You don't have to be an analytics geek to understand the importance of location in college football recruiting. If you live in a state where there are a lot of talented high school football players, you're at so much of an advantage over the other guys.
Data tell us Texas, California and Florida produce the most FBS-level prospects annually, but other states like Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Ohio are also home plenty of elite prospects. There's a reason why Ohio State, Florida State, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU and Texas have captured the past 10 national championships. All come from states where there's an abundant amount of elite recruits each and every season and many of those players dream of playing for State U growing up.
This doesn't mean that schools outside of those states can't win titles, because they can and have. But it's much more difficult to succeed when your talent base is Kansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Idaho and Connecticut, which annually rank as the bottom five for producing elite prospects.
