Chicken or Egg?

by LaFortune Teller , South Bend, Thursday, February 04, 2010, 13:49 (5971 days ago) @ FunkDoctorSpock

I have posted the "Elite 21" college football programs list here before. It represents all of the 21 different college football teams that have achieved at least one 5-year period of excellence in the last 25 years that could roughly be considered "Elite", or top-5.

All but one Elite-21 team appears in the top-25 recruiting list posted by FunkDoctorSpock - Washington. 20 of the top 22 spots in FDS's list are Elite-21 teams. The exceptions are #15 South Carolina and #20 Texas A&M.

This is no coincidence. But it isn't proof of recent success breeding recruiting success either, since at least a handful of Elite-21 programs haven't been Elite recently (us, for example). Likewise, it isn't as though this will be definitive list of the top-25 teams for the next few years, either.

So my questions are if there is a relationship between recruiting success and a 25-year (or more) period of program success...

1. Are recruits flocking to Elite programs because of their program status (moreso than their recent place in college football hierarchy)

2. Do the ratings services inherently favor the Elite-21 programs in their rating of recruits?

3. Is there something else going on here?