Peak Perspective: Recruiting Pipelines in the 2024 Class

In December of 2020, we established state and area recruiting pipelines for each team. Here is that original post for reference. Then, the past few years, we have analyzed how teams recruited in relation to their pipelines, as you can tell by the 2022 version, and the 2023 version. For this year’s post, recruiting pipelines from 2023 have been added to the list of existing states and cities, and 2024 additions are stated added in after.

Recruiting is the lifeblood of a college program. Successful recruiting can be due to many factors, including winning tradition, top facilities, and player development. Perhaps the most crucial factor of all, however, is relationships.

Coaches build relationships with players and sell them on turning them into better players and winning seasons. College coaches also build relationships with high school coaches, which can serve a few different purposes. High school coaches can serve as a middle ground between a recruit and a college coach; the recruit already has trust established with his high school coach, and if that coach trusts the college coach, the chance of the recruit trusting the college coach increases. There is also a long-term benefit, as high school coaches can tell their current players which college programs may develop them based on past experiences and steer them to programs where they will succeed. Similarly, high school coaches can be honest with college coaches about how good a player is or how hard they will work. Bottom line: it pays to foster those relationships.

When college programs find sustained success in a particular state, it’s described using the term “recruiting pipeline.” Likewise, college teams can also have pipelines in specific cities or areas of a state or even specific high school programs. This article will examine each of the twelve Mountain West Conference teams’ rosters, looking at the pipelines they may or may not have in states. For this post, city pipelines are used instead of specific high schools because the number of players from a city may point to more accurate success than how often they recruit from a high school.

A pipeline is defined here as any state where three or more players are from or any city where two or more players are from. To create a new pipeline in the current class, a team has to sign two or more players from the same state or city.

It’s important to note that the number of pipelines or even a school having recruiting pipelines isn’t necessarily an indicator of recruiting success, although it does help. Some schools go back to the same states and cities year after year, while other schools recruit more nationally or simply wherever they can find the best talent. None of these approaches are necessarily better than the other. See below for how each team steered into or away from their established pipelines.

Keep in mind that some of the players from the city where the team is located are walk-ons, but that doesn’t mean the program doesn’t have a pipeline in the area. In fact, one could argue it’s more likely they have a pipeline there if players want to walk on.

Note: Rosters are current as of sometime in December.

I did not look at the rosters in order to update the pipelines as I intended this year. So I removed the numbers for each pipeline, but kept them listed. I will update everything for next year to properly illustrate how big of a pipeline each city and state is.

Air Force

Note: All of the Air Force pipelines listed are per 247. Thus, they do not reflect every Falcon signee in the 2023 class.

State Pipelines:

Georgia

Texas

Ohio

Colorado

California

Florida

Arizona

North Carolina

Illinois

Tennessee

Alabama

Washington

Arkansas

Hawaii

Idaho

Indiana

Maryland

Michigan

Minnesota

Utah

Wisconsin

City pipelines:

Sacramento, CA 2

Aurora, CO 2

Colorado Springs, CO 2

Atlanta, GA 3

Canton, GA 2

Roswell, GA 2

Naperville, IL 2

Grand Rapids, MI 2

Youngstown, OH 2

Dallas, TX 3

The Falcons don’t need traditional pipelines as they arguably recruit nationally compared to every other team in the Mountain West. The academy can attract players from all over due to what they offer as a school. If someone is interested in entering the academy, it doesn’t matter where they are from.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 9 Texas, 4 California, 2 Florida, 2 Michigan, 1 Georgia, 1 North Carolina, 1 Washington, 1 Wisconsin

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 2 Prosper (new), 1 Dallas

Bottom Line: As with any big class, the commits are spread through a number of states. Like other Mountain teams, Air Force heavily recruits Texas and California. But their reach also extends all over the country, finding talent in states such as Florida, Michigan, Georgia, and even North Carolina. On the city pipeline end, their focus tends to be more narrow. While they have inroads in a number of different cities, this time around, the Falcons focused on two cities in Texas to bring players into their ranks.

Boise State

States pipelines:

California

Idaho

Texas

Washington

Florida

Oregon

Colorado

International

Utah

Georgia

City pipelines:

Boise, ID 4

East Palo Alto, CA. 2

Eagle, ID 3

Fort Worth, TX 2

Gig Harbor, WA. 2

Houston, TX 2

Los Gatos, CA. 2

Meridian, ID 6

Nampa, ID 2

Pittsburg, CA. 2

San Diego, CA. 3

Tacoma, WA. 2

Yorba Linda, CA. 3

Woodinville, WA. 2

The Broncos do the majority of their work in California and Texas, but over the years they have spread out to Arizona, Utah, and areas of the Pacific Northwest. Of course, they also do work in their home state of Idaho, and have stepped up the international market the past few years.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 9 California, 3 Arizona, 3 Texas, 1 Idaho, 1 Oregon, 1 Utah, 1 International

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 1 Boise, 2 Mission Viejo (new)

Bottom Line: The Broncos continue to dive deeper into their established recruiting states, investing heavily in Arizona this cycle and also landing their fourth international recruit in recent years. California will likely always be their main recruiting state, but the emphasis in Texas and other areas ensures they can find top talent in different areas. This year, they added a new city pipeline by signing two players from Mission Viejo, California.

Colorado State

State pipelines:

Colorado

California

Florida

Georgia

Texas

Louisiana

City pipelines:

Arvada, Colo. 2

Aurora, Colo. 5

Austin, Texas 2

Boulder, Colo. 3

Compton, Calif. 2

Denver, Colo. 3

Fort Collins, Colo. 3

Fresno, Calif. 2

Greenwood Village, Colo. 2

Las Vegas, Nev. 3

Lehi, Utah 2

Los Angeles, Calif. 2

Pasadena, Calif. 2

San Diego, Calif. 2

South Los Angeles, Calif. 2

The Rams have one of the more unique state lists for pipelines. They commit to their in-state talent and, like everyone else, spend time in California. However, while the rest of the conference mainly stays West, CSU looks southeast. This may, in part, be from the current coaching staff, which is used to recruiting in that area of the country. However it came about, it’s working for them, and they don’t always have to compete with their conference-mates.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 13 California, 3 Colorado

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 1 Arvada, 2 Littleton (new), 2 Long Beach (new), 2 Racho Cucamona (new)

Bottom Line: The Rams continue to do the majority of their work in the traditional Mountain West state of California and their home state of Colorado. They poured into a few new states, but not enough to make a new pipeline. On the city pipeline side of things, they carved out three new cities and added another from an existing city. Colorado State has become a destination for SoCal recruits.

Fresno State

State pipelines:

California

Texas

Arizona

Hawaii

City pipelines:

Bakersfield, Calif 2

Brentwood, Calif 2

Clovis, Calif 6

Corona, Calif 2

Fresno, Calif. 5

Gardena, Calif 2

Hanford, Calif 3

Las Vegas, Nev 3

Los Angeles, Calif 4

Modesto, Calif 2

Moreno Valley, Calif 2

Novato, Calif 2

Oceanside, Calif 2

Sacramento, Calif 2

San Diego, Calif 4

San Francisco, Calif 3

Tracy, Calif 2

Vancouver, Wash 2

Being in talent-rich California, Fresno State only recruits outside of their state when they want to. They find more than enough players in different Cali areas but have shown the ability to dip into neighboring states from time to time. Though they are among the leaders for the most players from one state in the conference, they have made inroads in other states that produce talent annually.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 15 California, 1 Arizona, 1 Texas

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 1 Bakersfield, 1 Clovis, 3 Fresno, 2 Long Beach (new), 2 Visalia (new)

Bottom Line: To the surprise of no one, the Bulldogs stayed within California for the bulk of their class and did so successfully. They also continued to branch out a bit into some other states like Arizona and Texas. They added two new city pipelines in their home state of California and also recruited heavily in their own backyard, adding three players from Fresno this time around.

Hawaii

State pipelines:

Hawaii

California

American Samoa

Texas

Florida

City pipelines:

Aua, American Samoa 2

’Ewa Beach, O’ahu 3

Honolulu, O’ahu 16

Houston, Texas 2

Kailua, O‘ahu 2

Kane’ohe, O’ahu 2

Kapolei, O’ahu 3

Las Vegas, Nev. 3

Riverside, Calif. 3

San Diego, Calif. 2

Wai’anae, O’ahu 3

Waimanalo, O’ahu 5

Waipahu, O’ahu 2

To the surprise of no one, the Hawaii football program gets the majority of their recruits from Hawaii. They can’t always keep the top talent on the islands, but they get enough of the talent. Like everyone else, they also dip into California and get quite a bit from that state. Texas is a mild surprise, while Florida is a significant surprise. The Rainbow Warriors have also taken advantage of proximity and mine for talent in American Samoa, which is often full of athletic projects. They are more diverse than previously thought.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 9 Hawaii, 3 California, 3 Nevada (new), 1 Texas

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 2 ’Ewa Beach, 5 Honolulu, 1 Las Vegas, 1 Riverside

Bottom Line: Hawaii went back to the tried and true recruiting areas in this class, while also developing a new one. They do the bulk of their work in the islands and also California. However, they made a concentrated effort to mine more talent from Nevada and that paid off this cycle. The city pipelines reflected this as well, showing the Rainbow Warriors going to reliable cities in their main three states. Recruiting transitional areas worked well for them this year.

Nevada

State pipelines:

California

Texas

Nevada

Arizona

Hawaii

City pipelines:

Columbia, S.C. 2

Honolulu, Hawaii 3

Lancaster, Calif. 3

Las Vegas, Nev. 5

Long Beach, Calif. 2

Los Angeles, Calif. 2

Missouri City, Texas 2

Norco, Calif. 3

Palmdale, Calif. 2

Portland, Ore. 2

Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. 2

Reno, Nev. 9

Sacramento, Calif. 3

San Diego, Calif. 4

Sparks, Nev. 4

It is a bit of a surprise that Nevada does not recruit their state as much as they do other states. It’s still their second-largest recruiting state, but it’s much closer to third than first. Instead, they put almost all of their efforts into California, and it pays dividends. Other than that, they don’t have too much uniqueness about them. They hit Arizona, which makes sense, as well as Texas and Hawaii, all traditional Mountain West recruiting states. Thus, it all makes sense.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 3 Texas, 1 Arizona, 1 California, 1 Hawaii, 1 Nevada

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 1 Reno

Bottom Line: This year, likely out of necessity, the Wolf Pack spread out their recruiting efforts to quite a few different states. They still managed to hit five of their pipeline states, but it was a much more balanced effort. In a bit of a surprise, Texas led the way with the most players from one state. Looking at the cities, and it’s clear that the new Nevada staff is trying to branch out on their own and establish their own pipelines. Reno was the only city where they found a player from the previously established cities on this list. It will be interesting to see what the staff does in the years to come.

New Mexico

State pipelines:

California

New Mexico

Texas

Arizona

Florida

City pipelines:

Albuquerque, N.M. 13

Anaheim, Calf. 2

Dallas, Texas 3

El Paso, Texas 3

Houston, Texas 2

Irvine, Calif. 3

Long Beach, Calif. 2

Los Lunas, N.M. 4

Oakland, Calif. 3

Rio Rancho, N.M. 14

Rohnert Park, Calif. 2

San Diego, Calif. 2

Tampa, Fla. 2

The Lobos turn to California to find the majority of their players. However, a close second is home-state New Mexico. While not known for churning out tons of top-end talent each year, it’s important not to let the top in-state talent leave the state. They are neighbors with Texas and Arizona, so it’s good to see those states getting a lot of attention from the Lobos. Florida is a bit of a surprise, but in a good way as it shows they are committed to finding players where they can.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 3 New Mexico, 1 Arizona, 1 Texas

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 1 Albuquerque

Bottom Line: The Lobos were in a recruiting flux, and it showed up a bit here in this exercise. They were able to sign a number of players in their home state of New Mexico. Perhaps that was an intentional move to establish a presence, or perhaps it was out of necessity. Maintaining inroads in the neighboring states of Arizona and Texas is a smart idea and was good to see in this class. On the city side of things, they found a local recruit in Albuquerque, which is helpful for both the present and the future.

San Diego State

State pipelines:

California

Nevada

Texas

Arizona

Hawaii

City pipelines:

Chula Vista, CA 2

Honolulu, HI 3

Inglewood, CA 2

Las Vegas, NV 5

Oakland, CA 3

Pasadena, CA 3

Reno, NV 2

San Diego, CA 12

Scottsdale, AZ 2

Temecula, CA 2

The Aztecs understandably don’t have to leave the state much at all, instead choosing to recruit right in their own backyard for most of their recruits. Although they do seem to hit Nevada pretty well, almost as well as the two MWC schools in Nevada. San Diego State also dips into a few traditional Mountain West states (Arizona, Texas, and Hawaii) to fill out their class ranks.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 11 California, 2 Texas, 1 Arizona, 1 Nevada,

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 2 Chula Vista, 1 Reno

Bottom Line: For another year, the Aztecs put together a great class and did so mainly by recruiting in their own backyard in southern California. This is really their main source of recruiting and they have excelled at it the past few seasons. Also, SDSU continues to dip into Texas successfully, using them as their secondary state, and then they went to Arizona and Nevada to find a few players too. Looking at their city pipelines and they leaned upon two established ones, one in California and one in Nevada.

San Jose State

State pipelines:

California

Arizona

Texas

City pipelines:

Antioch, Calif. 2

Brentwood, Calif. 2

Carson, Calif. 3

Fresno, Calif. 2

Honolulu, Hawai’i 3

Las Vegas, Nev. 2

Long Beach, Calif. 4

Loomis, Calif. 2

Los Angeles, Calif. 2

Oakland, Calif. 4

Orange, Calif. 2

Palmdale, Calif. 2

Sacramento, Calif. 3

San Diego, Calif. 2

San Jose, Calif. 2

San Marcos, Calif. 2

Simi Valley, Calif. 2

Santa Clara, Calif. 2

Santa Clarita, Calif. 3

Stockton, Calif. 2

Temecula, Calif. 2

Vallejo, Calif. 2

The Spartans rarely leave California for their new talent, and quite frankly, they haven’t needed to. They are in a talent-rich area with the Bay and have committed to mining it for their players for years. They have been an under the radar good recruiting team in the conference, which becomes pretty easy when there is little need to leave their own backyard.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 16 California, 1 Texas

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 2 San Mateo (new), 1 Long Beach, 1 Sacramento

Bottom Line: The Spartans recruit California at a higher rate than pretty much anyone, with their roster made up almost exclusively of in-state players. This time around, the disparity between Cali and everywhere else is apparent and shows how they have been able to develop successful inroads in the Bay Area and other parts of the state. San Jose State also continues to dip into Texas as needed, They developed a new city pipeline to go along with the other two they continued in the 2024 class.

UNLV

State pipelines

California

Nevada

Texas

Arizona

Hawaii

Washington

Oregon

City pipelines:

Atlanta, GA 3

Compton, CA 2

Houston, TX 3

Kansas City, MO 2

Las Vegas, NV 5

Lehi, UT 2

Little Rock, AR 2

Los Angeles, CA 3

Rancho Cucamonga, CA 2

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Rebels do the bulk of their recruiting in the state of California. They clean up in Nevada as well, leading the way among the schools which heavily recruit there. They feature the traditional recruiting beds of Texas, Arizona, and Hawaii and the minority of schools that can snag recruits from Pacific Northwest states like Oregon and Washington.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 7 Nevada, 3 California, 3 Missouri (new), 3 Texas, 2 Arizona, 1 Hawaii

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 3 Henderson (new), 4 Las Vegas

Bottom Line: The Rebels mostly stuck to the usual recruiting states this staff established last year. They made good on their promise to recruit locally in Nevada, specifically their two city pipelines in Henderson and Las Vegas. UNLV did some good work in California, Texas, and some other western states. They were also able to develop a new pipeline after a successful year recruiting players in Missouri. Patterns are starting to develop, but the staff is still new enough that things could change a bit from year to year.

Utah State

State pipelines:

Utah

California

Texas

Florida

Oregon

Washington

Arizona

City pipelines:

Bentonville, Arkansas 2

Covina, California 2

Fruita, Colorado 2

Honolulu, Hawaii 2

Layton, Utah 2

Lehi, Utah 6

Meridian, Idaho 3

Orem, Utah 2

Provo, Utah 3

Rocklin, California 2

Salt Lake City, Utah 5

San Diego, California 2

Sandy, Utah 2

Smithfield, Utah 3

Temecula, California 2

West Jordan, Utah 2

As expected, the Aggies pick up most of their talent from in-state Utah, a fertile recruiting state. Along with every other MWC school, they find many California players, plus other standard states like Texas and Arizona. On the other hand, they are one of the few schools to glean from the Pacific Northwest (although they are closer than other schools) and, perhaps more surprising, have numerous Florida players.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 6 California, 3 Texas, 3 Utah, 1 Arizona, 1 Florida, 1 Hawaii

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 2 Huntington Beach (new), 1 Lehi

Bottom Line: The Aggies continue to recruit Utah better than anyone in the conference, and that was apparent in both their state and city rankings. But they aren’t a one-state program, as they found success in California and Texas, while also dabbling in in Arizona, Florida, and Hawaii. Utah State was able to establish a new city pipeline in California and continue one of their best ones in the state of Utah. They branched out more than they have in past years, which may be an anomaly or a sign of things to come.

Wyoming

State pipelines:

California

Colorado

Texas

Wyoming

Nebraska

Illinois

Minnesota

Wisconsin

City pipelines:

Aurora, Colo. 2

Bakersfield, Calif. 2

Casper, Wyo. 3

Fort Collins, Colo. 2

Gillette, Wyo. 2

Highlands Ranch, Colo. 2

Houston, Texas 3

Laramie, Wyo. 3

McKinney, Texas 2

Mission Viejo, Calif. 2

Omaha, Neb. 3

San Antonio, Texas 3

Wyoming has some of the most non-traditional pipeline states compared to the rest of the Mountain West, mainly due to Bohl’s time at North Dakota State. They are the only program to recruit the midwest with any regularity and do so pretty well. Surprisingly they still recruit the traditional MWC states, and the Cowboys recruit those pretty well too.

States pipelines in the 2024 Class: 6 Texas, 4 Missouri (new), 3 Minnesota, 2 Illinois, 1 California, 1 Colorado, 1 Nebraska, 1 Wyoming

City pipelines in the 2024 Class: 1 Houston

Bottom Line: The Cowboys often sign players in states their conference foes don’t recruit, and this year was similar. While they were in familiar states like Texas, California, and Colorado, they signed players in less common states like Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, and of course, Wyoming. The program has established all of these states as pipelines over the years, finding success in these territories. On the city pipeline front, it was more of a shift to unknown territory, with Houston being the lone representative of the tried and true pipelines from previous classes.

Conclusion:

Again, the number of pipelines a school has or even a specific state or city pipeline does not equal success in and of itself. Instead, this data gathering should be seen more as the foundation and approach each school takes in recruiting. Use this post as a reference when looking at a team’s recruiting class each season. Suppose a team compiles a class with fewer players from a state they typically recruit well in or signs several players from a state they usually don’t recruit in. In that case, it may point to a poor recruiting year or a newfound focus in a different area. Likewise, if a school lands a player from a city or area they have signed players in recent years, it could be due to the relationship they have built over the years.