It appears Freshman recruit info is from Scout.com this year...

[Gambo187]

Each year it appears that the recruit information is pulled from a different source. For the past two years you could figure it out from ESPNs nation. But it appears this year that the source of the Height and Weight info and ability is from Scout.com

[zkbenson]

In my mind, that is unfortunate and one year too soon. While Fox Sports and Scout do seem to be overhauling the Scout platform, I would argue that Rivals, ESPN, and 24/7 all offer better services and evaluations. In fact 24/7 even offers a composite score of prospect ratings over multiple services. If EA decided to use Scout, I would venture to say there may be a higher than usual amount of discrepancies between actual player development and development of the players within the game.

[dawgbone33]

Quote: Originally Posted by zkbenson

In my mind, that is unfortunate and one year too soon. While Fox Sports and Scout do seem to be overhauling the Scout platform, I would argue that Rivals, ESPN, and 24/7 all offer better services and evaluations. In fact 24/7 even offers a composite score of prospect ratings over multiple services. If EA decided to use Scout, I would venture to say there may be a higher than usual amount of discrepancies between actual player development and development of the players within the game.

I agree with this. 24/7's composite ranking is the standard they should go by. I believe it's a composite of 4 services: Rivals, Scout, ESPN, and 24/7.

[KleShreen]

Quote: Originally Posted by zkbenson

In my mind, that is unfortunate and one year too soon. While Fox Sports and Scout do seem to be overhauling the Scout platform, I would argue that Rivals, ESPN, and 24/7 all offer better services and evaluations. In fact 24/7 even offers a composite score of prospect ratings over multiple services. If EA decided to use Scout, I would venture to say there may be a higher than usual amount of discrepancies between actual player development and development of the players within the game.

I entirely disagree. As someone who worked in the recruiting community for a good amount of time, I can say that Scout is by far the most comprehensive of any recruiting service. 24/7 is the worst, followed closely by ESPN, with Scout and Rivals by far the top two. However, in my time working, I noticed that Scout had representatives at nearly every single camp around the country, even ones at smaller schools. Rivals frequently did not but at least had some contacts who would report back. 24/7 and ESPN...forget about it. 24/7 never does any original research from what I noticed, and ESPN only has people at their own sponsored events and gathers the rest of their information from the other recruiting services.

[Roogy]

Quote: Originally Posted by KleShreen

I entirely disagree. As someone who worked in the recruiting community for a good amount of time, I can say that Scout is by far the most comprehensive of any recruiting service. 24/7 is the worst, followed closely by ESPN, with Scout and Rivals by far the top two. However, in my time working, I noticed that Scout had representatives at nearly every single camp around the country, even ones at smaller schools. Rivals frequently did not but at least had some contacts who would report back. 24/7 and ESPN...forget about it. 24/7 never does any original research from what I noticed, and ESPN only has people at their own sponsored events and gathers the rest of their information from the other recruiting services.

This. Scout and Rivals are far and way above any other service. ESPN and 24/7 are pretty much terrible.

[catcher_0_3]

Quote: Originally Posted by KleShreen

I entirely disagree. As someone who worked in the recruiting community for a good amount of time, I can say that Scout is by far the most comprehensive of any recruiting service. 24/7 is the worst, followed closely by ESPN, with Scout and Rivals by far the top two. However, in my time working, I noticed that Scout had representatives at nearly every single camp around the country, even ones at smaller schools. Rivals frequently did not but at least had some contacts who would report back. 24/7 and ESPN...forget about it. 24/7 never does any original research from what I noticed, and ESPN only has people at their own sponsored events and gathers the rest of their information from the other recruiting services.

I agree that at one time Scout and Rivals were far and away the best two. But from what I can gather, ESPN began putting a lot of resources into this area and started taking scouts from the two big websites. Then ESPN recently started putting a lot more emphasis on what schools offer a player and where they commit (ie if kid A gets an offer from Bama, Florida, or Ohio State, they are going to get a huge bump in their rating). There is some merritt to this idea that a player has a higher chance of success if they sign with one of those schools, but coming out of high school it doesn't inherently make them better. 247 seems to be resisting the offer list method of ratings the most at this time and for my money they are the best at this time.

[KleShreen]

Quote: Originally Posted by catcher_0_3

I agree that at one time Scout and Rivals were far and away the best two. But from what I can gather, ESPN began putting a lot of resources into this area and started taking scouts from the two big websites. Then ESPN recently started putting a lot more emphasis on what schools offer a player and where they commit (ie if kid A gets an offer from Bama, Florida, or Ohio State, they are going to get a huge bump in their rating). There is some merritt to this idea that a player has a higher chance of success if they sign with one of those schools, but coming out of high school it doesn't inherently make them better. 247 seems to be resisting the offer list method of ratings the most at this time and for my money they are the best at this time.

What you said about ESPN is precisely why I don't put much stock in to their work. ESPN very rarely sees any players in person at camps or in games. They get their information from either the other recruiting sites or if a player shows up at one of their insanely hyped and expensive camps if they are not invited. I will take Scout any day over that, as Scout frequently sends out representatives to see these kids in camps all summer long, not just at one camp like ESPN does, and puts a ton of people out at high school games every single Friday to get original film and actually talk to the coaches/players in person.

[catcher_0_3]

Quote: Originally Posted by KleShreen

What you said about ESPN is precisely why I don't put much stock in to their work. ESPN very rarely sees any players in person at camps or in games. They get their information from either the other recruiting sites or if a player shows up at one of their insanely hyped and expensive camps if they are not invited. I will take Scout any day over that, as Scout frequently sends out representatives to see these kids in camps all summer long, not just at one camp like ESPN does, and puts a ton of people out at high school games every single Friday to get original film and actually talk to the coaches/players in person.

I can only speak for the state of Georgia, but I saw quite a few of the ESPN guys at high school games last fall. And they are at all the camps as well.