Mega freshman signing classes

CoogansBluff · Aug 3, 2015

When looking at colleges, how much do you pay attention to the size of the signing class?

I've seen teams that bring in 10, 12, even 14 players. The biggest ones are usually from newer coaches who are rebuilding. Or do some coaches look to bring in 10-12+ players a year and build a strong team through attribution?

riseball · Aug 3, 2015

I always tell parents and players that as part of their due diligence they should plow through a few years of stats and notice the comings and goings. If every season a team seems to have a big recruiting class and only a handful of Juniors and Seniors it may offer insight into the dynamics of the program.

Ken Krause · Aug 3, 2015

riseball said:
I always tell parents and players that as part of their due diligence they should plow through a few years of stats and notice the comings and goings. If every season a team seems to have a big recruiting class and only a handful of Juniors and Seniors it may offer insight into the dynamics of the program.

This is great advice, Rise. I've seen that happen, where a team is constantly heavy on the bottom end. I know priorities change and all, but if a team isn't holding on to its upperclassmen year after year it can be an indicator of other things going on behind the scenes.

CoogansBluff · Aug 3, 2015

riseball said:
I always tell parents and players that as part of their due diligence they should plow through a few years of stats and notice the comings and goings. If every season a team seems to have a big recruiting class and only a handful of Juniors and Seniors it may offer insight into the dynamics of the program.

Good point. I'm sure there are different reasons for it. In a couple that I've seen here recently, I suspect it's a coach realizing that he/she must bring in as many people as possible in order to turn around a losing situation that was inherited. They see the talent they have on board isn't going to produce the kind of team they want, so they play the numbers game. Maybe a good strategy at a public school where decent players are willing to play for little or no money. But I'm just speculating. Haven't studied how most schools do it. Thought that 6-7 was more the norm.

riseball · Aug 3, 2015

CoogansBluff said:
Good point. I'm sure there are different reasons for it. In a couple that I've seen here recently, I suspect it's a coach realizing that he/she must bring in as many people as possible in order to turn around a losing situation that was inherited. They see the talent they have on board isn't going to produce the kind of team they want, so they play the numbers game. Maybe a good strategy at a public school where decent players are willing to play for little or no money. But I'm just speculating. Haven't studied how most schools do it. Thought that 6-7 was more the norm.

It happens from time to time that you really have to ramp up in a certain year. You do the analysis and then draw your own conclusions. Know of one program that always seems to have a normal size (6-7) freshman class but also has quite a few JUCO players on the roster each year. Was highly suspicious until I realized they had are strong nursing program. Dug deeper and found that while they were losing some players it appeared to be for arguably the right reasons.

Mega freshman signing classes

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