Long term effects of Hurricane Katrina on recruiting demographics...

[Muck]

Has anyone sat down and thought about how Katrina will effect HS recruiting?

Pre-Katrina Louisiana & Mississippi were very fertile areas for high school football talent. Per capita they were both among the top states for producing Div 1A players.

Now you have a situation were a very signifigant portion of the population of these States has been relocated to other areas. Roughly half of the displaced have stated they will not return to their former States (and this percentage will climb the longer they wait before being able to return).

What does this mean for the long term success of schools like LSU, Miss St & Ole Miss that rely so heavily on in-State talent? Since a large percentage of the displaced appear to be in Texas how will it affect recruiting in an area already known for producing large numbers of Div 1 football recruits?

I have a feeling that there are going to be some signifigant long term ramifications of the population shift caused by Katrina that won't be felt for years.

Anyways, just some food for thought...

 

[WestEnd]

LSU already does pretty well in Texas, so I expect them to be able to get a bunch of the LA kids that may displaced in TX ... they may actually end up doing BETTER in the long run if following up on some of their displaced recruits leads them to develop new contacts with HS coaches in TX that they hadn't been talking to before. I'd bet the real losers here would be the smaller LA schools ... the ones that already get the shit kicked out of them by the SEC teams tough OOC schedule.

 

[exhawg]

At least schools like South Central Louisiana State University can always rely on finding diamonds in the rough like this all time great LB.

 

[jlb1705]

The effect will be more short-term than long-term. Part of the proliferation of athletics among young people in that region is the attitude towards sports as a means of climbing the socio-economic ladder.

In plain English, that region is full of poor people, and people in that area will concentrate as much as ever on using athletics to attain a college education that may have otherwise not been possible, or to get into the NFL, NBA, etc. as a way of attaining a comfortable life and lifting themselves out of the conditions there.

I think the number of top-flight athletes that come out of that area will be just fine. Unfortunately, I think there will be more young men than ever who mistakenly place all their eggs in the athletics basket.