When reading up on recruiting in Jordan's recent OSU Camp Notes thread and other recent recruiting threads I cant help but notice how many recruits have Top 3's or Top 5's that list OSU, Michigan, ND, etc. I realize this isn't ground breaking news to anyone.

These are traditional Midwestern power schools, with rich history. However, to today's high school athletes does rich tradition matter? Are high school freshman and sophomore quarterbacks aware of Michigan's past successes? Think about it.....Michigan hasnt been Nationally relevant or even Big 10 relevant, albeit for 2011, in closing in on a decade. They have had losing seasons when many of these high school juniors and seniors were in middle school.  They have had back-to-back coaches struggling to win 8-9 games and collapsing during the Big 10 season. I think it is safe to add ND to this as well. Take away the national championship run, ND has had little success.

I relate this to the great Celtic-Lakers rivalry. I am 36 and was blessed to have watched the Bird-led Celtics with my dad when I was a youngster. This helped shape my view of sports and sports teams. However, during my young adult life the Celtics were in-part led by Antoine Walker and his bloated, yet horribly unefficient stats. This changed my perception of the Celts and it took Garnet-Allen-Pierce trio to change that.

Kids rely on trends. SEC is trendy, Oregon is trendy, FSU is trendy, OSU is right there. That being said, how in the bloody neck of Catelyn Stark does Michigan continue to receive "love" from these recruits? What is trendy about Michigan right now? Is it the vanilla offense? Is it the inability to beat OSU and Little Brother? Even Texas has faded out their minds and it wasnt too long ago Colt McCoy was breaking records.

Trends and perceptions change, but Michigan hasnt been trending up for quite some time.