ESPN Lists Oklahoma State No. 4 on Wide Receiver U Rankings

ESPN did a cool thing this week by rolling out the seminal rankings of which college football program can appropriately boast it produces the most talent for each position. Its objective in doing so: to find the real Wide Receiver U, the real Quarterback U … and so on.

And by golly, I am absolutely, positively appalled.

In the only ranking that I found relevant — largely because it was the only ranking Oklahoma State made the cut on — ESPN ranked OSU at No. 4 on its Wide Receiver U list. Ahead of OSU, in order:

1. USC

2. Ohio State

3. Florida State

And behind OSU:

5. LSU

6. OU

7. Florida

8. Michigan

9. Alabama

10. Notre Dame

Oh yes, OSU finally beating OU in something football related!

Here’s the science ESPN used to explain away its rankings:

How did the Trojans get atop this list? Well, USC has eight seasons of all-conference wide receivers, which tied for fifth among Power 5 schools, and the Trojans have five All-American seasons from receivers, which tied for first nationally with Oklahoma State.

Those five All-Americans were huge factors in this ranking, and so were the 17 receivers drafted since the 1998 season, second only to Ohio State’s 21. USC also had three receivers taken in the first round in that span.

In the past 15 seasons, USC has produced three 3,000-yard receivers: Marqise Lee, Dwayne Jarrett and JuJu Smith-Schuster. That’s tied for first on this list with Oklahoma: Ryan Broyles, Sterling Shepard and Jalen Saunders.

We weighted an All-America nod higher than an All-SEC selection. We had to come up with a metric to determine a player’s performance at the next level that would function for all position groups, so we used average Approximate Value over the first four seasons (or fewer, if applicable) in the NFL. We needed a way to account for Notre Dame’s lack of conference affiliation, and we used Brian Burke’s NFL draft pick values chart to figure out how much more to value a first-round draft pick than a seventh-rounder. [ESPN]

OSU is tied for the most All-Americans at receiver, and yet finds itself three spots below the team it is tied with? OSU has Dez Bryant, Tylan Wallace, Justin Blackmon, James Washington and James Castleman in its receiver rolodex, and is still behind the likes of Ohio State’s David Boston (?!), Ted Ginn Jr. and Michael Thomas? Sure!

I think the math smells a little blue in blood to me, but nonetheless, a pretty cool and appropriate list for OSU to make. After churning out Biletnikoff winner after Biletnikoff winner (OSU has more than any other program, and yes, the Biletnikoff is given to the nation’s best pass-catcher), it only makes sense that OSU would be well-represented (and yet still somehow underrated) on such a national listing.