I realize polls are meaningless. Especially polls ranking college football recruiti
ng classes. But you have to take a look at this breakdown and ask yourself, does something stand out here?
Rivals
1. Alabama
2. Notre Dame
3. Florida
4. Miami
5. Oklahoma
Scout
1. Alabama
2. Notre Dame
3. Miami
4. Florida St
5. LSU
Sporting News
1. Alabama
2. Notre Dame
3. Florida
4. Oklahoma
5. Miami
ESPN
1. Miami
2. Clemson
3. Alabama
4. Florida
5. Georgia
A friend who sent this to me also included three other recruiting services rankings (Emfinger, Lemming, Super Prep) as well. I left them out just to save space, but they were all very similar to the Rivals, Scout and Sporting News polls.
So the question has to be asked, why is ESPN's ranking so different from everyone else? Notre Dame is not even listed in the top 5. Also, Georgia and Clemson came out of nowhere on the ESPN list.
This started a chain reaction of e-mails (all by admitted Bama Homers!) with various conspiracy theories that would make a message board go wild. A couple of the theories include:
ESPN left off Notre Dame because they are affiliated with NBC.
ESPN's chief analyst Tom Luginbill is married to an Auburn girl.
It could be that ESPN did better research than everybody else and thus their rankings are different. Nah, that wouldn't be any fun. If you have any more theories as to why they are so different, let me know.
4 comments:
ESPN recruiting analyst said his rankings were based on the need of the program, not necessarily the athletes...
ESPN is affiliated with ABC, a "rival" of NBC.
It's long been held as common knowledge among Notre Dame fans that ESPN consistently does their best to paint the Irish in a less-than-stellar light due to their contract with NBC. While it certainly makes sense from a business standpoint -- NBC is a direct competitor, and viewers NBC is getting by broadcasting ND games are viewers not watching whatever game ESPN is showing -- it certainly seems skeevy from a journalistic perspective.
Of course, ESPN would absolutely deny that fact, and point out that they have Lou Holtz on staff as an "analyst." Although, they also hire Mark May, so that pretty much cancels that out.
also IMO, ESPN with their Scouts Inc. crew is trying to differentiate themselves from the other recruiting services. They don't want to be lumped in with Rivals and Scout.com, they're the damn WWLIS after all. They probably feel bigger and better.
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