New York State gets very few Division I scholarships

 National signing day was two days ago and all day on ESPN there were constant updates as to which star high school player was going to which big-time Division I school.

There are always talks about which local players have a shot to get a D-1 scholarship and when this talk is going on, nobody realizes how rare it is for a player from this area to get the big ticket.

There have been some football players from Section 5 that have received Division I scholarships, usually to the University at Buffalo. The biggest names locally that played this past season were Pembroke's Chris Lauzze (Buffalo), Pittsford Sutherland's C.J. Lee (Michigan), Hornell's, David Zapata (Navy), Churchville-Chili's Averin Collier (Syracuse) and Albion's Derek Kinder (Pittsburgh).

That is actually a pretty high number of local players that are in D-1 because most of the big-time high school recruits come out of states like Texas, Florida and California, where they can play year-round.

So you may ask yourself how many Section 5 football players signed Division I scholarships on national signing day. The answer would be zero.

This is the complete list of players from New York signing scholarships to play big-time college football next season, according to NYSSWA president John Moriello: 

• Oday Aboushi, OL, Xaverian (Virginia)

• Jamie Boyle, K, Monroe-Woodbury (Central Florida)

• Andrew Civil, DE, Sheepshead Bay (Rutgers)

• Fernando Diaz, OG, Cardinal Hayes (Pitt)

• Curtis Dukes, RB, Indian River (Penn State)

• Delano Fabor, CB, St. Francis (Buffalo)

• Nick Ferrara, K, St. Anthony's (Maryland)

• Jimmy Gordon, TE, Patchogue-Medford (Buffalo)

• Ben Jebb, DL, Cornwall (Army)

• Robert Joseph, FB, Poly Prep (Rutgers)

• Bunduka Kargbo, S, Bishop Maginn (Buffalo)

• Rob Lombardo, FB, Somers (Navy)

• Alex Neutz, WR, Grand Island (Buffalo)

• Stephen Obeng-Agyapong, S, Bronx JFK (Penn State)

• Andy Phillips, OL, Syracuse CBA (Syracuse)

• Torian Phillips, CB, Port Richmond (Syracuse)

• Dillon Quinn, DT, Trinity Pawling (Boston College)

• Shayne Skov, LB, Trinity Pawling (Stanford)

• Shamar Stephen, OG, Long Island Lutheran (Connecticut)

• Najee Tyler, QB, Xaverian (Purdue)

• John Urschel, DL, Canisius (Penn State)

• Jamal Wilson, OT, South Shore (Rutgers)

• Pat Wilson, OT, Canisius (Buffalo)

Most of these players are coming from big high schools from around the state - with none from Section 5 - and five of the 23 have signed at the University at Buffalo.