2021 Scholarship Offers

There's always a daily flow of nonsense on the internet's social sites. Every now and then you can stumble across something interesting. I recently stumbled across this ranking of college's by their scholarship offers for the 2021 recruiting class. I found it interesting.

Rank	Team	2021 Offers
1	Nebraska	392
2	Tennessee	392
3	Kansas	367
4	West Virginia	367
5	Kentucky	317
6	Pittsburgh	313
7	Georgia Tech	308
8	Louisville	306
9	Virginia Tech	305
10	Michigan State	299
11	Syracuse	288
12	Mississippi	285
13	Boston College	278
14	Indiana	277
15	Iowa State	276
16	Michigan	275
17	Penn State	270
18	Maryland	265
19	Arizona State	263
20	Florida State	255
21	Vanderbilt	254
22	Rutgers	252
23	Virginia	245
24	LSU	243
25	Arkansas	241
26	Florida	238
27	Miami	234
28	Duke	228
29	Washington State	225
30	Colorado	221
31	South Carolina	221
32	Missouri	216
33	Purdue	209
34	Minneosta	207
35	Oregon	200
36	Arizona	197
37	Georgia	196
38	Texas A&M	194
39	Auburn	193
40	Alabama	185
41	Baylor	181
42	Wake Forest	171
43	Utah	169
44	Mississippi State	166
45	Oklahoma	165
46	Illinois	158
47	USC	158
48	Ohio State	156
49	NC State	154
50	Kansas State	142
51	Texas	138
52	Notre Dame	130
53	Texas Tech	129
54	North Carolina	126
55	Wisconsin	120
56	Oklahoma State	117
57	Oregon State	111
58	Iowa	102
59	California	97
60	Northwestern	94
61	TCU	80
62	Washington	76
63	UCLA	75
64	Clemson	69
65	Stanford	42

Perhaps, I'm just naive but I was surprised by these scholarship offer numbers. It's only May of the 2021 recruiting cycle and colleges are approaching 400 scholarship offers. I suppose that I expected it to be a bit more personal. 150 offers by May feels excessive to me. Do some of the coaches of the teams at the top of this ranking simply offer every five-star player? There are only 85 scholarships to give. How many available scholarships can a college possibly have in a given year? What if every player with a Nebraska offer suddenly accepted that offer? Do they have to go back to those kids and yank the promise that they made. "No offer for you!" It doesn't feel fair or "nice" to the kids. Then again, when has college recruiting ever been a "nice" business. 

As a Cal alum, I like seeing Justin Wilcox and his coaches at the lower end of the offer list. It's shows a more personal touch. The Golden Bears typically add about 25 scholarship players in a given year. Of the 97 offers, they currently have seven verbal commitments. I love what Wilcox is doing in Berkeley. On-field success is starting to come. He's building a program in a manner that usually draws the attention of more prestigious football programs. Hopefully, he stays for a while. He and his coaches are bringing in better football talent with each year. If he remains committed to Berkeley and can convince recruits that he's committed that should continue. Presently, I'd guess that Cal has to offer about 150 to get to 25 commits. With more on-field success, they should get to 25 much quicker.

Silly Stanford. They swim in such a small pool.