Why I care about the NFL Draft, part two

Quite simply, because stars matter, damn it ($$).

Of the 32 players selected Thursday night:

• Seven were five-star prospects out of high school
• Ten were four-star prospects out of high school
• 14 were three-star prospects out of high school
• 12 were rated as top-100 prospects

Some context:

• Yes, there were more three-star prospects drafted than five-star prospects. But you have to remember that there is not an even number of three-, four- and five-star prospects in each recruiting class. In a given year, there are roughly 35 five-star prospects and another 300 or so four-star prospects. That means the bulk of the nearly 3,000 college signees each year are three-star prospects or lower. A glance at the first-round results shows that more than half of the selections were four- and five-star prospects even though three-star prospects make up about 90 percent of those who sign in each recruiting cycle.

• That means roughly 10 percent of those who sign annually are four- or five-star prospects — but they made up more than half of the first-round selections Thursday night.

Math is hard, but it ain’t that hard.  There’s a reason Georgia’s recruiting budget is ginormous.