Michigan, UW depend far more on California players than Texas ones

If you’re looking for a definitive answer, you absolutely won’t find it here. Or honestly, anywhere on the internet, which has gone thousands of rounds debating the topic, pointing to everything from head-to-head matchups (Texas has more wins), to a one-loss California team (Mater Dei) finishing the season ranked ahead of a 16-0 Texas team (DeSoto) in the final high school football rankings of one Sports Illustrated-affiliated site.

According to the annual survey of the National Federation of State High School Associations, no state in the country had more high school football players than the Lone Star State (170,965) in 2022. The second closest finisher — California — had just over half as many participants (89,178). But participation is declining at a more rapid rate in California (13%) than it is in Texas (12%) over the past decade, according to reporting by the Washington Post.

The states are almost exactly even in the most number of players to ever play in the NFL (both right around 2,600), but California has the edge in terms of excellence: More Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees have played for high schools in the Golden State (37) than in the Lone Star State (32).

Which brings us, of course, to Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship.

Neither of the two teams in the title game — Washington and Michigan — hail from either California or Texas, but their rosters are jam-packed with players from the country’s top two college football talent-producing states. Across the two rosters, 60 players hail from either California or Texas.

But the disparity between the two states is stark. Forty-nine players on the two rosters (38 from Washington, 11 from Michigan) hail from California, but just 12 are from Texas (six apiece) — four times fewer than the Golden State.

Texas is actually fifth in terms of National Championship talent, also sitting behind home states Washington (42) and Michigan (36) plus Illinois (13).

Obviously, the makeup between the two teams involved in one single game isn’t going to be the grand decider of which state produces better high school football talent. But it’s at least one maybe superfluous data point to relish in.

One other for you: The team Washington beat 37-31 to reach the championship? That one had more than 80 former Texas high school football players on it.