Is either in a city of 100,000 plus that is close to a major city, has an airport with commercial flights daily or both. The ones that don't have that...recruit on the exact same level as Virginia Tech USC and St John's routinely out-recruit Virginia Tech. They have way more to offer. Think about a school located in a town of 15,000 people. Zero major cities around it. Virginia Tech would blow that school out of the water every single time. Blacksburg Virginia has 43,000 people living in it. The activities I'm the town are catered to a town of exactly 43,000 people. It's slower, less traffic, people value their lives outside of work more than advancing to the next rung in the ladder. Businesses close by 9pm. Those are all great things for adults, or even adults raising kids. It is a beacon of nothing to most high level recruits. They are young. They are moving away from home for the first time. The majority of recruits already come from major cities and the surrounding areas (because there's more of them)...so they're already used to a certain way of life. Blacksburg can be an absolute culture shock to some. Now throw in that if they wanna take a flight home they need to hop an uber (that is spotty unless it's its football weekend) to Roanoke to catch a connecting flight to Charlotte or DC. If you got to Alabama, you're already in a city of 100,000. There's more nightlife. More restaurants. Malls. Stores. That isn't enough? Birmingham is an hour away...twice the size of Tuscaloosa Lawrence is 96,000 and 45 min from Kansas City South Bend has 110,000 and is an hour and a half from Chicago You have to travel over half an hour from Blacksburg just to reach a town the size of Tuscaloosa, Lawrence or South Bend...then the closest major city? 2 hours and 45 min from Charlotte. 4 hours from DC. 6 hours from Atlanta. Pretending the size of the city doesn't matter in attracting recruits is exactly why the town of Blacksburg is winning the battle of keeping the town "quaint"... I've driven recruits from the Roanoke Airport to campus...every single one would comment how far campus is from the airport. Every. Single. One. The ones who didn't fly and were able to drive. Most commented how sick they got driving through the mountains. VT landed some of those kids. Most of them they didn't. But they FOR SURE didn't land any of the kids who were also a priority for schools that had the advantages that come with being in a much bigger city. Keep your head in the sand all you want but I have 100+ years worth of data supporting my argument, and the argument on the other side is a hope and a prayer that some day...some glorious day...some coach with a 99 rating in "recruiting skills" will Jedi mind trick some highly rated kids into thinking they actually want to live in Blacksburg for 4 years I'm very happy to stay on my side of the argument