It's amazing how many conversations follow this arc

1. Look how great our recruiting class is - such great ratings is clear evidence of that 
2. Hmm, those ratings aren't that great when accounted for inflation and compared to our peers
3. Well, recruit ratings are really meaningless and dumb anyway

We quickly go from extolling the value of these ratings to completely dismissing them when it turns out they don't say what we want.  Because we want the answer to be that we're recruiting at a high level.  And we aren't.

The better and more accurate answer is that we're recruiting better than we did in Independence. There's notable improvement and a solid trajectory...but still a long way to go in that regard. That's an optimistic forward looking message, but it doesn't bring the immediate satisfaction of "Wow, what an elite class of recruits!"