A must read. Puts some facts behind a lot of the things we've discussed here:  http://m.toledoblade.com/UT/2012/01/29/Rating-recruits-an...

Excerpt:

On Wednesday, UT will announce a class expected to be No. 1 in the MAC for a third straight year. BG figures to slide in at fourth or fifth. Campbell and Clawson will praise their new players during news conferences at their schools, and fans will dissect highlight packages and hypothesize about the future.

Their energy might be better directed at examining Northern Illinois' and Ohio's past few recruiting classes. The teams that played in the 2011 MAC championship game turned in poorly rated recruiting efforts from 2007-09. NIU's classes over that time period ranked 11th (Rivals) and 12th (Scout). OU's were ninth (Rivals) and seventh (Scout). When the teams met up Dec. 2 at Ford Field, a combined 26 players in their fourth and fifth seasons made up the starting lineups. BG started just four players fitting that description and won five games.

Prior to his team playing OU in November, Clawson called the Bobcats a "model program" for developing lightly regarded classes into a championship contender.

"They've been very smart because they took a very long-term approach to their program," Clawson said. "They resisted the urge to play a lot of freshmen in the years that they were struggling, and now they are seeing the benefit of it. They are a much older, more experienced football team."

It's not uncommon for highly rated recruits to never arrive on campuses because of academic issues. Their impact on recruiting rankings is still felt, though, and therefore Clawson has an interesting proposal -- re-rank the classes in September once all eligible recruits are enrolled in school.

Indeed. That 2007 class that just won more games than any 5 year seniors in Ohio history featured:
one player with a known BCS offer
only 5 players with another MAC offer
twelve players with no other offers at all
only one player rated over 5.2 by rivals, plus 4 others at 5.2, with the bulk rated 5.0 or not rated
only 2 players rated over 7.0 by ESPN
eight players not rated by scout.com

The 2008 class was rated a bit better
4 of 15 players had BCS offers
6 of 15 players had MAC offers
9 of 15 had no other offers
4 were rated over 5.2, with a high of 5.5
3 were rated 7.0 or better by ESPN
8 of 15 managed 2 stars from Scout

But, then, who were those mystery kids, with no other offers, and who had no high ratings by any service? Here is a complete list:
Dustin Laudermilch - earned starting OT job before injury
Jay Edwards
Brian Sweeney - never played because of injury issues
Curtis Meyers
Jeff King
Matt Donahue - Very good WR, but transferred
John Flowers - another OT starter who was injured
Kenny Jackson
Lavon Brazill
Alphonso Lewis
Travis Carrie
Matt Weller
Melvin Payne - off the field issues
Sergio Judkins - off the field issues

Was it player development? Was it identifying talent that others didn't appreciate? You can decide that for yourself, but either way, it doesn't scare me a great deal when I see someone on the list that isn't highly ranked. Watching these classes develop has taught me otherwise.

Well, to the extent it is the system, the coaches, and player development, the recruiting classes of 2011 and 2012 are by all measurable criteria significantly better than 2007-2008, so the teams of the future will hopefully just continue to get better.