The Pac-12 officially welcomed 267 new scholarship football players to the Conference of Champions on Wednesday. We say “officially” because most schools had a few players who had already signed and were on campus.
Here are some fun facts and notes about the league’s 2016 recruiting class. Worth noting that in the numbers below, we did not count preferred walk-ons. Also, the state listed for transfers and junior college players is the last school from which they were actually recruited -- not their hometowns. The same for a couple of international players who have their hometowns listed outside the country but who played football and were recruited in the U.S. As you'll see, there are three players who were recruited outside the country. These numbers only reflect the players who signed Wednesday. Others could be added at a later date.
By the numbers
Of the 267 players, 113 came from California (42.3 percent). Texas was next in line with 23, followed by Washington (17), Arizona and Florida (16) and Utah (15).
9 players from: Hawaii.
8: Oregon.
5: Louisiana, Georgia.
3: Colorado, New Jersey, Maryland, Oklahoma, Mississippi, international players (two from Canada, and one from American Samoa).
2: Michigan, Tennessee, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Illinois.
1: Nebraska, Kansas, Virginia, Minnesota, Montana, Idaho, Connecticut, New Mexico, Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Alabama.
32: Different states represented.
18: States missed the cut: Alaska, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Arkansas, South Carolina, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware.
Notes
The Golden State Award goes to UCLA, which brought in 22 of its 29 players from California. Washington State was a surprising second with 16.
The Globetrotter Award goes to Arizona (British Columbia), UCLA (Quebec) and Washington State (American Samoa). For the record, the flight from Spokane, Washington, to Pago Pago, American Samoa, is just under 17 hours.
The Frequent Flyer Miles award goes to Stanford, which drew 25 players from 14 different states.
The Keep It Simple Award goes to Washington, which drew 18 players from five states. Four of those five states are Pac-12 country (Arizona, Oregon, Washington, California) with the fifth being Texas.
With the exception of Stanford, every other school drew the most recruits in its class from California. Stanford had three from California, but six from Texas.
California was also the only state that all 12 teams drew players from. Texas was second with 10 of 12 teams (USC and WSU didn’t have any players from Texas).
Half of the conference stayed out of Arizona, with Oregon State signing a league-high five from the Grand Canyon State (Arizona signed three, Arizona State signed four).
Stanford and Utah were the biggest poachers, with the Cardinal getting six players from Texas and the Utes signing five from Florida.