Increasingly fans are following not just college teams and players but looking at the incoming prep classes and watching where the top high school star athletes end up, and also increasingly this is being catered to by the broadcast networks
The latest to head this way is CBS Interactive which has lined up a pair of partners, 247Sports and MaxPreps.com to enhance its coverage and provide fans with year round coverage in the area of recruitment and emerging stars.
CBS has already had a trial run with 247Sports, teaming with the site for coverage for the 2013 National Signing Day, a partnership that CBS reported had strong viewership. The relationship will have CBSSports.com carry news, analysis and rankings of the Top 247 players in football and basketball.
CBSSports.com will use the content that 247Sports generates to complement its existing coverage of college football and basketball and will be running a web page called “Signing Day”.
The deal with MaxPreps.com provides an additional layer of information for fans, following the athletes during their high school years so that dedicated fans are informed about the quality of the players that are part of the favorite, or arch enemy’s next recruiting class. This will also be carried on line at CBSSports.com, along with blogs and on-demand and live video.
For fans of both high school athletics and collegiate level this looks to be a great place to garner information on teams and players and to hear how future draft classes and individual players are shaping up. With the recent recruiting rule changes from the NCAA, if they are not rescinded, coaches can start contacting players earlier so it will be important for fans to know who the coaches are contacting and what they are capable of doing on the court or field
