NOLAIrish
May Contain 10% Ethanol
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LSU has done a surprisingly poor job of holding on to top-tier in-state talent. Eddie Lacy, Joe McKnight, Landon Collins, Tim Williams, etc. Bama is a big problem there -- Tuscaloosa/Baton Rouge are nearly a wash in distance from the northern LA population hubs and New Orleans, where over 1/4 of the population resides, has not historically been a particularly strong pipeline to Baton Rouge (the list is long: Neil Smith to Nebraska, Aeneas Williams to Southern, Eric Bieniemy to CU-Boulder, Kordell Stewart to CU-Boulder, Marshall Faulk to SDSU, Reggie Wayne to Miami, the Mannings to Tenn and Ole Miss, McKnight to USC, etc. The only ones that come to mind as NOLA-to-LSU guys are Alan Faneca and Mark Roman). LSU makes up for that by doing well in Texas and Florida.
My impression from watching recruiting in the two states is that Louisiana produces top-end recruits more consistently and probably has a slight edge in depth. This graphic lends mild support to that impression, but the methodology is deeply problematic for this purpose. Most of the other analyses I could find focused on per capita production -- e.g. Louisiana has the highest number of NFL players per capita of any state. Both states are well ahead of Mississippi and Arkansas and well behind Ohio, Alabama and Georgia.
I don't think state-by-state comparisons are highly relevant, though. There may be some in-state recruiting advantage, but major schools generally draw regionally. If you look at it on that level, the Northeast is the worst by a mile, then the Mountain States, then the Midwest, then the South Atlantic, then the Pacific States, then the Gulf South.
My impression from watching recruiting in the two states is that Louisiana produces top-end recruits more consistently and probably has a slight edge in depth. This graphic lends mild support to that impression, but the methodology is deeply problematic for this purpose. Most of the other analyses I could find focused on per capita production -- e.g. Louisiana has the highest number of NFL players per capita of any state. Both states are well ahead of Mississippi and Arkansas and well behind Ohio, Alabama and Georgia.
I don't think state-by-state comparisons are highly relevant, though. There may be some in-state recruiting advantage, but major schools generally draw regionally. If you look at it on that level, the Northeast is the worst by a mile, then the Mountain States, then the Midwest, then the South Atlantic, then the Pacific States, then the Gulf South.
