...in today's NIL meatmarket. I'll tell what I mean. To me, 3-Stars are like the New York Strip steak. Not a bad piece coming from the NIL CashCow. Ribeyes, Porterhouse, Filets...those 4 and 5 Star cuts, some straight outa Prom Night, are arguably great cuts of meat, but when ya gotta serve a lot of Steaks...those 3-Stars are looking like a Huge Deal.
I agree with Kyle's comment that they don't take into account the intangibles. I always have believed that the star rankings are only one small predictor, many times inaccurate, of a player's potential. How many 4 and 5*s haven't panned out? Fernando Mendoza was a 2* who grew up in Miami's backyard and was only offered walk-on status by the Canes. I agree that 4 and 5 star players have superior physical attributes and visibly high levels of talent coming out of high school, so it's a limited gamble at the outset, which takes me back to AJ's assessment of 3*s, many of whom have intangibles that eventually puts them on par with the higher ranked HS players. That's perhaps the biggest reason I like the portal. IU's team had multiple 3*s who followed Cignetti from James Madison. They turned out OK because their coach has a nose for the intangibles.