We all know the mantra: Recruit the state.

http://www.freep.com/article/20140910/CO...o-Sun-Belt

This is an article that demographics shifts, etc. suggesting that there is less population and athletic talent in the Midwest (the state of Michigan has flat out stopped growing for decades while population explodes elsewhere).

"The Big Ten lost a generation of promising football talent with the population flight from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt.

“I think people are moving out of the Midwestern towns that were industrial based,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said last month. “I think it’s more about economics. People are moving into areas where they can find a better lifestyle. Just take a look at Pennsylvania and the great high school teams that used to be in that area. Now, because of the steel towns and the exodus of so many jobs in that area, high school football is not what it once was. I think that’s happened in a lot of these industrial cities throughout the Midwest as well.”

I believe that I've posted that h.s. hoops in the state of MI has declined significantly over the years. Beside the south, even the mid-Atlantic, e.g., Washington/Baltimore, have improved dramatically.

Bottom line: Recruiting the state of MI, both sports, isn't what it used to be.

Think of what has happened to Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, etc. In hoops, they could produce enough players in a few years to stock a NBA team. The days of Detroit's greatness as a city (like 1.7M pop, now less than 1/2 of that) and players like Webber, Rose, etc. is gone. Think of the great hoops which used to be played in Flint and Saginaw.

Now good players are leaving the state, some for prep schools, including families which have left for better employment opportunities.

I missed this part about Urban not getting the early impact players out of the Midwest compared to what he got in Flor e da.

Meyer has attracted strong recruiting classes in his first three years in Columbus, but it’s increasingly noticeable that he’s not getting the earlier production out of these generally Midwest-based recruits than he got from the Florida kids he recruited to the Gators when he won two national championships.

“It’s still too early to tell,” he said. “But it’s about time.”

Nice article but EMU hasn't been successful recruiting instate in either football or basketball for some time now. Other schools seem to find Div I talent in the state for both hoops and basketball look at Oakland as one example or CMU in football or WMU in football.

(09-10-2014 06:04 AM)emu79 Wrote:  Nice article but EMU hasn't been successful recruiting instate in either football or basketball for some time now. Other schools seem to find Div I talent in the state for both hoops and basketball look at Oakland as one example or CMU in football or WMU in football.

That might be true but do they win BIG????? I say not.

Look at Oakland? How many March Madness appearances or wins? I don't see much there. How can they be a mid-major 'gold standard'?

Maybe it MAKES MY POINT: They seemingly recruited MI well and haven't won big. Folks get excited on signing day and then not much...

Looking back I don't see a lot of greatness in MAC hoops the last dozen years (lot of mediocre, maybe a March Madness upset but no Mason or VCU or Butler).

Even CMU and WMU have hardly been great in FB (CMU has had a highlight or two).

The days of MAC greatness in hoops (i.e., 90s and early 00s) seem to be in the rear view mirror. I can't remember the last MAC 1st round draft choice.

Great MAC FB, to me, was Marshall and Miami, etc. in the late 1990s and early 00s, except for NIU a few years ago, with Big Ben and Toledo with Bruce G.). Everyone fear the Herd or the RedHawks. No one wanted to play those two teams. Marshall recruited the SOUTH, not Midwest, hard.

That might have been the author's point: Have to recruit the SOUTH hard in football and it is easier to do for the SEC, ACC, etc. and the G5 FB schools in the South have the advantage over the MAC schools (home turf advantage).

But there are a lot of national schools that recruit Michigan especially in hoops, the local stars go out of state not instate.

(09-10-2014 06:52 AM)emu79 Wrote:  But there are a lot of national schools that recruit Michigan especially in hoops, the local stars go out of state not instate.

That is true. MAC schools do not do well within MI.

They get development players ala the WMU center who developed but wasn't a Steve Bell top recruit.

We've had this conversation before but EMU gets more luv outside MI than within.

No need to rehash that Oakland is in a very nice area, while Ypsilanti has a reputation of a less nice area and recent years has not helped that. :(

(09-10-2014 06:16 AM)emu steve Wrote:  The days of MAC greatness in hoops (i.e., 90s and early 00s) seem to be in the rear view mirror. I can't remember the last MAC 1st round draft choice.

I think it was Chris Kamen, the crown jewel of the 2003 NBA draft.

and more to the point, we don't need musings from Brian Kelly. There are real data available to show us that the South and West are growing much faster than the midwest and east coast. http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/brief...0br-01.pdf

Even more interesting in the amount of Div I hoops talent that has surfaced the past couple of years in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti metro area.

Here are the comments from the main MAC board:

http://csnbbs.com/thread-702671.html

And in many places down south they play football year round, not just fall and early winter.

Also, keep in mind that football is EVERYTHING down here. Look at most SEC schools, they have fewer sports than EMU. Same goes with high schools here in Florida compared to Michigan. However, most of the money going to the athletic department goes to the football program--and alumni truly feel an obligation to donate to the program and support it.

The southeast is not a major sports zone; however, it is a place where the sport of football is worshiped.

(09-11-2014 10:19 AM)AlwaysAHuron Wrote:  Also, keep in mind that football is EVERYTHING down here. Look at most SEC schools, they have fewer sports than EMU. Same goes with high schools here in Florida compared to Michigan. However, most of the money going to the athletic department goes to the football program--and alumni truly feel an obligation to donate to the program and support it.

The southeast is not a major sports zone; however, it is a place where the sport of football is worshiped.

Yep, maybe you can address, but I believe in the south and southwest they do HIGH SCHOOL spring ball.

Their kids are so much further developed than those in the north.

On the other hand, h.s. basketball is pretty much a 12 month sport.