When it comes to recruiting, the Mountain West has the WAC beat, no thanks to New Mexico and with a surprising boost from Colorado State. Who knew?
Even with the departure of its three best teams, the Mountain West holdovers more than hold their own when it comes to recruiting, especially when compared to the WAC. After the jump, I'll preview the 2011 recruiting rankings by conference and look back at the past few years to see how both conferences stack up.
2011 recruiting rankings, as of five minutes ago
Who knows what has happened and how many kids have decommited from Boise State in the last five minutes, but as I was writing this, the unofficial rankings for 2011 recruiting classes looked like this:
Rankings courtesy Scout.com.
Some thoughts: Wow, TCU has a good class ... Louisiana Tech is the only WAC school in the Top 100 once you account for Fresno leaving after this season ... Never in a million years did I think Colorado State recruited that well; must be some sort of Bradlee Van Pelt pipeline I don't know about ... Of the 15 teams listed in this chart, nine of the top 11 will be Mountain West teams in two years, one of 11 is a WAC team, and one of 11 is a sellout TCU ...
2010 - 2007 recruiting rankings
Not only does the Mountain West have the upper hand this year, it has had the upper hand for several years now. Taste Craig Thompson's pain, Karl Benson. Here are the rankings from 2010 through 2007, which covers the players who are still playing:
Note: Averages were calculated with Boise State and TCU as MWC teams and Fresno, Nevada, and Hawaii as WAC teams. If you were to use the 2012 season conference alignment, the average ranking for the Mountain West (minus TCU, plus Fresno, Nevada, and Hawaii) would have been 87.9. The WAC would have been 102.3.
Rankings courtesy Scout.com.
Some thoughts: Nevada has done pretty well for always recruiting poorly ... After looking at the first chart, I thought New Mexico was a complete waste of space, but now I think they're dead weight with potential ... Fresno State's recruiting numbers through the years say a lot about the Bulldogs' talent and a lot about Pat Hill's coaching ... Congratulations for not finishing in the Bottom Five, San Jose State ...
Your turn
What school's recruiting rankings surprised you the most? Does this make you feel any better about moving to the MWC? Share your thoughts in the comments.