I'll start off by saying that I know close to nothing about recruiting rankings.

That being said, it has always appeared to me that rankings are closely tied to which schools are recruiting a player. I've never thought about it being tied to whether the player is on offense or defense.

I think if you watch the stars throughout the year, it becomes fairly obvious. If perceived powerhouse (cough cough) SEC schools like Alabama, Florida, LSU or schools like OSU are recruiting a player... their stars go up. I don't think it depends on whether they are on offense or defense.

I think that's why a lot of good players ended up at Tech that were only in the 3 star range. Those players ended up verballing early before the SEC recruited them and so they stayed 3 stars. If they stay on the board longer and the SEC starts going after them, their stars go up.