FOS Recruiting Survey: Part I

For the past eight years, Front Range, a mainstay of PSU's online community, has conducted the Annual Recruiting Survey, which breaks down the origins of football talent across the nation, providing a state-by-state comparison of the top producers of D1A football talent. See which states lead the charge when it comes to producing D1A football talent, including Pennsylvania.

Welcome to part one of the 2008 Recruiting Survey. The more things change, the more they stay the same - with recruiting, anyway. This year Texas beat out California once again with the most D1A scholarship players, as has been the case the last several years. This time Texas led the nation with 328 players receiving D1A scholarships (down 10 from last year); California was second with 316 (up 11 from last year); Florida was again a distant third with 260, but rebounded somewhat from a down year in 2007 by adding 16 more players to their total this year.

Pennsylvania finished in 6th place again this year, but the Keystone State's total was down 16 from 2007 (which saw an impressive 28% increase that year), from 91 to 75. Georgia eased ahead of Ohio for fourth place, renewing that annual battle between those two states for position behind the big three.

A review of the mechanics is appropriate again. The service academies are not included because their recruits are not officially announced since they are dependent upon official appointments and are not scholarship athletes in the same sense as with the other programs.

The Sun Belt Conference signees again are not included in this survey. Since the purpose of the survey is to identify the high schools from which the recruits originate, I have identified the high schools from which prep school kids came. For example, Hargrave Military Academy kids are not included in the Virginia totals, but the recruits from these prep schools are allotted to their original high school. Likewise, all the junior college players have been reviewed to assign them to their appropriate high school. Only four total recruits could not not be identified as to state of origin.

Here’s the full list for 2008.

1. Texas 328
2. California 316
3. Florida 260
4. Georgia 136
5. Ohio 135
6. Pennsylvania 75
7. Alabama 67
8. Louisiana 60
9. Michigan 58
10.Virginia 54
11. Mississippi 50
Illinois 50
13. North Carolina 46
South Carolina 46
15. New Jersey 45
16. Colorado 35
Tennessee 35
18. Maryland 34
Arizona 34
20. Washington 31
21. Oklahoma 29
22. Indiana 26
23. Missouri 23
24. Hawaii 21
25. New York 20
Arkansas 20
27. Utah 18
28. Wisconsin 17
29. Minnesota 15
30. Kansas 13
Kentucky 13
DC 13
33. Idaho 11
Nevada 11
Iowa 11
36. Nebraska 10
Connecticut 10
38. Oregon 9
39. New Mexico 6
Massachusetts 6
41. West Virginia 4
42. Delaware 3
Montana 3
44. New Hampshire 2
South Dakota 2
46. Wyoming 1
Alaska 1
48. Maine 0
Vermont
Rhode Island
North Dakota

See past year's versions of the Recruiting Survey for trends and shifts:

• 2007 Survey
• 2006 Survey
• 2005 Survey

Stay tuned to Fight On State for a further breakdown of Pennsylvania as well as review of the lead recruiting states over the past eight years.

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