Xmas in February for Southern College Football Fans (SEC, Big 12, ACC, Big East)

It’s finally here! National Signing Day is upon us, and this is the time where quality programs establish themselves for the upcoming years. The welcoming of a new recruiting class energizes fans and provides coaches with the opportunity to show that their school will be-or will continue to be- a major player in the near future. Recruiting never ends in our Swampland footprint, and today fans can celebrate what each school and coaching staff has to offer the best players in the nation.

Stewart Mandel questioned why Southern schools spend so much in their football staffs last week-something we addressed- but he answers his own question with his latest piece on LSU and Alabama competing for top recruits. While teams may only face their rivals once per year on the field, Signing Day is an opportunity for schools to beat the other conference foes at the most important factor in success in college football-talent acquisition.

Let's start by looking at our BCS conferences:  SEC, ACC, BIG 12, BIG EAST

The SEC has been the big boy of college football in recent years, and that because the recruiting has been so successful.

There's a reason the conference has won three straight BCS titles, and once again, the top dog of college football will dominate the recruiting rankings as big-time players choose to play at the highest level.

Between the coaches, facilities, and passionate fan bases, the SEC harvests more talented players than any league in the country.

The ACC conversation on Signing Day usually starts with Florida State and Miami, and even Virginia Tech, but North Carolina and Clemson are quickly catching up. This conference tends to be perceived as the "little brother" to the SEC from a football perspective, but they are starting to make their presence known with better recruiting classes. If you want to play with the bigger teams, you have to get the better players in Florida and the Carolinas and that is starting to happen once again in the ACC.

Between Florida (Miami and FSU), Georgia (Georgia Tech) and Virginia's Tidewater region (Virginia Tech and Virginia), the ACC has some good natural talent in their backyard.  With Butch Davis making national recruiting headway, the ACC may start to be competitive.

The biggest hurdle for the ACC remains its balance.  Normally, that's a good thing, but this conference needs a couple of teams to step up and be dominate BCS contenders.
 

While the ACC needs a couple of big boys, that's not the issue in the Big 12, who has Texas and Oklahoma.

As we wrote earlier this week, the state of Texas is the Big 12’s main recruiting pipeline. The Longhorns and Sooners tend to dominate recruiting in the Lone Star State, and that’s why they are at the top of the standings each season. The big question for the conference to become more competitive is whether Nebraska, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State can step up to meet the recruiting challenge on a year-in, year-out basis.

We've been chilly on this conference for a while.  The Big East seems like something built by committee, which is never a good thing.  The conference does not compete with the leagues above in terms of fan interest, TV ratings, etc.

The Big East also struggles when it comes to recruiting.  Examining this recruiting table demonstrates the Big East's problems in this critical area.

Only South Florida, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers have a good enough backyard recruiting base to stay consistent for the long term.  USF has actually been successful in adopting an almost exclusively Florida recruiting approach that has them succeeding against the other more established powers in that state.

Cincinnati has done a quality job lately, but going against Ohio State on the Buckeye state can be tough.  However, if the Big East wants to actually become a true BCS conference, Cincy should be competing with Ohio State of the Big 10 and Kentucky of the SEC for the players in their area.

It will be interesting to see if teams like West Virginia and Louisville can sustain their recent success without Rich Rodriguez and Bobby Petrino at the helm. Louisville had a ton of success under Petrino because of their ability to recruit Florida and Georgia. Both the Cardinals and Mountaineers will have to recruit well nationally to keep up with their Big East brethren.

CONCLUSION

Well, let the fun begin. National Signing Day is the most important day of the football year outside of the games in the Fall, and we can’t wait to see how all of the drama plays out. You’ve probably heard the saying a thousand times, but recruiting truly is the lifeblood of college football. And today is that day that provides hope to all of the loyal fan bases in our Swampland footprint.

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