There is no doubting that the best college athletes come from the South. If you don’t believe that, all you have to do is look at the facts. The 2016 signing period is essentially over and a ton of talents came from out of the South.
According to ESPN recruiting analyst Gerry Hamilton, a large number of the recruits came from states between North Carolina and Texas. The largest number of those recruits came from the Lone Star State.
State of Texas 2016 class: 359 players signed #FBS w/165 of those Power5 (46%). #Big12 89, #SEC 36, #Pac12 20, #B1G 15 & #ACC 5.
— Gerry Hamilton (@HamiltonESPN) February 9, 2016
He also reported that more than half of the FBS schools signed a player from Texas.
State of Texas 2016 class: 72 of 128 #FBS programs signed a player from Lone Star State. 38 of 64 #Power5 programs inked Texas HS player
— Gerry Hamilton (@HamiltonESPN) February 9, 2016
Nearly half of the Power Five signees came from those states, while more than half of the entire number of signees in the FBS came from those states as well.
Nearly 50% of Power5 signees from 8 states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina & North Carolina…
— Gerry Hamilton (@HamiltonESPN) February 9, 2016
#FBS minus service academies (125 teams): 2,343 HS SR's signed FBS. 1,192 (50.9%) from Tx, La, Miss, Ala, Ga, Fla, SoCar & North Carolina
— Gerry Hamilton (@HamiltonESPN) February 9, 2016
Of those remaining recruits, 248 came from California, which means only 903 recruits in the 2016 class came from the other 41 states. Talk about domination.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the next few Heisman Trophy winners come from the southern states like six of the last ten.
