I got into a deep discussion one time with a guy who works for one of the three main recruiting services (Scout, Rivals, 247). I'm not going to tell you which one because they all are the same in my mind.
A few years ago, when our recruiting was struggling, we recruited several players and almost immediately their ratings went down. I argued that it was because the kid chose Nebraska and not one of the hot programs at the time. The guy made a comment that the services watch film and look to see who is recruiting them. Meaning, if a kid all of a sudden gets offers from USC, Texas, LSU, Alabama, Florida...etc., his ratings are probably going to go up. If he goes all the way through the recruiting process and none of those schools offer him, his ratings probably are not going to be bumped.
Now, I believe this has both helped us and our recruits this year and hurt us. I believe we have some recruits that got bumped after we went after them and they committed. We were perceived as a better program than who was after him before. The services probably now looked at Nebraska and said...Hey, if they really wanted the kid, he is probably better than we thought.
On the flip side, I am sure we got recruits that were right on the edge of the 5 star that if the above listed schools would have went hard after them, they would have gotten that 5th star. If you look at Rivals, I think 6.1 is considered a 5*. We have at least one player at 6.
This is just part of where these rankings are really questionable.
Now, I am sure to a certain level, the SEC is getting a little better talent than the Big Ten and Big XII. But, this is an example of where these rankings can be skewed.
