see the difference in athleticism, speed and explosion.
The Big Ten has not DL like Bosa and Hill coming in either, those are true SEC style disruptive and explosive DL.
Cowherd may be a lot of things, he is admitted college football recruiting nut.  He admits to it, he follows it closely.
He nailed it on the head.  
Michigan and an 11-1 MSU vs. Alabama recently both showed how far the talent disparity was, which was suppose to be top 10 Big Ten teams vs. a team like Bama.  4 star Michigan and some Ohio talent vs. explosive athletes out of the Big Ten, they were both beat down.
The bowl seasons the last two years showed the same, and probably the Big Ten gets mauled in the bowls January 1 for the same reason this year.
There is no coincidence Notre Dame is better, they got a lot of disruptive front seven players on defense out of Florida, Georgia and the south.

AceTommyBoy wrote: No one is saying that Indiana, Purdue, or Minnesota should land these elite players.

But why can't Wisconsin, Michigan State, or Nebraska? Is Ole Miss really a better program than those schools? Are those Big Ten schools even attempting to recruit these elite players?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Saint4L4 wrote:

Stratbuck wrote:

CLTBUCKEYE wrote:

Yep.  SECheat pays both the coaches and the players much more.

These two replies were to yummy to pass up...picture reminds me of recent good times at the shoe when TP, Vest and tat gang brought the house down......the irony is priceless.

Oh noes discounted tattoos and selling your own property! The horror! While Greg Sankey personally covers up for Cam Newton. 

The SEC will come crashing down when Emmert and Sankey are removed.

SEC is on a great run, but it's cyclical....Just look at bball.  Big ten lost how many ACC/B1G challenges in a row but now is considered the best bball conference top to bottom for how many years in a row now?

If the B1G would start to keep even more of the top bball talent in house, the distance between the B1G and ACC, SEC would grow even more. 

Now...The conference needs to dip into the southern football talent pool like the Southern bball teams do with the midwest and northern kids.   Midwest and Northern bball talent is about on par with SEC area football talent..if not even more of a disparity.

Alabama HS football state champs versus Ohio...pretty good game year in and year out. in basketball...That's an Ohio 20 point blow out every year.

---------------------------------------------
--- CLTBUCKEYE wrote:

SEC is on a great run, but it's cyclical....Just look at bball.  Big ten lost how many ACC/B1G challenges in a row but now is considered the best bball conference top to bottom for how many years in a row now?

If the B1G would start to keep even more of the top bball talent in house, the distance between the B1G and ACC, SEC would grow even more. 

Now...The conference needs to dip into the southern football talent pool like the Southern bball teams do with the midwest and northern kids.   Midwest and Northern bball talent is about on par with SEC area football talent..if not even more of a disparity.

Alabama HS football state champs versus Ohio...pretty good game year in and year out. in basketball...That's an Ohio 20 point blow out every year.

---------------------------------------------

I don't think its cyclical. I think the trend of Big Ten being strong at ball and the South producing football and baseball players will continue.

---------------------------------------------
--- lowiq wrote:

just a little short term look to see what the 3 main great lakes states teams are doing--

in the current recruiting cycle michigan is going heavily after big ten state players. they have 24 commits and 20 are from current big ten states.

last year they signed  25 kids and 19 were from big ten states.

the year before they signed 19 and 14 were from big ten states.

its pretty clear hoke is going to try and build his program around big ten state kids--mainly michigan and ohio.

in the current cycle notre dame has 21 commits and only 9 are from big ten states.

last year they signed 17 and only 5 were from big ten states.

the year before they signed 23 and only 9 were from big ten states.

out of the 61 players only 23 are from big ten states. its pretty clear kelly prefers out of area players.

ohio state is harder to gauge because of the coaching change.

right now they have 19 commits and 10 are from in big ten states. they are waiting on 2 players from georgia, one from texas and one from kentucky that im sure of.

last year with the coaching change they signed 25 and 19 were from the big ten.

the year before they signed 23 and 17 were from the big ten.

will need another year or two to get a good read on meyer since this years class should end up close to 50-50.

its clear kelly is targeting kids from out of the area, hoke is targeting kids in the big ten area and meyer LOOKS to be split.

if notre dame and ohio state target a lot of out of area kids that will be good news for michigan and nebraska. maybe to a lesser extent michigan st, wisconsin and the other big ten schools.

---------------------------------------------

One thing that crossed my mind is in the late 90's, when OSU was loaded, Michigan was coming off a championship, PSU was still PSU and Notre Dame hadn't fallen off was how strong the Big Ten was overall.

Point being, of course the more good teams you have, the better the conference, but OSU was recruiting nationally with Cooper, getting studs like George, Boston, Wiley, etc from out of state, and locking up some Midwest guys like Katzenmoyer, Pace, etc. Michigan was a national program, and dipping into Ohio getting guys like Woodson. PSU had appeal then, Notre Dame has national appeal.

The mediocre programs need to step up, but it seems to me, like we are starting to see with Meyer, if the traditional Midwest power programs have the juice to recruit nationally, it may leave for Midwest talent for the Wisconsin's, Mich States, etc. Even now, there are a few in state kids OSU passed on for bigger fish out of state. Big Ten needs the fish we don't chase to stay in the Midwest.

Only BIG10 teams getting SEC caliber athletes will be Ohio State and thats the way it should be.

By the way, no kid is gonna wanna stay in cold boring minnesota when they could be playing bigtime football in the south with tons of southern babes, easy classes, at Ole Miss (and thats just ole miss!)

Hell Ole Miss is most likely getting the #1 overall recruit, #1 runningback, and #1 receiver in the 2013 class and they are the SEC seller dweller. Thats the way things are and will continue to be

I guess I'm confused. Don't you guys pull players from the South on a regular basis?

rivergator wrote: I guess I'm confused. Don't you guys pull players from the South on a regular basis?

Yes, OSU does and often top talent in Florida.., but not the rest of the B1G.

I know big ten people want this SEC thing to be cyclical, but I don't see it being cyclical at all. Now, if HS kids quit playing football in the SEC footprint states then you may be on to something.

piddylolo wrote:

cincydawg4 wrote: Is it true that Big Ten football players are expected to ATTEND CLASS

Not according to Maurice Clarett or Charles Woodson.

One of which was kicked off the team for being a jackass.

Saint4L4 wrote:

Stratbuck wrote:

CLTBUCKEYE wrote:

Yep.  SECheat pays both the coaches and the players much more.

These two replies were to yummy to pass up...picture reminds me of recent good times at the shoe when TP, Vest and tat gang brought the house down......the irony is priceless.

You need to research the definition of the word irony bro.

This is a no-brainer really.  Enforce NCAA rules in the SEC.  It will take FSN and the BTN to get down there and investigate more often.  Will this happen? Not sure.

If the SEC had to play by the same rules as everyone else, athletes would be forced to pay attention to other qualities that a program offers, such as facilities, coaching staffs, and education.  

Because of the prosperity of the BTN, the B1G conference would be superior in every way.

Until the SEC is disallowed from paying players w/huge bags of cash, there really is no way any other conference can compete with that. (Big Ten boosters have that kind of cash, but the problem is the Big Ten enforces the rules much more than the SEC does; and so does ESPN and the NCAA because of the structure of TV deals.)

Buckeyes have been an anomaly for a while now... long before Urban was even a distant dream.

coopercougar wrote: I was listening to the Cowherd podcast this morning. I know how most of you feel about Cowherd (I like him but that's beside the point). He was talking about the talent disparity in the Big Ten and he said something that he credited to Athlon. He said 8 (I believe it was) of the 22 kids to make the All-Big Ten first team were 0-2 stars coming out of high school. The Big Ten placed more walk-ons on their all conference list than any other conference. He cited this as a sign of the overall drop in talent in the Big Ten while acknowledging that he expects Ohio State to remain an anomaly in the conference because of Meyer's recruiting prowess.

Is the all-conference stat an accurate depiction of Big Ten talent or does it say more about player development?

Thenationalchampions wrote: This is a no-brainer really.  Enforce NCAA rules in the SEC.  It will take FSN and the BTN to get down there and investigate more often.  Will this happen? Not sure.

If the SEC had to play by the same rules as everyone else, athletes would be forced to pay attention to other qualities that a program offers, such as facilities, coaching staffs, and education.  

Because of the prosperity of the BTN, the B1G conference would be superior in every way.

Until the SEC is disallowed from paying players w/huge bags of cash, there really is no way any other conference can compete with that. (Big Ten boosters have that kind of cash, but the problem is the Big Ten enforces the rules much more than the SEC does; and so does ESPN and the NCAA because of the structure of TV deals.)

I hope this post was meant to be funny, if not you are in a dream world....

34011 wrote:

Thenationalchampions wrote: This is a no-brainer really.  Enforce NCAA rules in the SEC.  It will take FSN and the BTN to get down there and investigate more often.  Will this happen? Not sure.

If the SEC had to play by the same rules as everyone else, athletes would be forced to pay attention to other qualities that a program offers, such as facilities, coaching staffs, and education.  

Because of the prosperity of the BTN, the B1G conference would be superior in every way.

Until the SEC is disallowed from paying players w/huge bags of cash, there really is no way any other conference can compete with that. (Big Ten boosters have that kind of cash, but the problem is the Big Ten enforces the rules much more than the SEC does; and so does ESPN and the NCAA because of the structure of TV deals.)

I hope this post was meant to be funny, if not you are in a dream world....

Not exactly.

While I don't think all the schools in the SEC are hending out bags of cash, its obvious a few are.  Now, is stuff happening everywhere, sure but not to that extent imo.  The stuff Ohio State got nailed for is petty and is happening everywhere but you only hear of the bags of cash at 4 schools recently.  2 of them are in the SEC which, along with an unprecedented run at the top, has brought out alot of haters.

Thenationalchampions wrote: This is a no-brainer really.  Enforce NCAA rules in the SEC.  It will take FSN and the BTN to get down there and investigate more often.  Will this happen? Not sure.

If the SEC had to play by the same rules as everyone else, athletes would be forced to pay attention to other qualities that a program offers, such as facilities, coaching staffs, and education.  

Because of the prosperity of the BTN, the B1G conference would be superior in every way.

Until the SEC is disallowed from paying players w/huge bags of cash, there really is no way any other conference can compete with that. (Big Ten boosters have that kind of cash, but the problem is the Big Ten enforces the rules much more than the SEC does; and so does ESPN and the NCAA because of the structure of TV deals.)

Agree 100%

Also have SEC teams come north of the Mason-Dixon......will never happen...to cold

Love to see all the B10 bowl games played in Columbus, AA, Madison, etc
grew up playing football in the rain, mud, snow, ice .That's the part of the game