Agree to an extent, but it's hard to argue with the success of those who have typically signed higher rated classes.
However, this is more damning to me with States class this year than the lack of stars, stolen from Bopolis on NAFOOM:
Ole Miss - 25 players signed - 70 SEC offers other than from Ole Miss
MSU - 23 players signed - 16 SEC offers other than from MSU
Of these 16 SEC offers, 3 were for Gerri Green, 4 were for Jesse Jackson, and 5 were for Cory Thomas. So, that leaves 4 offers among the remaining 20 players.
16 of their 23 signees have no SEC offers other than MSU.
2 of our 25 signees have no SEC offers other than Ole Miss.
I see the point, but that has held true for most years when comparing our classes I would bet if he went back and looked. And it's not about just beating each other but he made the comparison and considering we are in the same state with similar size schools, budgets, etc. It's an appropriate comparison and the on the field results speaks for themselves.
It's not that stars don't matter, they do to a degree. It's the rankings that have people confused to what is really going on with talent. After the top 10-12 schools the talent is much closer than most people think, at least through the next 25 places or so. What is the difference of our 38 ranked with 3 4 stars and Michigan States 25 place. Basically 1 5 star player. A great player I'm sure but there is no way to know if he will pan out. Someone the other day posted about the number 5 stars that are 1st round draft picks. I would be willing to bet that most people, unless they really look at this stuff, would believe most 5 stars are can't miss 1st rounders. According to that data, only 18% per year are that good. I would bet that the number of 5 stars that busts or are very late draft picks are close in percentage if not even higher. Your only talking about 5-6 guys making it into the 1st round.
That being said, yes, the more 4-5 stars you have the better chances you have but they still have to develop. And if you are developmental program who is willing to develop lower ranked raw athletes then in 2-3 years the talent gap shrinks. Conversely wouldn't you say that the fact that some of our signees didn't have as many offers from SEC effect their rankings? After just one year it was obvious that McKinney was not ranked properly. Banks. Slay. Cox coming out of High School. Amazing how the more offers Chris Jones got the more stars he received. It didn't change how good of a player he was when our own fans were questioning why did we take his commit so soon because he was only 2*. The fact we took a no ranked player today doesn't change the fact that he is an SEC athlete IMO. Again, I always want the most talented players we can get, but that doesn't mean I really care what they are ranked if the on the field results are there. We are not there yet, we have to always strive to get better and add better talent.