RE: Per RPI ratings

Posted on: May 15, 2025 at 01:23:11 CT

My $.02 - No doubt the lore of playing in the south and all it offers (weather, facilities, more NIL opportunities) is an uphill battle to climb. But a major piece of HCLA’s recruiting strategy is starting to develop cracks I think I.E.— lock the borders and grab all of the best MO kids that you can get. If you are Texas, Texas A&M, UCLA etc..— sure, you basically can fill your roster with in-state talent and cherry pick out of state kids for the other few spots. But MO doesn’t have the sheer numbers of SEC level kids like TX and CA. And don’t get me wrong — you have to try like hell to keep your best of the best MO talent home but if your roster is made up of 35-40% of MO kids, that seems to me to be limiting yourself. The one BIG thing that HCLA has to offer is that her program can give SEC level kids the opportunity to play at the highest level and TX, OK, FL, TN etc only have so many spots available. But if you have locked down a significant portion of your roster already with in-state kids, one would think you are short-siding yourself.

Where are the really good Iowa kids going or the really good Illinois kids? Maybe the best of the best go to another SEC type school but there is a lot of talent in those states and Mizzou don’t seem to have a consistent connection, particularly Illinois. Same for California, I would like to know if HCLA has any connection to a major travel team out there like EE was said to have had. Is the 50th to 75th best CA player likely better than the 4th or 5th Missouri player that she recruited in the same class? Just the sheer numbers in CA probably says they are.