Class of 2011 Look Back

As we head towards Signing Day, let's take a look back at last year's class to get an idea where the players come from.

Ever wonder why it seems schools spend more time in one area of the country than another? Or why rankings tend to be weighted more heavily towards one area of the country than another? Can the home state support a top ranked team by itself? More than one? 

Nearly 2,500 high school players signed Division One scholarships as members of the Class of 2011, and here is a breakdown on where they're from and a look at some trends looking back two years to the Class of 2009.

• The South reigns - At 931 total signees, the South is more than twice as big as the next biggest region in the nation (Midland 456).
  
  
• Everything is bigger in Texas - Texas produced the most D1. With 360 total signed, Texas signs more players than the East region and equals the number of the Midwest. 

  Region	#Signees
  South	931
  Midland	456
  West	429
  Midwest	360
  East	260
  Map

  
  
  
• Where BCS Schools come to recruit - Florida (340) finished second to Texas in total signees but actually had more player sign with BCS schools with 202 to Texas' 197.
  
  
• Talent concentrations - While the Top 5 talent producing states Florida, Texas, California, Georgia, and Ohio only contain 1/3 of the nation's population, they produced more BCS Signees than the other 45 states combined.
  
  
• But you should see the Lacrosse teams - The states of Wyoming, Vermont, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire didn't have a high school player sign a college football scholarship.
  
  
• Does everyone play football? - The five states with the highest ratio of signees per capita are all in the South region, led by Louisiana.
  
  
• On the Rise - Among the states that produced at least 10 signees in 2009 (Class of 2009 Look Back) ,  Kansas had the biggest increase with a 91% jump from 11 in '09 to 21 in '11.
  
  
• On the Decline - Among those same states, Connecticut and Nevada saw the biggest drop off in 2011 with roughly half as many players signed this class.

State	D1		State	BCS		State	Pop Millions	D1/10K
TX	360		FL	202		LA	4.5	0.191
FL	340		TX	197		FL	18.5	0.183
CA	252		CA	124		MS	3.0	0.176
GA	173		GA	111		GA	9.8	0.176
OH	145		OH	78		AL	4.7	0.168
LA	86		NC	59		TX	24.8	0.145
NC	80		PA	39		HI	1.3	0.131
AL	79		VA	38		OH	11.5	0.126
IL	64		IL	37		OK	3.7	0.122
PA	59		LA	35		AR	2.9	0.100
MI	56		AL	35		UT	2.8	0.097
MS	52		SC	34		SC	4.6	0.096
VA	52		NJ	32		NC	9.4	0.085
TN	48		MS	31		DE	0.9	0.079
OK	45		TN	28		TN	6.3	0.076
SC	44		MI	26		KS	2.8	0.075
AZ	42		AZ	22		CA	37.0	0.068
NJ	42		OK	21		VA	7.9	0.066
MD	36		MD	20		AZ	6.6	0.064
IN	35		IN	20		MD	5.7	0.063
NY	32		NY	19		MI	10.0	0.056
AR	29		KS	18		IN	6.4	0.054
WA	28		WI	15		NE	1.8	0.050
UT	27		WA	14		CO	5.0	0.050
CO	25		KY	14		IL	12.9	0.050
WI	22		AR	13		NJ	8.7	0.048
KS	21		MA	11		PA	12.6	0.047
KY	20		UT	10		KY	4.3	0.046
MO	19		MO	9		NV	2.6	0.045
HI	17		DC	9		NM	2.0	0.045
MA	14		MN	9		WA	6.7	0.042
DC	13		OR	8		WI	5.7	0.039
NV	12		IA	8		MO	6.0	0.032
OR	11		CO	7		OR	3.8	0.029
CAN*	10		HI	7		IA	3.0	0.027
MN	10		NE	6		ID	1.5	0.026
NE	9		DE	6		MA	6.6	0.021
NM	9		CAN*	5		MN	5.3	0.019
IA	8		NM	4		CT	3.5	0.017
DE	7		CT	4		WV	1.8	0.016
CT	6		NV	3		NY	19.5	0.016
ID	4		WV	2		ND	0.6	0.015
WV	3		ND	1		AK	0.7	0.014
AS**	2		SD	1		SD	0.8	0.012
AK	1		ID	0		MT	1.0	0.010
ME	1		AS**	0		ME	1.3	0.008
MT	1		AK	0		NH	1.3	0.000
ND	1		ME	0		RI	1.1	0.000
SD	1		MT	0		VT	0.6	0.000
NH	0		NH	0		WY	0.5	0.000
RI	0		RI	0
VT	0		VT	0
WY	0		WY	0

*Canada
**American Samoa

Percentage Increase / Decrease from 2009

State	2009	2011	% Increase
KS	11	21	90.9%
WI	12	22	83.3%
WA	19	28	47.4%
AR	20	29	45.0%
NY	23	32	39.1%
NC	66	80	21.2%
CA	220	252	14.5%
MS	46	52	13.0%
AZ	38	42	10.5%
GA	157	173	10.2%

State	2009	2011	% Decrease
CT	13	6	-53.8%
NV	22	12	-45.5%
HI	28	17	-39.3%
MD	53	36	-32.1%
VA	73	52	-28.8%
IA	11	8	-27.3%
PA	75	59	-21.3%
MO	24	19	-20.8%
KY	24	20	-16.7%
OK	54	45	-16.7%

Scott Kennedy is the Director of Scouting for Scout.com