I think there is a dynamic out there which is consistently overlooked in the discussion about MU losing the in state kids to other P5 programs. I think the thought process and atmosphere among high school kids in St. Louis, not just athletes, is to go somewhere other than Missouri if you have the opportunity. I will use my own daughter as an example. She is not an athlete, but she is an excellent student and her high school academic record and ACT test score were at the levels wherein she was eligible for significant scholarship money both from Mizzou and a variety of other excellent schools. She received a lot of encouragement from the faculty and advisers at her high school to look at options other than MU, and received almost no encouragement about Mizzou as an option.
My wife and I did not have enough money to seriously consider the idea of paying the out of state tuition rates for what would essentially be the same quality of education, and her scholarship money at MU made it by far the best option in terms of quality and price, even though she received generous offers from many other schools. She is in the second semester of her junior year at Mizzou and just loves it there.
Both my wife and I are huge Mizzou people, and she was raised in a full blown positive Mizzou environment. She attended tailgates at Mizzou football games from the age of 6 on, and has siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles who all attended MU and love it. Yet when it came time to pick a college, she liked several schools more than Mizzou, especially the University of Washington and Ohio State. If I had been in a position to easily cover the increased tuition costs at those schools, she would have chosen them both over Mizzou, irrespective of the fact that she had been a Tiger her entire life, and that her mother and I both strongly preferred that she attend Mizzou. If she had been an athlete with full scholarship offers to multiple universities, including Mizzou, I have no doubt that she would have picked one other than Mizzou, much to my chagrin and dismay.
This is the dynamic that is in play with these in-state kids, and I believe there is no sales technique, recruiting pitch or closing skill which is going to change it. Better performance on the field will help on the margins, but will never change it. The recruiting victories which Pinkel had with Sheldon Richardson, DGB, and Maclin were attributable in large part to the families and advisers of those players picking MU for them, or at least heavily influencing them to pick MU over the others. This is the exception rather than the rule.
One other thought. Nearly all of my daughter's best friends at Mizzou are not from Missouri (several are from Illinois) and they all love it there. The focus should be on continuing to build on what is already an excellent school that provides great opportunities in order to make it more and more appealing, and to hope that this head coach and his coaching staff become excellent at evaluating talent and developing it. I think Mizzou is becoming a very attractive destination for talented players from all around the Midwest and the SEC footprint. It is the job of this coaching staff to identify those talented players, bring them in here, and develop them as men and football players. I think they accomplished a lot with this recruiting class.
My wife and I did not have enough money to seriously consider the idea of paying the out of state tuition rates for what would essentially be the same quality of education, and her scholarship money at MU made it by far the best option in terms of quality and price, even though she received generous offers from many other schools. She is in the second semester of her junior year at Mizzou and just loves it there.
Both my wife and I are huge Mizzou people, and she was raised in a full blown positive Mizzou environment. She attended tailgates at Mizzou football games from the age of 6 on, and has siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles who all attended MU and love it. Yet when it came time to pick a college, she liked several schools more than Mizzou, especially the University of Washington and Ohio State. If I had been in a position to easily cover the increased tuition costs at those schools, she would have chosen them both over Mizzou, irrespective of the fact that she had been a Tiger her entire life, and that her mother and I both strongly preferred that she attend Mizzou. If she had been an athlete with full scholarship offers to multiple universities, including Mizzou, I have no doubt that she would have picked one other than Mizzou, much to my chagrin and dismay.
This is the dynamic that is in play with these in-state kids, and I believe there is no sales technique, recruiting pitch or closing skill which is going to change it. Better performance on the field will help on the margins, but will never change it. The recruiting victories which Pinkel had with Sheldon Richardson, DGB, and Maclin were attributable in large part to the families and advisers of those players picking MU for them, or at least heavily influencing them to pick MU over the others. This is the exception rather than the rule.
One other thought. Nearly all of my daughter's best friends at Mizzou are not from Missouri (several are from Illinois) and they all love it there. The focus should be on continuing to build on what is already an excellent school that provides great opportunities in order to make it more and more appealing, and to hope that this head coach and his coaching staff become excellent at evaluating talent and developing it. I think Mizzou is becoming a very attractive destination for talented players from all around the Midwest and the SEC footprint. It is the job of this coaching staff to identify those talented players, bring them in here, and develop them as men and football players. I think they accomplished a lot with this recruiting class.
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