There are many factors that go into recruiting, and I concede a spreadsheet with a few inputs is not the only tool. But I do think they can be helpful. Even if you value only academics, using baseball ranking to help choose between two schools of equal academic rank is helpful. If you value academics more than baseball, adjust the academic weighting. For those that value baseball more, than adjust the baseball weighting. For those that want warm weather, east coast vs. west coast, business focus, STEM focus, adjustments to the inputs should be made. During my son’s search, I used a spreadsheet that compared several schools from various divisions with inputs for distance from home, experience for athletes, student happiness, student reviews, cost, school size, rankings for food, dorm, campus, baseball, league, and business, and academics rankings weighted 3x. The spreadsheet identified a few schools that we had not targeted and ultimately helped my son choose between schools. Obviously, the campus visit, meeting the coaches, fit on the team, offer, etc were vital but narrowing his focus during the process was helpful.