So I've mentioned in a couple of threads now that I have a statistics project thats due in about 7 weeks. For reasons that I won't bore you with, I can't use any of my work in the class. So, I've decided to make an attempt at analyzing recruiting data.

Credit goes to MainLion for this gem.

More after the break.

First, I need to get a solid database of individual recruiting rankings, preferably multiple solid databases. I've looked on Rivals, Scouts, ESPN, and 247 sports and found data; however, its not exactly in a form that I like. I'm really looking for the complete database. I'll settle for anything that I can put into an excel spreadsheet that contains the player name, star ranking, and school that player committed to so that I can either organize it within Excel or (preferably) use with Matlab. If anyone knows where I can find something that meets the criteria, please let me know. If anyone definitively knows that this type of data is a highly gaurded secret and not available to the general public, I'd also appreciate that info.

Operating under the assumption that I can get some usable data, I'd like to solicit some input from the BSD community at large. Ponder some of these questions, or answer your own.

In addition to being drafted, what determines the success of a college football player, besides the number of free tattoos and hookers he can get out of a booster?

What is a successful college football team? I'm not going to analyze team data for all 120 BCS schools, so a reasonable cutoff has to be made somewhere. Top 5? Top 10? Top 25?

If I were to analyze a few teams, specifically over the course of the data available, who would you be most interested in and why? Also, if you know of any databases where I can at least see starting rosters/contributing players for that team over the course of the time period analyzed, that would be appreciated. Once again, I'm trying to do work, just not too much of it.

Any other topics that have come up over the course of these OMGSTARZ debates would be useful as well.

Thanks in advance for the help.