The Billy Beanes of Recruiting

I came across an interesting article in today's Atlanta Journal Constitution about three economists that have developed a computer program to predict where the Rivals.com Top 100 players will end up. Having been involved in the recruitment of student-athletes at a younger age, I am not sold on the program, but neither are the three who developed it. Obviously, multiple intangibles that can not be included in a computer program play a role in recruits' decisions as do some of the variables that the three include. For instance, I imagine their program struggles mightily with predicting recruits to sign with Alabama, since it is unable to take into account Bama's going rate for top recruits.

While on the subject of Bama and the going rate for recruits, the Memphis Commercial Appeal recently published a nice article on Albert Means and his new career - probably a $150k pay cut from his days on the Capstone.