2017 High School Football Stats Reveal Interesting Facts

With the end of another high school football season, we gathered and uploaded the 2017 season’s stats for over 60,000 recruits in the scoutSMART database. Our interactive visualization tools helped us uncover some interesting facts about the upcoming prospects that may help you determine where to look for your next recruits.

First, California is home to the largest number of recruits topping off at 7,230 athletes. Texas follows in second place with 6,468 athletes. Rounding out the top five are North Carolina, Florida and Georgia.

Based on the data, we have calculated a statSCORE for each recruit by analyzing historical stats and by using statistical analysis to assign a rating of 1 to 9 for each stat at each position. The rating is assigned by comparing a recruit’s stats to a national distribution of the stats for that position. Athletes from California have the highest average statSCORE with a rating of 4.29, followed very closely by Texas with an average rating of 4.19. Missouri comes in third with an average rating of 4.09.

We also calculate a skillSCORE for each recruit based on a coach’s assessment of the recruit’s skills based on position. The smartSCORE is derived from the recruit’s GPA. We combine these scores to create a fitSCORE. The overall fitSCORE is a weighted average of the player’s individual scores based on a coach’s weighting of the importance of each one. We will share additional facts we uncover in future posts.

You can dig into this data yourself with a free 60-day access pass to scoutSMART. You may even find your top prospects for next year’s recruiting class. Email me at scoutsmart@competitivesportsanalysis.com to schedule a demo and start your free trial.