Years ago, I was not just skeptical about recruiting rankings. I was disdainful. I had seen way too many kids who were pumped as 5-star thisses or thats who you took one look at in a college game and went: What? C'mon.
They just couldn't do at the major-college level that they had when everyone around them was much smaller, slower and weaker. It was sad, really. But it was not hard to tell that you needed to see a teenager against like competition to see if he could adapt.
To some extent, that's still true. The major-site rankings are a starting point but can't predict how any kid will translate to the big show with crowds 10-to-50 times larger.