I figured out that you could do some pretty cool stuff with map data in Google Sheets and now have quite a bit of SEC recruiting data so I figured I would take a look at where each SEC school has done most of their recruiting over the last two decades.

The data for each school includes both high school players and Junior College players and the state where they played in before signing with an SEC school. So some players are not necessarily in their “home state” but wherever their prep school or Junior College was located.

For now, I am just using data from 2003 because that is as far back as I can go on 247 Sports while still having full recruiting classes for each school. I hope to go back and add more data based on team rosters so that I can get more information on location data and other information that is more readily available even if there are no rankings or star data for earlier years.

Some of these maps are about what I would have expected, but there are a few that stood out to me and would likely be difficult to guess if you had no other information.

Alabama Crimson Tide

Alabama has recruited 76 total players from 17 different states along with Canada and Sweden with a vast majority of their players coming from the state of Alabama. The Crimson Tide have the most players from the state of Alabama, as you would likely expect, but have 22 more players from the home state than in-state rival Auburn.

The top five states where Alabama has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Alabama - 32 (42.11%)
2. Florida - 9 (11.84%)
3. Georgia - 8 (10.53%)
4. Mississippi - 6 (7.89%)
5. Kansas - 3 (3.95%)

Alabama Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Alabama basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

Arkansas Razorbacks

Arkansas has recruited 73 players from 19 different states plus Olu Famutimi from Canada in 2003. The Razor Backs also lock down their state with by far the most players from the state of Arkansas and only Auburn, Kentucky, and Ole Miss have more two players from the state.

The top six states where Arkansas has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Arkansas - 29 (39.19%)
2. Virginia - 6 (8.11%)
3. Louisiana - 5 (6.76%)
t4. Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas - 4 (5.41%)

Arkansas Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Arkansas basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

Auburn Tigers

Auburn has recruited 78 players from 23 states plus Jack Purchase from Australia in 2014. The Tigers are one of just four SEC schools to recruit the most players from a different state than where their school is located.

The top seven states where Auburn has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Georgia - 22 (27.85%)
t2. Alabama, Florida - 10 (12.66%)
4. Texas - 5 (6.33%)
t5. Illinois, Nevada, South Carolina - 3 (3.80%)

Auburn Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Auburn basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

Florida Gators

Florida has recruited 69 total players from 21 different states. The Gators have the second-highest total number and the second-highest percentage of players coming from one state.

The top seven states where Florida has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Florida - 34 (49.28%)
2. Tennessee - 8 (11.59%)
3. New Jersey - 4 (5.80%)
4. New York - 3 (4.35%)
t5. Georgia, Michigan, West Virginia - 2 (2.90%)

Florida Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Florida basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

Georgia Bulldogs

Georgia has recruited 74 players from 17 different states plus Ignas Sargiunas from Lithuania in 2018. The Bulldogs have the most players from their home state of Georgia as well as more players from Virginia than any of the other SEC schools.

The top five states where Georgia has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Georgia - 33 (44.00%)
2. Florida - 8 (10.67%)
3. Virginia - 7 (9.33%)
4. Texas - 5 (6.67%)
5. Maryland - 3 (4.00%)

Georgia Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Georgia basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

Kentucky Wildcats

Kentucky has recruited 95 total players from 33 different states plus Canada and New Zealand. The Wildcats have the largest amount of unique states plus the lowest percentage of players coming from their top recruited state.

The top five states where Kentucky has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Florida - 9 (9.47%)
2. Kentucky - 8 (8.42%)
3. California - 7 (7.37%)
t4. New Jersey, Texas - 6 (6.32%)

Kentucky Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Kentucky basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

LSU Tigers

LSU has recruited 76 total players from 20 different states plus Australia and Canada. The Tigers have the second most players from their neighboring state, Texas.

The top seven states where LSU has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Louisiana - 22 (28.95%)
2. Texas - 13 (17.11%)
3. Florida - 9 (11.84%)
4. Georgia - 4 (5.26%)
t5. Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia - 3 (3.95%)

LSU Basketball Recruiting Map Map of LSU basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

Mississippi State Bulldogs

Mississippi State has recruited 76 players from 20 different states plus Quinten Post from Germany in 2019. The Bulldogs lock down their home state well and even have twice as many players from the state of Mississippi compared to their in-state rival, Ole Miss. Mississippi State also has the second most players from the state of Tennessee and just one less player from the state than the University of Tennessee themselves.

The top six states where Mississippi State has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Mississippi - 26 (33.77%)
2. Tennessee - 10 (12.99%)
3. Alabama - 8 (10.39%)
4. Georgia - 5 (6.49%)
t5. Kentucky, Louisiana - 3 (3.90%)

Mississippi State Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Mississippi State basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

Missouri Tigers

Missouri has recruited 75 total players from 28 different states. The Tigers have the third most diverse recruiting pipeline behind only Kentucky and Vanderbilt and splitting their time between two conferences during this decade might have something to do with that.

The top five states where Missouri has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Missouri - 13 (17.33%)
2. Illinois - 7 (9.33%)
t3. North Carolina, Texas - 6 (8.00%)
5. Florida - 4 (5.33%)

Missouri Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Missouri basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

Ole Miss Rebels

Ole Miss has recruited 84 total players from 21 states plus the Bahamas and DC. The Rebels have the third most recruits from Florida and third most recruits from Tennessee. Ole Miss is also one of four teams to have the most recruits from a state where their school is not located.

The top five states where Ole Miss has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Florida - 15 (17.86%)
2. Mississippi - 13 (15.48%)
3. Tennessee - 9 (10.71%)
t4. Georgia, Kansas - 6 (7.14%)

Ole Miss Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Ole Miss basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

South Carolina Gamecocks

South Carolina has recruited 72 players from 17 states plus A.J. Lawson from Canada in 2018. The Gamecocks lock down their home state against SEC schools and pull the second-most players from the highly-sought-after state of Florida.

The top seven states where South Carolina has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. South Carolina - 17 (23.29%)
2. Florida - 16 (21.92%)
3. North Carolina - 7 (9.59%)
4. Georgia - 5 (6.85%)
t5. Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia - 4 (4.58%)

South Carolina Basketball Recruiting Map Map of South Carolina basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

Tennessee Volunteers

Tennessee has recruited 69 total players from 23 states plus Australia, Canada, and France. The Volunteers have the third smallest percentage of players coming from their single most common state.

The top five states where Tennessee has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Tennessee - 11 (15.94%)
2. Florida - 7 (10.14%)
t3. Georgia, North Carolina - 6 (8.70%)
5. South Carolina - 5 (7.25%)

Tennessee Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Tennessee basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

Texas A&M Aggies

Texas A&M has recruited 86 total players from 17 states along with Canada and Spain. The Aggies barely leave the state of Texas and have recruited almost 60% of their players from the home state while also having the second most total recruits since 2003.

The top nine states where Texas A&M has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Texas - 51 (59.30%)
2. Florida - 8 (9.30%)
3. Louisiana - 4 (4.65%)
4. Georgia - 3 (3.49%)
t5. California, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Oklahoma - 2 (2.33%)

Texas A&M Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Texas A&M basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

Vanderbilt Commodores

Vanderbilt has recruited 61 total players from 29 states plus Australia, Canada, DC, Germany, and New Zealand. The Commodores have the fewest recruits in the time span and have the most international locations represented as well as the second most unique locations after Kentucky.

The top five states where Vanderbilt has sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Texas - 8 (13.11%)
t2. California, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia - 4 (6.56%)

Vanderbilt Basketball Recruiting Map Map of Vanderbilt basketball recruiting since 2003 based on the frequency of recruits from each state

SEC

The entire Southeastern Conference has recruited 1069 total basketball players from all but five states and have players from DC and ten other countries. The only states where an SEC school has not recruited a player since 2003 are Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, Nebraska, and North Dakota.

The top five states states where SEC schools have cummulatively sourced their talent since 2003 are:

1. Florida - 138 (12.91%)
2. Texas - 109 (10.20%)
3. Georgia - 104 (9.73%)
4. Alabama - 68 (6.36%)
5. Mississippi - 57 (5.33%)

SEC Basketball Recruiting Map

I hope you enjoyed the breakdown for each SEC school’s recruiting footprint and pipelines as well as the new maps to show frequency. Now that I have maps more easily available to me, I might start incorporating them into more of the projects that I’m working on.

Several of the maps came as a surprise to me and based on the many incorrect guesses on Twitter when I tried to see if others could guess what school Vanderbilt’s map belonged to, I’m sure many others will be shocked by a few of these breakdowns.

I’ve got one or two more things that I want to work on based on my recent gathering of recruiting data, but as always, I’m open to what other types of posts or projects you’d like to see given I have the time and ability to find the data to answer your questions and curiosity. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter to let me know which projects you have enjoyed or what kind of things you’d like to see in the future.