ESPN to put their finger prints on All-American game

[HysterikiLL]

http://www.gatorcountry.com/footbal...n_set_to_debut_high_school_all_american_game/

The Worldwide Leader announced this week that it will be hosting and sponsoring the ESPN All-American Game, which will debut on Jan. 5, 2008 in Orlando, Fla. Eighty of the top high school football players in the country will be selected and the game will go head-to-head with the Army All-American Bowl which will be played the same day.



“It’s something we’re really excited about,†ESPN recruiting coordinator Craig Haubert said. “It’s something we’ve been talking about for a while, but wanted to make sure that when we did it, we did it right. We wanted to make sure we had all of our ducks in a row and we felt that this was a good time to do it. Not only could we put on a game, but really put on a weeklong experience. It’s going to be the first weekend of January and the game will be played on a Saturday. It’s going to be down in Orlando and the whole week of festivities will be down there.


“We’re going to have coverage of the game on ABC and we’re also going to have coverage of the practices on ESPN U and coverage of the skills challenge on ESPN 2. There will be a lot of opportunities for not just the kids and coaches to get involved, but for the fans to follow these kids throughout the week on TV much like fans have done with the Senior Bowl.â€Â

Not sure what I think about this. Should be good to see more talent in an all-star game but to put it on at the same time as the Army AA game kinda sucks....and the talent will be more spread out over the two games.

Also, this was interesting..

ESPN is also taking a different approach in how to split up the teams. Instead of doing North vs. South, or East vs. West, Haubert and company came up with an intriguing idea.


“Instead of North-South, or East-West, we’re going to make it a classic and we think it’s going to be a lot of fun that way,†he said. “Because what we’re going to do is split the teams and make them as even as possible. It’s interesting to do the North-South or East-West, but we think it will be a lot more fun after watching many all-star games to just split them up. A kid from Florida might be playing with a kid from California. A kid from Georgia playing with a kid from Arizona and just making it the most competitive game possible.


“A lot of times when you try and split things up North-South, you have a huge concentration of players in the Southeast. And if you include Texas in that mix and Southern California, you’ve got a bunch of players. Then in the North, you’ve got your pockets like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Northern California, but when you get out to the plains states you lose a lot of population and you don’t have the most even teams possible. Same thing with East and West. A lot of times, all-star games will move Louisiana into the West to try and even things up. So, we decided to just get these guys together and split up the teams where