If people didn't care about the ratings they wouldn't bother to do them and there wouldn't be such an emphasis on them when fans and the media talk about a kid. In general there is a degree of validity to the ratings. This isn't because the rating services are that good but rating a kid by who has offered him isn't a bad start. In general if Florida, OU, Texas, USC, and Notre Dame are all seriously after a kid he is probably pretty good. Those coaches have to much riding on their recruiting class to waste a scholly on a kid who can't play (even though in the end they end up doing just that more often than they would like.) At the same time if a kid plays someplace where those schools all are going to look at him and the only offers he has are from Sun Belt, Bottom WAC and MWC, and some FCS schools chances are he lacks something.
The problem is that the system is far from exact. We (and Texas and Florida and some other schools) all got very excited about Darrel Scott. The coaches all thought he was going to be a game changer, a star. At the same time when Speedy signed his LOI I remember a lot of people including me saying "Who?" As it turns out Florida, Texas, etc. would have liked to have Speedy and DS, well lets see how he does at his directional school in Florida before pronouncing him a complete bust.
The star ratings are 'a' means of looking at recruits but certainly not the only one. If a kid chooses not to participate in the process he is not likely to get the stars like Norgard. On the other hand if a kid has a promoter in his corner feeding questionable information like offers that aren't solid offers or anouncing that the kid has visted schools X, Y, and Z without stating that they were unnofficials and not at the specific invitation of the school then a kids ratings can go up.
Stars on an individual kid may not be as important as the overall average of a class. If you have a class full of 2* guys it means you have a class full of kids that in general not a lot of other schools wanted. They may miss occassionaly but they aren't all stupid. At the same time if you have a class full of 3*-4* kids some may be overated and bust but in general enough of them will be good that you will have some talent to work with.
The stars may be balanced towards those big fan base schools but in general those big fan base schools for the most part win a lot of games or fire people and bring in someone who will. The stakes are high enough that if some of those schools are truly looking at a kid he is probably pretty good, regardless of the opinion of the guys at the services.
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