Researchers Can Predict Where Recruits Go

by • Featured

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa researchers are able to predict with a high probability where football recruits will ultimately attend college by analyzing Twitter accounts.

The same formula can be utilized in baseball, according to the lead researcher Kristina Bigsby.

If coaches across the USA utilize this template in the major team sports, it may be a way to save millions of dollars in needless recruiting. Why should recruiters spend time and energy on recruits who have their minds set on another school?

The Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS) at Iowa conducted a study that centered on creating a data model on how to predict which universities would win college football recruiting wars.

They focused on data and insight from Twitter posts from those athletes and detected patterns leading up to commitment day.

The resulting data allowed college coaches and recruiters to modify their own schedules and efforts to go after the prospects they deemed the best fit and the most likely to commit.

Since college recruiting season never stops, it’s probably during the season itself when some of that social media activity reveals itself the most.

A high school athlete may post about last night’s game or the upcoming game. It might be a comment about a school which invited him for a visit, who’s contacting him the most, and in talking to the general media about the current status of the recruiting process. It all ends up on social media.

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