Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Stats

First of all it is unwise and the antithesis of a corporal work of mercy to bully a senior citizen into responding to your blog. As your wife is fond of saying...you have too much time on your hands. You could be refinishing the cabinets in the condo that Karen is renovating, thus being able to thump your chest at some later date with the phrase "if it wasn't for my contribution that place would have never sold"! Oh well, I fear my advice is falling on deaf ears.

I noticed that the Big Ten had 56 recruits vs the other conferences. But when you totaled up each B10 schools portion of that number it only added up to 55...youir credibility is very suspect.

If you researched the same data for the past 50 years it may be that you would discover (in general) that the Eastern schools have always out recruited the midwest and Pac 10. It may simply be a population thing. It is also true that, for example, if Duke recruits 7 kids from the top 50...only 5 can play at once.

You have to admit that the bottom line is not the number of kids each conference recruited but the results obtained. The Pac 10 leads all conferences with 15 NCAA titles; the B10 and ACC are tied with10 titles each; the SEC has 7, etc. Don't retort that UCLA is responsible for most of the 15 titles because Duke and North Carolina have most of the ACC's.

The Florida Marlins with 2 World Series titles, the White Sox, Arizona Diamondbocks and Minnesota Twins have all been champs, while the huge bankroll Yankees have only had moderate success considering all factors.

Yadah, Yadah, Yadah.

1 comment:

Terry Bleizeffer said...

First of all, I don't need a legitimate reason to thump my chest... I'm perfectly capable of inventing ones. And I did help Karen with the condo. I helped her move the old appliances out of the kitchen, because she needed a burly manly man to help with the heavy lifting. Since she couldn't find one, she asked me to help instead.

Next, you say you noticed the Big Ten had 56 recruits but the total when you added them up was 55, so my credibility is suspect? Um, the table actually says 55, not 56, so I think it's your senior eyesight that is suspect, not my credibility.

I largely agree that the eastern schools have always outrecruited the B10 (first the Big East then gradually the ACC), but I don't think the B10 was as behind as were are now. My personal (unsupported) theory is that, over the years, players have become more and more comfortable playing away from home. So the East's advantage in population got them some advantage, but there were still plenty of Midwestern players that stayed in the B10. Now, it's commonplace for Midwestern kids to head East -- it's not even noteworthy. I think that has compounded the problem.

By the way, the SEC has 8 titles. Kentucky has 7 and Arkansas has 1.

And the Yankees won 25 titles in the 1900s. I'm not sure "moderate success" is the term I'd use.