I'm a big sports fan, and as a big sports fan, I try to get any kind of information about any of my teams at the earliest possible time. As technology continues to be a larger factor in sports information, reports and rumors from inside sources seem to be more available than ever. These reports range from what player your NFL team is considering drafting, to in-race twitter reports form NASCAR race teams, to rumors websites about all the latest trade rumblings whispered about your favorite baseball team.
One of the more popular sports insider information web sites is subscription sites that offer inside information on the athletes deciding where to play in college. These sites charge a monthly fee to access a message board, run by a moderator whose job is to follow and report on any high school athlete being recruited by a particular school. Following college recruiting is something I regret starting, because now that I started it, I can't stop. College recruiting can be fun if your team consistently signs top caliber athletes such as Duke, Kentucky, and North Carolina in basketball, or Ohio State, Alabama, and Texas football. If your team does not happen to one of those top end schools, recruiting can be very frustrating. Athletes are ranked on a 5-star system, where 1 star is the lowest level prospect, and 5-star prospects are the top high school athletes in the country. Top end schools get so many 5-star recruits, that some of them don't even start. This leaves some of the second tier schools to fight over 3 and 4-star recruits.
Something that's difficult to remember sometimes, is that these athletes being recruited are just kids. The beginning of the recruiting process for the majority of high school athletes starts in their sophomore year of high school. That means these kids are about 15 years old at the beginning of this process. It is not a good moment when you realize you are getting all bent out of shape over where 15 and 16 year olds decide to go to college. Like most teenagers, these teenagers tend to change their minds often. It is not uncommon for a high school recruit to have a big ceremony to announce what school they have chosen to go to, and then days later announce that they have changed their mind and are going to a different school.
Recruits do not automatically guarantee success however. VCU and Butler just advanced to the Final 4 of the NCAA basketball tournament, and each team had one 4-star recruit, and two 3-star recruits as their highest rated players coming out of high school. This can be especially difficult for teams who don't get many highly rated recruits to begin with, to have one end up being a bust when it comes time to perform on the field.
It is also generally accepted that college recruiting is a very dirty business. Some of the top coaches of the top programs in the country have been caught breaking the rules about providing recruits with some kind of monetary or other types of benefits, which is illegal for amateur athletes. This kind of thing can ruin a program. Just ask Southern Methodist University, whose football program was one of the tops in the country, until repeated recruiting violations sent them into years of recruiting sanctions, which lead to the demise of the program. These violations were highlighted in the recent ESPN 30 for 30 documentary "Pony Excess".
Because of these reasons, and because it's too late for me, if I were you I would just enjoy the players you get once they get to your school, rather than agonize over the college recruits that never end up coming to your school.
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