Following National Signing Day last year, the St. Petersburg Times had a nifty visual aid that I found eye-opening. I thought it was fanpost worthy and created one that you can read here. Well, this year the name of the newspaper is different (the St. Petersburg Times is now the "Tampa Bay Times"), but the content remains relatively the same (they're big into recycling). So, without further ado, here is the 2012 visual of FSU's recruiting versus in-state rivals:

First off, to be clear, this is a different approach to evaluating recruits. The Times values a recruit, not by any technical evaluation, but by simply how many services include the recruit in its top 100. A bit crude, but for some reason I like it.

Second, apparently neither USF nor UCF pulled a player ranked in the top 100 by at least one service? Wow. There will never be a "Big 5" until those two schools start recruiting big.

Finally, by comparing last year's haul with this year's class, you can quickly see that this year wasn't quite as dominant in terms of overall numbers for FSU. Still, this year Florida State took as many recruits ranked in the top 100 of all four recruiting services as all other Florida schools combined. Think about that for a minute. UF took 18 high school recruits this year (not including kickers). Miami took a whopping 31. FSU took just 15, 3 fewer than UF and 16 fewer than Miami. Yet, the Noles still had more top recruits than any other Florida school. Impressive.

Again, enough cannot be said about the recruiting job that FSU's staff has done over the last two years. Of course, now expectations will only be higher than ever. We'll see if Jimbo & Co. can collect a few more wins this year to appease the rabid Nole fan base.

A bonus poll for you after the jump.

Yesterday's St. Petersburg Times included a nice visual showing just how dominant Florida State's recruiting class is this year. This perspective categorizes the recruits based on how many recruiting services rank the player in the nation's top 100 for 2011. I apologize in advance for the unsophisticated scan job.

Since the color may not come across well scanned, I'll break it down. A recruit ranked in the nation's top 100 by all 3 services is shown as a blue chip recruit. A recruit ranked in the top 100 by 2 services is a red chip recruit. Recruits ranked in the top 100 by only one service is a green recruit.

Blue = 3 services (FSU: 5, UF: 2, UM: 1, USF: 0, UCF: 0)

Red = 2 services (FSU: 2, UF: 2, UM: 0, USF: 0, UCF: 0)

Green = 1 service (FSU: 4, UF: 3, UM: 2, USF: 0, UCF: 0

As you can see, FSU totally dominated the State. In fact, FSU had more blue chip recruits than all of the other Florida schools combined. FSU had five, the rest of the state had three (UF two and UM one). Had Traitor... I mean, Tony Steward not flipped to Clem$on, FSU would have doubled the rest of the state. FSU also had more ranked recruits than all of the other Florida schools combined. FSU had eleven, the rest of the state, ten (UF seven and UM three).

Notably, USF and UCF did not have a single recruit ranked in the nation's top 100 by any service. So much for the "Big 5" argument - at least in 2011 recruiting.

In addition, many of FSU's lower-ranked recruits are "sleepers." For various reasons, some of FSU's 2011 guys were not evaluated by the services until late in the game.

FSU's recruiting domination of the ACC has already been well documented here. However, what surprises me is the complete and utter domination of UF and UM. Some will correctly argue that FSU should have dominated UF and UM as both programs are in transition. In addition, they both had bad years on the field. However, these arguments fail to recognize that FSU had a vast majority of its recruits BEFORE Meyer quit and Shannon got canned. Realistically, the turmoil surrounding the rival programs should help FSU more in 2012 than 2011.

Please use this information liberally in conversations with Gata and Cane-vict fans. It's a good time to be a Nole.

There is still hope for FSU to win the ACC Atlantic Division. Ok, so it's a slim hope. Especially given our offensive defensive performance over the last couple weeks. However, during these dark times, Nole fans need a glimpse of something positive.

Here are the current ACC standings:

Boy that looks bad. However, we still have NC, NC State, WF, Clemson and Maryland left on our schedule. BC currently leads the Atlantic, but has away games at Virginia (who is inexplicably atop the Coastal division) and Maryland and one home game against NC. If FSU wins out and BC loses 2 of 3, FSU goes to the ACCCG. If FSU wins out and BC goes 2-1, then BC goes to the ACCCG because of the head-to-head. If FSU wins out, BC goes 2-1 and one or more teams end up with 3 ACC losses, then a tie-breaker will ensue based on the following obnoxious policy:

ACC Football Tiebreaker Policy

The Atlantic Coast Conference Championship will be decided by a game between the Atlantic and Coastal Division Champions. The team in each division with the highest percentage of wins during all regular-season Conference competition shall be declared the division champion. If two or more teams are tied with the highest percentage of wins, they shall be declared division co-champions. Division standings will be calculated on a percentage basis, using only those Conference games which are a part of the regular rotating schedule. In the event of division co-champions, the following tie-breaker procedure will be used to determine that divisions’ representative to the championship game.

A. Two-Team Tie

1. Head-to-head competition between the two tied teams.
2. Records of the tied teams within the division.
3. Head-to-head competition versus the team within the division with the best overall record (divisional). Conference record and proceeding though the division. Multiple ties within the division broken from first to last.
4. Overall record versus all common non-divisional opponents.
5. Combined record versus all non-divisional teams.
6. Record versus common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish (divisional and non-divisional) and proceeding through other common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish within their division.
7. The tied team with the highest ranking in the Bowl Championship Series Standings following the end of regular season games shall be the divisional representative in the ACC Championship Game.
8. The representative shall be chosen by a draw.

B. Three (or More) Team Tie
(Once tie has been reduced to two teams, the two-team tiebreaker format is used)

1. Combined head-to-head record among the tied teams.
2. Records of the tied teams within the division.
3. Head-to-head competition versus the team within the division with the best overall (divisional or conference) record, and proceeding through the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken first to last.
4. Overall record for non-divisional teams.
5. Combined record versus all common non-divisional teams.
6. Record versus common non-divisional with the best overall Conference (divisional and non-divisional record) and proceeding through the other common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish within the division.
7. The tied team with the highest ranking in the Bowl Championship Series Standings following the conclusion of regular season games shall be the divisional representative in the ACC Championship Game, unless the second of the tied teams is ranked within five-or-fewer places of the highest ranked tied team. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the ACC Championship Game.
8. The representative shall be chosen by a draw.

Seriously, could they have made the tie-breaker policy any more confusing? I think they just threw in every possible tie-breaker they could think of to cover all the bases.

Basically, FSU still has a slim chance of making the ACCCG - I just wouldn't buy those ACCCG tickets just yet.  However, the Noles will need to win out and root for BC to lose 2 of 3. I think, at best, we'll probably lose at least 1 ACC game the rest of the way. But, hey, stranger things have happened... this is the ACC we're talking about.