bighousemike84
05-27-2010, 09:17 AM
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=5221661
With the recent statements from Jim Delany on the trend towards lower and lower population numbers in the heart of the Midwest(Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan) comes an article from Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com. Some very interesting stuff, something that I have been aware of myself but have never seen it so succinctly written.
The best teams are found where the best players are raised. The 2010 ESPNU ranking of the top 150 high school players included 28 from Florida, 24 from Texas and 18 each from California and Georgia. Michigan had five, Pennsylvania four. Ohio, home of The Ohio State University and home of famed high schools such as Massillon and Moeller, had two.
Some years are better than others, yes. And the accuracy of recruiting rankings is always fodder for discussion. But you don't need a statistician to interpret the shift in the numbers. From 2007 to 2010, an entire four-year cycle of recruits, Pennsylvania had a total of 21 players ranked in the ESPNU 150. Ohio had 16 and Michigan 14.
Over that four-year period, those three states had fewer than Florida and Texas had this year alone.
"In the old days, they used to talk about if you could get 11 players from Johnstown to Youngstown, you'd be in pretty good shape," said Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, who has been recruiting western Pennsylvania for decades. "It's just not that way. … In western Pa., you're not going to get the same amount of players that you used to."
Unfortunately it is a reversal of the sort of thing that happened in the southern states after the Civil War. In the heavily agricultural post Civil War south, the increase in the importance of the industrial age left the cotton and tobacco farmers out in the cold. Populations of southern states shifted dramatically with hundreds of thousands of freed slaves and young whites moving north in search of lucrative and plentiful industrial jobs. Cities like Youngstown in Ohio and Pittsburgh boomed, and the Rust-Belt was alive with activity and an ever growing population.
Today, the industry that states like Ohio and Michigan were built upon, has gone the way of the agricultural business. Its old news, the technological revolution has consumed the old world industrial revolution stripping the Midwest of its ability to survive. In grand Midwestern style, we have stood our ground, stubborn and unwilling to concede defeat. Unable to except the fact that the world has passed us by. Too damn stubborn to admit that change is necessary. Damnitt, we have done it this way for over a hundred years so why change now!
In our stubbornness, we have watched the rest of America pass us by. We cling to our old world traditions and our proud heritage as hardworking, determined, Americans. We take pride in our place in history, we remember the days when the rest of the country couldnt survive without us. But those days are gone, in the late 1860's into the early 1900's, the southern states of America could not get out from underneath the weight of its agricultural industry. It was a slow process that has taken a long time to mend. Now we see the culmination of all those years of change, now we see what they saw. This isnt just about football, sure, these trends do effect the game that we love but it goes so much farther than football. I have grown up in Ohio all my life and it is my home. No matter where I go in life Ohio will always be my home. But Ohio is not where I want to be, Ohio does not have the jobs that I am looking for and wont have those jobs for years to come. Home or not, sometimes you just have to move on.
With the recent statements from Jim Delany on the trend towards lower and lower population numbers in the heart of the Midwest(Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan) comes an article from Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com. Some very interesting stuff, something that I have been aware of myself but have never seen it so succinctly written.
The best teams are found where the best players are raised. The 2010 ESPNU ranking of the top 150 high school players included 28 from Florida, 24 from Texas and 18 each from California and Georgia. Michigan had five, Pennsylvania four. Ohio, home of The Ohio State University and home of famed high schools such as Massillon and Moeller, had two.
Some years are better than others, yes. And the accuracy of recruiting rankings is always fodder for discussion. But you don't need a statistician to interpret the shift in the numbers. From 2007 to 2010, an entire four-year cycle of recruits, Pennsylvania had a total of 21 players ranked in the ESPNU 150. Ohio had 16 and Michigan 14.
Over that four-year period, those three states had fewer than Florida and Texas had this year alone.
"In the old days, they used to talk about if you could get 11 players from Johnstown to Youngstown, you'd be in pretty good shape," said Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, who has been recruiting western Pennsylvania for decades. "It's just not that way. … In western Pa., you're not going to get the same amount of players that you used to."
Unfortunately it is a reversal of the sort of thing that happened in the southern states after the Civil War. In the heavily agricultural post Civil War south, the increase in the importance of the industrial age left the cotton and tobacco farmers out in the cold. Populations of southern states shifted dramatically with hundreds of thousands of freed slaves and young whites moving north in search of lucrative and plentiful industrial jobs. Cities like Youngstown in Ohio and Pittsburgh boomed, and the Rust-Belt was alive with activity and an ever growing population.
Today, the industry that states like Ohio and Michigan were built upon, has gone the way of the agricultural business. Its old news, the technological revolution has consumed the old world industrial revolution stripping the Midwest of its ability to survive. In grand Midwestern style, we have stood our ground, stubborn and unwilling to concede defeat. Unable to except the fact that the world has passed us by. Too damn stubborn to admit that change is necessary. Damnitt, we have done it this way for over a hundred years so why change now!
In our stubbornness, we have watched the rest of America pass us by. We cling to our old world traditions and our proud heritage as hardworking, determined, Americans. We take pride in our place in history, we remember the days when the rest of the country couldnt survive without us. But those days are gone, in the late 1860's into the early 1900's, the southern states of America could not get out from underneath the weight of its agricultural industry. It was a slow process that has taken a long time to mend. Now we see the culmination of all those years of change, now we see what they saw. This isnt just about football, sure, these trends do effect the game that we love but it goes so much farther than football. I have grown up in Ohio all my life and it is my home. No matter where I go in life Ohio will always be my home. But Ohio is not where I want to be, Ohio does not have the jobs that I am looking for and wont have those jobs for years to come. Home or not, sometimes you just have to move on.