The recruiting reach of the Big Ten

[WWolff]

The recruiting reach of the Big Ten

Much like the SEC, most of the schools in the Big Ten rely heavily on California and homegrown talent to populate their softball rosters. An important difference from the conferences reviewed previously, the SEC and the PAC-12, is the value of players from the state of Illinois for teams in the Big Ten.
The following heat map shows the states where players in the Big Ten find their origins. The charts below the map show the number of players recruited from each state, as well as which state each school has recruited from the most for their current rosters. Click the map for a full-sized image.

The only exceptions for schools having a majority of players from their home state were Iowa and Penn State, who look more to California for talent.
Illinois, Ohio State, and Minnesota have signed the most players from the talent pool within their respective states than any other schools in the conference.

 

[Irish196]

Interesting. This is a weird question, but I wonder what would happen if a kid moved from Ohio to California - same kid, same skills, just different team (let's say the OH and CA team are equally competitive). Does the positive "stigma" (can't think of the right word) associated with being from CA make this kid more desirable to a recruiter? (whether the recruiter is consciously giving the CA kid an advantage or not)

 

[WWolff]

Interesting. This is a weird question, but I wonder what would happen if a kid moved from Ohio to California - same kid, same skills, just different team (let's say the OH and CA team are equally competitive). Does the positive "stigma" (can't think of the right word) associated with being from CA make this kid more desirable to a recruiter? (whether the recruiter is consciously giving the CA kid an advantage or not)

I dont't think they are recruiting them based on location, but on talent.

 

[Irish196]

Of course, but subconsciously does a person give an edge to a player based upon where they live?

 

[SoCal_Dad]

Interesting. This is a weird question, but I wonder what would happen if a kid moved from Ohio to California - same kid, same skills, just different team (let's say the OH and CA team are equally competitive). Does the positive "stigma" (can't think of the right word) associated with being from CA make this kid more desirable to a recruiter? (whether the recruiter is consciously giving the CA kid an advantage or not)

Even though both teams are "equally competitive", they're going to play different events which affects the schools that see them and the general level of competition they'll face.

The closest cases I know about moved to AZ (i.e. Delawder and Paulson girls) and all played extensively in SoCal, sometimes with high-level SoCal teams. Would the Paulsons have been recruited by their chosen school, BYU, if they had stayed in OH? Regardless, I think they would have been recruited by, at least, comparable programs.