@The Manhatter prefers the ESPN rankings to Rivals. I have no knowledgable opinion since I'm not very good at rating butts, so I'll defer to him here.
Here are the ESPN ratings for the guys visiting this weekend + Potter. Since there's no espn forum for competition, I'm thinking posting this information is kosher right @Matt Hall @Derek Young ? I think we can have a good discussion on this topic. If it's inappropriate, please feel free to delete mods
Matthew Pola-Mao - 80, 4 star for ESPN
Danielson Ike - 78, high 3 star for ESPN
Gavin Potter - 79, highest 3 star for ESPN
Thomas Grayson - 76, mid 3 star for ESPN
Kenyon Reed - not rated yet. Oftentimes, these guys get rated later after committing.
Here is the link for how ESPN has rated all our commits
http://www.espn.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/2306/class/2019
I did briefly look through how ESPN rated as our top players versus actual performance. They did a good job with the 2015 class, but for the most part, it was pretty off. I also took a look at Rivals rankings.
Recruiting is always an inexact science when we're looking at a bunch of 2 and 3 stars. (Obvious that 5 stars and 4 stars are more likely to "hit" on a percentage basis).
Based on my brief look from 2011 to present, I do think based on the historic data, Rivals ratings outperformed ESPN.
Perhaps someone or many people in this thread can do a detailed analysis between ESPN and Rivals forecasting for 2010 to 2017 class. I don't have time right now
.I think we can have a good discussion and breaking down the performance of the players using historic data and comparing to how ESPN and Rivals rated them.
For ease of research, here are two links for you guys. ESPN and Rivals commitment page starting in 2011. You can change the year with the drop down menu. For Rivals, after you click the link, click on rating to sort starting with the highest rating and working down
http://www.espn.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/2306/class/2011
https://kansasstate.rivals.com/commitments/football/2011
