Bag of Mail

Five-Star Obsessed? Check Out Rivals Class of 2005



There were 28 five-stars in 2005. Only 11 of them have been drafted so far. 14 have been arrested. I'm as recruiting obsessed as the rest of you, but I think this tells us how worthless the Rivals rankings can be. Read my break-down here.

Last fall, my wife came downstairs at 3 a.m. to find me watching high school highlight videos in the darkness of my office. She thought I was looking at porn. In a way, I was. Rivals recruiting rankings are every bit as fantastical as the finest creations in the Vivid Video stable. We think if we stare long enough at the five-stars we can predict the next two Heisman Trophy winners, the reality is we're more likely to predict the campus police blotter.

Because for the vast majority of Rivals' five-star prospects the moment the rankings are released, the players have reached the pinnacle of their football careers. It's all downhill, and we'll be there to watch the slide. Asking all the while, "How could this have ever happened?"

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Posted by Clay Travis at 9:27 AM

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Something I noticed that certainly adds to your notion of the stardom contributing to their misbehavior. Five of the 14 arrested were from the SEC, which doesn't seem all that crazy until you realize there were only five total 5* recruits that signed with SEC teams in 05.

The Stardom/stage is biggest in the SEC and that is definitely an example of it.

May 12, 2009 10:00 AM  
Blogger Clay Travis said...

Great point that I didn't notice.

May 12, 2009 10:24 AM  
Anonymous Derek Lisle said...

Very interesting analysis. Now that we know that Rivals rankings are questionable, and that the NFL draft is a crapshoot, it would be interesting to see a breakdown of 2008/2009 Pro Bowlers and what their Rivals ranking and subsequent draft picks were.

May 12, 2009 10:50 AM  

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