Anthony Gimino of CBS Sportsline wrote an excellent article earlier this year that updated Prepstar's 1997 Top 100 high school recruits through the 2001 football season, or five years of college eligibility. The article detailed every single Top 100 player's college career, whether or not they were drafted by the NFL, and if so, where.

I took Mr. Gimino's article and updated the data through this year's 2002 NFL Draft. With the exception of one player who gained a sixth year of college eligibility (and another who might), this wraps up every player's college career and shot at the NFL Draft. I then placed the players in six categories:

Drafted by the NFL: 38 players
ESPN Board/Free Agent/Training Camp: 22 players
Disappointment/Bust: 23 players
Health/Grade problems: 12 players
Baseball: 4 players
Sixth year of eligibility: 1 player

Since these are the Top 100 recruits as named by PrepStar, the bar is set relatively high for these players as far as defining whether or not they were successful. If they weren't drafted by 2002, made the ESPN board, signed as a free agent, or invited to a training camp in 2001, they were moved to the "disappointment/bust" category. Needless to say, in the NFL Draft, as with high school football players and D-1 scholarships, they are drafting/recruiting potential, not past production. Similar to the NCAA basketball tournament, ya gotta draw the line somewhere.

Assuming 10,975 scholarships/year (127 D-1 programs, 85 scholarships per program), and all players using 5 years of eligibility (which doesn't happen, but for purposes of discussion�), that works out to be 2,159 scholarships/year, so the PrepStar Top 100 would be 4.6% of the scholarships offered in a given year.

Looking just at BCS schools (63 schools and 85 scholarships per school), that would be 5,355 scholarship players, or 1,071 annually (5 year assumption), or for the PrepStar 100, 9.3% of the scholarships available.

With respect to recruiting rankings, the results are striking. For D-1 players eligible for the draft, 38% of the PrepStar players were drafted by 2002, versus 12.5% of the eligible players overall (assuming they stay 5 years). This means that the PrepStar Top 100 players were three times more likely to be drafted than non-Top 100 players.

Interestingly, 9 of the 23, or 38%, in the "disappointment/bust" category transferred schools, confirming their status in that category. However, 6 players (Stansbury, Clelland, Danoff, Mast, Barnes, Graham) in this category looked to have had solid college careers, even with the transfer. Conceivably, the % invited to training camp or signed as a free agent could move higher as summer and fall go on.

Here's how the players fell into the six categories -- take a look and see how many names you recognize (and keep your eye out for former VT commit Tyrone Robertson. Yes, folks, he did get drafted):

Drafted in either 2001 or 2002 (38 players):
1. Randy Fasani, QB, Stanford
2. Jesse Palmer, QB, Florida
3. Eric Crouch, QB, Nebraska
4. Jamal Lewis, RB, Tennessee
5. Travis Minor, RB, FSU
6. Antoine Womack, RB, UVa
7. Derek Combs, RB, Ohio State
8. Tony Driver, RB, Notre Dame
9. Travis Henry, RB, Tennessee
10. Ken-Yon Rambo, WR, Ohio State
11. Chris Chambers, WR, Wisconsin
12. Reggie Germany, WR, Ohio State
13. Kahil Hill, WR, Iowa,
14. Daryl Jones, WR, Miami
15. Napoleon Harris, TE, Northwestern
16. Kareem McKenzie, OL, PSU
17. Terrence Metcalf, OL, Ole Miss
18. Cosey Coleman, OL, Tennessee
19. Leonard Davis, OL, Texas
20. Victor Rogers, OL, Colorado
21. Maurice Williams, OL, Michigan
22. Andre Gurode, OL, Colorado
23. Andre Carter, DL, California
24. Tyrone Robertson, DL, Georgia, Hinds CC
25. Kenny Smith, DL, Alabama
26. Gerard Warren, DL, Florida
27. Kyle Vanden Bosch, DL, Nebraska
28. Jamal Reynolds, DL, FSU
29. Alex Brown, LB, Florida
30. Andre Lott, DB, Tennessee
31. Renaldo Hill, DB, Michigan State
32. Deon Grant, DB, Tennessee
33. Derrick Gibson, DB, Florida State
34. Marques Tuiasosopo, DB, Washington
35. LaVarr Arrington, Athlete, PSU
36. Bobby Newcombe, Athlete, Nebraska
37. Antwaan Randle El, Athlete, Indiana
38. Darnell Sanders, Athlete, Ohio State

ESPN Board/Free Agent/Training Camp (22 players):
1. Romaro Miller, QB, Ole Miss
2. Levron Williams, RB, Indiana
3. Demontray Carter, RB, Auburn, Troy State
4. Jasper Sanks, RB, Georgia
5. Dominic Rhodes, RB, Texas Tech, Tyler (TX) JC, Mid. TX St.
6. Bruce Branch, WR, PSU
7. Brian Scott, WR, South Carolina
8. Bruce Branch, WR, PSU
9. Kurt Vollers, OL, ND
10. David Warren, DL, FSU
11. Corey Callens, DL, Oklahoma
12. Roylin Bradley, LB, aTm
13. Travis Carroll, LB, Alabama, Florida
14. Kurt Anderson, LB, Michigan
15. DeAngelo Lloyd, LB, Tennessee
16. Billy-Dee Greenwood, DB, UNC
17. Antuan Simmons, DB, USC
18. Joe Walker, DB, Nebraska
19. John Norman, DB, Texas Tech
20. Ifeanyi Ohalete, DB, USC
21. James Whitley, Athlete, Michigan
22. Bobby Jackson, Athlete, Illinois

Disappointments/Busts (23 players):
1. Tim Olmstead, QB, Florida, Vanderbilt
2. Ed Stansbury, QB, UCLA-Ended up at FB, earning honorable mention all-conference in 2001.
3. Cooper Rego, RB, Notre Dame, West Virginia
4. Ravon Anderson, RB, North Carolina, Nassua CC, Rutgers
5. Patrick McCall, RB, Michigan, Oregon State
6. Eric Gooden, RB, Kansas State, Central Oklahoma
7. Steve Shipp, WR, Florida, N. Carolina A&T
8. David Aaron, WR, Texas
9. Julius McMillan, WR, Kansas State, Fort Scott CC, Oklahoma
10. Robert Williams, WR, Miami-2nd string behind TE Jeremy Shockey
11. Jason Brooks, OL, Michigan, West Virginia
12. Carver Donaldson, TE, FSU
13. Michael Barfield, OL, Alabama
14. Lance Clelland, OL, Northwestern-Started the final 23 games of his career. Twenty career starts overall, mostly at guard.
15. Josh Jakubowski, OL, Wisconsin
16. Troy Danoff, OL, UCLA-Three year starter at center. Honorable mention All-Pac 10 in 2001.
17. Ben Mast-OL, Michigan-Started 13 games in career.
18. Derrick Jones, DL, Maryland
19. Muskingham Barnes, DL, LSU-Started 22 games in his career. Had 2 sacks last season.
20. Marco Hutchinson, DL, South Carolina
21. Ron Graham, DL, PSU-Career totals of 122 tackles, five sacks
22. Rod Perry, Jr., Athlete, USC
23. Domonique Williams, Athlete, UNC, North Carolina A&T

Health/Grades (12 players):
1. Anthony Saunders, RB, North Carolina
2. Herman Banks, WR, Auburn, Jackson State-Played in four games as DB as true freshman. Transferred to Jacksonville State, but did not qualify academically. Signed in Jan. 2000 to the Tennessee Valley Vipers of Arenafootball2.
3. Neely Page, OL, Clemson
4. Guenter Kryszon, OL, Georgia Tech-Started 16 games as defensive lineman in first 2 seasons, but neck injury ended his career before the 2000 season.
5. Luke Nichols, OL, Baylor
6. Jack Bloom, DL, Rutgers
7. Daryl Bright, DL, Oklahoma
8. Jason Ott, LB, Ohio State
9. Ty Gregorak, LB, Colorado-Promising career ended by knee and should injuries after 1999 season.
10. Austin Kemp, LB, Tennessee
11. Nate Wright, Jr., ATH, Colorado
12. Maleafou MacKenzie, RB, USC - Will petition for a sixth year of eligibility (missed last season due to injuries and death of his father)

Baseball (4 players):
1. Kenny Kelly, QB, Miami
2. Darnell McDonald, RB, Texas
3. Alvin Morrow, TE, FSU
4. Thomas Pittman, DL, Auburn, Florida

Sixth Year of Eligibility (1 player):
1. Daniel Cobb, QB, Georgia, Butler County CC, Auburn-Starter for most of 2001 at Auburn and will battle Jason Campbell for playing time in '02. Was awarded a sixth year of eligibility because he missed two season because of injuries.

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