CFB Recruiting Origins is an interactive map that shows where college football recruits come from. Pick any FBS program and a class year to see arcs drawn from each recruit's hometown to the school — instantly revealing how wide (or narrow) a program's geographic reach really is.
Recruiting geography is one of the most underappreciated dimensions of college football. The SEC sweeps the Southeast. The Big Ten locks down the Midwest. But plenty of programs punch outside their footprint — or struggle to recruit their own backyard. This tool lets you explore those patterns school by school, class by class.
Recruiting data is sourced from the College Football Data API (CFBD), which aggregates historical recruiting records going back to 2000. Hometown coordinates were geocoded using the simplemaps US Cities database. The data covers FBS programs and includes star ratings where available.
Read the companion post — Local Fortress or National Brand: The Two Ways Programs Build a Roster — on palmercjones.com.
Built by Palmer Jones — sports analytics, data viz, and maps. If you find a data error or have a feature idea, use the feedback button on the map.