I have some bad news for you. Mickey has turned its crack staff on to analyzing the relationship between recruiting and winning nattys.
In an era in which star rankings define every prospect group, a top-notch recruiting class has come to separate elite teams from the rest of the pack before any games are even played. Using recruiting trends of the past 10 years, we have put together a formula to predict who will win next year’s College Football Playoff National Championship in New Orleans.
Bottom line, Georgia doesn’t make the cut.
Wut, you say? How can that be?
Believe it or not, here’s where the Dawgs fell short.
4. Are you locking down the home state?
The five playoff champions have all landed at least one-third of in-state ESPN 300 recruits in the four years leading up to winning the title.
Georgia (39-of-136) falls short of that mark, though to be fair, the state of Georgia produced nearly twice as many ESPN 300 prospects (136) as Ohio, South Carolina and Michigan combined (74).
If you think that’s stupid, it’s only because it is. Georgia signed more in-state recruits than any of the five other schools that made it to the next stage. Maybe Kirby should have dumped some out of state five-star kids to get that in-state percentage up.
It may be dumb, but I suspect it’ll make for some great click bait at Dawgnation any time now.