Statistical Analysis of 2010 Recruiting: Part IV

There's not much to analyze with this information, but it's still interesting to see. I created a breakdown of the teams and, thus, the conferences that Michigan recruits chose instead of the Wolverines.

With a significant number of offers going to kids in Florida, Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina, it's really no surprise that the Wolverines' biggest opponent is the Southeastern Conference. Forty-six of the 162 Michigan offerees who committed elsewhere ended up in the SEC, 13 of whom picked the Florida Gators.

Michigan picked up 27 commitments in the class of 2010 . . . and lost 27 recruits to other Big Ten schools. Despite the 30 offers to kids in Ohio, Michigan lost eight kids to Penn State and only seven to Ohio State. Michigan State got five.

The biggest surprise to me on the list was the #3 conference on the graph, the Atlantic Coast Conference. ACC teams picked off 26 Michigan offerees, just one less than the rest of the Big Ten. I never really thought Michigan went head-to-head against the ACC very much, but with Rich Rodriguez putting such an emphasis on recruiting the state of Florida, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Florida State and Miami combined to take 14 kids.

The rest of the list fills out about like I expected. West Coast recruits tend to stay out west. I can't understand why a kid from sunny southern California wouldn't want to, I don't know, see snow for the first time or live on a peninsula. Not just any peninsula, either, but a lower peninsula. But whatever.

Michigan does share some recruiting ground with the Big East, such as Pennsylvania and Maryland. Luckily, the Big East's hitches are tied to teams like Dantonio's estranged stepchild Cincinnati and . . . uhhh . . . Rutgers. Pitt ended up being the biggest threat for Michigan recruits, picking up five commitments. Pitt has pulled in a few guys in the past couple years who could be helping Michigan right now, like Cam Saddler and Shayne Hale, but generally Pitt doesn't recruit on the same level as the Wolverines.

The Big 12 is next on the list, and then Independents. I tried to be all-inclusive with "Independents," but really what that means is Notre Dame. Don't worry, Michigan didn't lose any recruits to Army. Then comes the the Mountain West Conference (Lucky Radley to Utah, Tony Drake to Colorado State), the Mid-American Conference (Cassius McDowell to Toledo, Travis Williams to Miami-OH), and Conference USA (Brandon Gainer to Central Florida); none of whom had a committable Michigan offer by the end of the cycle. No one chose a WAC school over Michigan, presumably because they didn't want to play on blue turf. I can't say that I blame them.