20,000 people watching the basketball title game. Attendance at the Sweet Sixteen versus attendance at the football championships. Beyond that, gut feeling.

 

What is your proof?

I'll agree with the Sweet 16, it is well attended. The hard core basketball fans attend, as well as a lot of causal fans just for the experience. I went to a concert once, didn't really like the band, but the experience was fun.

 

I go on the basis of the fact that I have attended very few regular season basketball games in the last 10 years that had more then a few hundred people in attendance. But, almost all of the football games I have attended have had at least 2K people, and several have had close to 4 or 5K.

 

I also use the fact that the State of Kentucky produces a lot of college football players at various levels, but does not produce that many college basketball players. Some will point to the fact that a football team has 100 players and a basketball team has 15, but the burden is on basketball to prove the state is a basketball state, and if Kentucky is in fact a basketball state, the state should produce D1 basketball talent at, or greater, then the rate of other states. Football talent is much greater in the state.

 

In short, more fans follow football state wide then basketball. And, the state produces much more football talent that enters the college ranks then basketball. Nothing is absolute, there are pockets of the state that this not true for, but around the state as whole I believe this to be true.

^ I wonder how attendance numbers compare - total for football season versus total for basketball season. I would guess it is pretty even at most schools. Football games are a one time a week, 10 games only events. On an individual game basis, a football game is going to draw more than one basketball game. It is just the nature of the event/sport.

 

As far as producing athletes, the numbers game cannot be minimized. There is no doubt it is easier to move on from high school to college football than to college basketball. Just balancing the numbers disparity in the two sports, football needs to produce at least 4x as many college athletes as basketball just to be even.

^ I wonder how attendance numbers compare - total for football season versus total for basketball season. I would guess it is pretty even at most schools. Football games are a one time a week, 10 games only events. On an individual game basis, a football game is going to draw more than one basketball game. It is just the nature of the event/sport.

 

As far as producing athletes, the numbers game cannot be minimized. There is no doubt it is easier to move on from high school to college football than to college basketball. Just balancing the numbers disparity in the two sports, football needs to produce at least 4x as many college athletes as basketball just to be even.

All valid points, but if you are going to wear a title like "Basketball State" it should not be close, basketball should blow the other sports out of the water. There is no way that is the case in Kentucky. At minimum, it's a draw and that would not warrant a title such as "Basketball State".

All valid points, but if you are going to wear a title like "Basketball State" it should not be close, basketball should blow the other sports out of the water. There is no way that is the case in Kentucky. At minimum, it's a draw and that would not warrant a title such as "Basketball State".

 

And I agree KY is not an overwhelming basketball state. IMO, Indiana is more of a basketball state than KY. I do think KY is still more of a basketball state than a football state though. I think if you asked high school athletes if they could play any sport for a college team in Kentucky, basketball for UK or UL would win by a wide margin.

Scottie Turner OL from Highlands committed to play for Wittenberg today.

I'll comment on the original point and use our personal experience this year as an example. The in state schools (primarily EKU and Murray St) do a terrible job recruiting in state. My son is RJ Taylor who played at Tates Creek this year, and signed to play at Wofford next year. And outside of the norm recruiting, letters, invites to home games etc.....they never offered. Or really truly attempted to recruit him. Now, RJ had multiple offers from teams in their conference and Opportunities at the FBS level in the MAC/Conference USA/ and armed services. But thank goodness he got the opportunity at Wofford. A perennial Power in FCS, and basically an Ivy League education. I wouldn't want it any other way now, but on general principal EKU and Murray should have been offering. Wofford would come beat these teams like a drum. And I know there are plenty of other kids in the same scenario.

But their is a perception of Ky high school players out their in the recruiting world. And all your kids need to know it. KY kids are overlooked due to "lack of competition" thoughts. They look at your film, see that your good, them wonder if it's because you're playing against KY COMPETITION. If you want kids to be recruited at a higher level, they are going to need to camp at some schools and ball out and be seen in a different level competing against more national competition.

Another thing is if you took these kids and they played in GA or Florida with the same stats, they would have 10-12 FBS OFFERS (had several coaches tell me that this year during the recruiting process)

But I'll say this and let everyone else comment on it, from our area (Lexington) we haven't done a good job in the past with sending kids off to school. Most of our central Ky products that go away to school, don't stick it out and wash out and end up back here anyway. Too many examples for me to list. College coaches know that as well, so we have to do a better job preparing our players so that they can handle the grind of going away from home and making it work. Hopefully, we have prepared my son RJ for his road as he travels to Spartanburg, SC to play for Wofford. I know we are very excited at his opportunity.

Thanks for sharing Goingfor2. And good luck to your son. I am rooting for him on the next level and I am sure many more in the state are as well. Use the football to get a degree that will lead to a life of success.

Thanks for sharing Goingfor2. And good luck to your son. I am rooting for him on the next level and I am sure many more in the state are as well. Use the football to get a degree that will lead to a life of success.

 

Thank you very much.

The reason I commented and used Rj as the example is to make it personal. And not just a general convo. These Ky schools IMO would be better served trying to secure the top end talent in state then resting on trying to win with the 3rd, 4th, 5th tier guys from out of state. But hey, it is what it is.

So if you have a kid or kids that are looking for a great program. Wofford has made it a point to recruit this area. Just last year alone they were recruiting Kylan Nelson (Went to Ohio U) Emory Thonpson (Dartmouth) and if course RJ and others. If you get tired of looking for the in state schools doing what they do, send Wofford your film. They will give a good look. I'll help you with the contact if needed.

Scottie Turner OL from Highlands committed to play for Wittenberg today.

Added.

I think if you asked high school athletes if they could play any sport for a college team in Kentucky, basketball for UK or UL would win by a wide margin.

I'm not sure. I know in my area of the state that wouldn't be the case. Not sure if that is purely because the athletes like football more, or if they just know that is not an option.

 

I'm sure if you asked the football players what they wanted, they would say they wanted to play college football for a big program as well, but we all know that is not the case in most instances.

 

And, I'm not just talking about college, there are a lot of good players around the state will never play college in any sport but love one sport over the others.

The reason I commented and used Rj as the example is to make it personal. And not just a general convo. These Ky schools IMO would be better served trying to secure the top end talent in state then resting on trying to win with the 3rd, 4th, 5th tier guys from out of state. But hey, it is what it is.

So if you have a kid or kids that are looking for a great program. Wofford has made it a point to recruit this area. Just last year alone they were recruiting Kylan Nelson (Went to Ohio U) Emory Thonpson (Dartmouth) and if course RJ and others. If you get tired of looking for the in state schools doing what they do, send Wofford your film. They will give a good look. I'll help you with the contact if needed.

Thank you very much for sharing your personal story, and it is one that I have heard and experienced many times over the years. And, not to bring it up, but that is what I have been trying to get across in a thread in the college forum. It seems that most think that a "Great player" is a player from another state and can not be from Kentucky.

 

My son had a similar experience. He was recruited, pursued, and offered by several out of state D2 schools but could not get any attention by the in-state D2 schools. Likewise, he was recruited by several out of state FCS schools, but only one in-state FCS school. The others made zero contact. Now, I do have to give the in-state NAIA schools credit, most of them recruited him very hard, but still at the end of the day, some of them did not even recruit him. He has ended up at Georgetown and that is great in my book. He could have accepted and played on scholarship at out of state D2, and FCS schools but chose to play at Georgetown. I'm very happy with that.

 

With all that said, I don't understand why the in-state schools don't recruit their in-state talent more.

I'll comment on the original point and use our personal experience this year as an example. The in state schools (primarily EKU and Murray St) do a terrible job recruiting in state. My son is RJ Taylor who played at Tates Creek this year, and signed to play at Wofford next year. And outside of the norm recruiting, letters, invites to home games etc.....they never offered. Or really truly attempted to recruit him. Now, RJ had multiple offers from teams in their conference and Opportunities at the FBS level in the MAC/Conference USA/ and armed services. But thank goodness he got the opportunity at Wofford. A perennial Power in FCS, and basically an Ivy League education. I wouldn't want it any other way now, but on general principal EKU and Murray should have been offering. Wofford would come beat these teams like a drum. And I know there are plenty of other kids in the same scenario.

 

Thank you VERY much for posting this (I was wondering about RJ specifically--along with the other Ky. kids going to TN and IL FCS schools on scholarship).

 

RAM--this is exactly what I was referring to by noting the number of Ky kids going on full-rides to OUT-OF-STATE FCS schools. Why is it Illinois, SC, and Tennessee FCS schools think Ky kids are good enough to offer, but they aren't maybe getting offers from EKU or Murray?

 

I take vanloads of Ballard kids to Illinois U. every summer to their camp that has all the Illinois FCS schools' coaches there evaluating. My hope is that Ky. HS coaches blanket S. Illinois, E. Illinois, W. Illinois, UT-Martin, Wofford, with film & recruiting profiles. Maybe if they have 3 or 4 Ky kids do very well while there (like many have in the past at Wofford by the way) the in-state scholarship FCS schools will start offering and stop expecting our good kids to walk-on at their schools.

 

So good luck to RJ...and PLEASE keep us updated on here how successful he is down there.