Will the divisional alignment hurt our recruiting?

[ATLHawkeye]

I read an article where BB said the new alignment will help Wisconsin recruit in Ohio and Pennsylvania since they'll be playing those teams every year. He specifically mentioned that he goes head to head with Iowa quite a bit and that it should give them an advantage in those areas.

I hope he's wrong... Especially since we've been doing very well in recruiting Ohio and Pennsylvania lately. However, not playing Ohio State and Penn State certainly can't help us any in those states.

 

[ATLHawkeye]

Also, in the same article, BB said their coaches have known about he divisional alignment for a couple weeks. Wasn't it less than two weeks ago when Barry Alvarez made his comments that made us think Iowa would be going East?

 

[Hawkize1]

I think winning BCS Bowl games will do as much for recruiting as anything will. JMHO

 

[ATLHawkeye]

I think winning BCS Bowl games will do as much for recruiting as anything will. JMHO

Agreed.

 

[iHawk]

I'm also a bit concerned about that as well. The fact that some of our good recruiting grounds are not in our division jumped right out. But Iowa has built some very solid relationships in those areas over the years, and
I'm confident we'll continue to get some good players out east.

 

[CAARHawk]

This is why I think the Purdue annual game is so important and why I would have hated a west only division. Ohio is close enough to Purdue and the Michigan schools to still tell recruits from those areas that their friends and families will be able to see them play.

Beyond that, we get kids from Ohio that don't get offers from OSU, or that see Iowa as a chance to get to the next level. Same with Wisky. It might give Wisky a bit of an advantage, but I don't think it will be major. Especially if Iowa can get in some Big Ten Championship games.

As far as Pennsylvania is concerned, we have two kids from that state on the Roster. Hunter, a senior, and Nardo, a junior. Don't see a big loss there.

 

[MidnightBlueSix]

I'm not to worried. We recruit very well in the northeast (Shonn Greene, Marcus Coker, Fisher, Orloff, Ferguson, Grant, etc.) despite having no games against Rutgers or BC. We do pretty well in Florida too. I think we're beginning to become a national program where we don't necessarily need games in recruits' home states to entice them.

 

[Dakia]

I know that not palying in certain areas doesn't help, but I think that Iowa and Kirk have progress to the point that people will come to play for Kirk and how the coaching team developes and prepares players for the NFL.

The coaching team does an amazing job of recognizing talent in 3 star players and making them some of the best at their position by the times they graduate.

 

[Hawke]

Build it, (a solid program) and they will come. KF has a solid reputation of preparing players for the NFL. Season's like last year attract good players to the program, as we've seen from this years recruiting class. I'm not too concerned about the divisional line-up hurting Iowa's recruiting.

 

[latrans]

I'm not to worried. We recruit very well in the northeast (Shonn Greene, Marcus Coker, Fisher, Orloff, Ferguson, Grant, etc.) despite having no games against Rutgers or BC. We do pretty well in Florida too. I think we're beginning to become a national program where we don't necessarily need games in recruits' home states to entice them.

This ^^

I honestly don't see this as an issue at all.

 

[CAARHawk]

But, doesn't everyone else get kind of tired with the Wisky obsession about Iowa?

 

[hawkcub42]

With the coverage all teams get nowadays the playing a team in the recruits home state is not as big of a deal. I hate to use Nebraska, but they do recruit TX well and they were in different divisions.

But the Wisconsin statements are typical of them. I've always looked at them as Iowa's evil little twin.

 

[zhawkzrule]

I dont think so either, between BTN and ESPN we are seen nationally most everywhere and now have the reputation of taking kids who aren't recruited highly and developing them. The other thing to look at is we dont necessarily go after the highly touted recruits, KF would prefer a player that fits our system or type of football we play.

 

[LaxGoHawks]

With the coverage all teams get nowadays the playing a team in the recruits home state is not as big of a deal. I hate to use Nebraska, but they do recruit TX well and they were in different divisions.

But the Wisconsin statements are typical of them. I've always looked at them as Iowa's evil little twin.

Nebraska did play up to 4 teams from the state of Texas a year though and we only play maybe once in OH or PA.

Having said that, the Big 10 network is a nice tool, along with ESPN/ABC's Big 10 coverage. And we are still in the same conference and will still play some of those teams in the "east". We now have an added recruiting tool of telling players to come and try to win the Big 10 championship game, which will be on national TV for all your buddies to see. Plus like others have said, going to and winning BCS bowls in huge. And now with Ferentz signed through 2020, I dont see any problems with staying in the areas we've been successful in.

 

[MidnightBlueSix]

Nebraska did play up to 4 teams from the state of Texas a year though and we only play maybe once in OH or PA.

Exactly. I see the realignment being a bigger problem for Nebraska than anyone else. One of their biggest recruiting tools in TX was that the guys who were overlooked by UT and TAMU (and lately TTU) would still have a chance to play in their home state in front of home fans and would have a good shot to play for the Big XII championship and rub those other schools' faces in it. But now that argument is gone and they don't really have a strong tradition of recruiting in places like OH, IL, PA, and MI. I wouldn't be surprised if their recruiting tanks for a couple of seasons until they can get an established Midwest recruiting pipeline.