Just wondering if anyone has used either of these and which they prefer? Hokie Haven (rivals) seems to cost most, but is it really worth it over VT Insider (scout).
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I use neither
I don't follow recruiting very heavily, and most news breaks on Twitter, so I no longer see the value in subscription sites.
Nor do I but 247sports is what I'd choose .. Rivals' rankings are alright .. Scout sucks ..
Your best bet, tkp, sports hoopla, and twitter
Join me on Hokiehaven...
The people on 247 are douches.
I have thought of joining Hokie Haven in the past but i find its just as informative to look at ESPN and TKP. But i dont follow recruiting like a hawk i only pay attention to the VA and the top 100 recruits VT goes after.
ESPN Recruiting is a joke.
Twitter and TKP is all ya need braj. Just use rivals to browse the high school players and their interests. But i dont subscribe to either. If you want highlight films of the high school players most of them are on the youtubes.
i used to subscribe to Hokie Haven
I thought Rivals was pretty good at getting the insight of the player. I stopped subscribing because the VT recruiting cycle during my time (close to 10 years) was:
1) top players in VA as juniors list VT as a top 5 school, grew up loving them.
a)VT wins ten games or more
2) top players in VA now seniors, VT listed as a top 5 school
a)VT having a decent season, could be another BCS bowl game
b)top players interested in VT, visits VT and other schools
c)top recruits no longer interested in VT, heading out of state to become another number at a brand name school, but that's ok because there's this HS junior from VA that is really interested in VT, and probably better anyway - we'll be fine.
3) repeat steps 1 and 2.
So if recruiting cycle doesnt change with the new coaches, probably twitter and tkp is all you need. I liked that I knew so much more about the VT players though (background/personality), and that was through the pay articles on Rivals. Instead of, "who the hell is that guy?" it was "that guy is a pisces, likes chinese food, ran for 6000 yards in 3 seasons and he hates UVA as much as I do".
Rivals >>>> Scout
Problem is, a lot of folks rely on insider info and the Rivals insiders migrated to 247 last year because, IMHO, they got tired of being taken to task when their predictions were wrong.
Personally I could care less about insider info - I like Rivals for the database and top level view of how we are doing relative to the other teams.
What's the ....
TSL guru situation these days?
I've found less interest in the insiders views over the years as well, part of that is the summer commitments. Like this year, (knock on wood) there is no drama to be had in the next two weeks. What do you need insiders for?
Rivals database is solid, as is 247. Both have good national and conference rankings, and both of those are free. sportshoopla has some scuttlebutt and is a solid group of a dozen or so recruitniks who consolidate info. videos are on youtube.
Other than that, the whole subscription thing is tough to justify unless you are looking for true insider info. And I've seen the value of that info decrease tremendously over the years.
The TSL guru situation has been stable the past couple of years. They post fairly infrequently. I think the 2010-11 recruiting seasons left a few of them bruised and beaten.
I think one of the key goals of the 247 guys is to rate our prospects better. Their selling point has been 'Rivals caters to the big programs and downgrades our prospects to make theirs look better.' I would expect any VT class to be ranked higher in 247 than they were in Rivals.
You think that Rivals thing is real?
I always justified it pretty simply. The Big Boy programs (which includes about 9 SEC programs) have more money. The more money you have, the more kids your recruiters can evaluate. The more money you have, the better you can pay your evaluators. The better you pay your evaluators, the better they are at their job. When the best evaluators observe the most kids, the kids they offer are better. The better offers, thus, are from the Big Boy programs. The kids with the most Big Boy offers are the best players and get ranked higher.
The fact that the Big Boy programs have more subscriptions is a self-fulfilling prophecy. They have more money in their program because they have more fans and they have more fans because they win more and they win more because they have more money.
have you
ever been to alabama? the people down there are flat eaten up with alabama football. they live in trailers that are falling apart but still send money to the football program. i'd be willing to bet (even though there are a lot of great hokie fans) that alabama fans make up 5x (maybe more) the number of subscriptions on these sites than vt fans. there's definitely a certain amount of catering to certain teams' fans