Not using terms technically, Chico—But at both larger schools (AAA, AAAA) and private schools, you have MORE teams with MORE quality players, than the smaller public schools (A, AA); thus:
At the bigger/private schools, a player can play one position, such a striker, and be quite successful, appearing to be "better" because of the context and probably the added press/exposure than a high-quality player at a small (and public) school where an elite player has to do "everything," thus sacrifice stats, etc.
When I started coaching at Woodruff, for example, we had Casey Cash—an elite player who I believe was under-appreciated state-wide in many respects because she literally did everything—even keeper in PKs—for the team. If Casey had been at a top AAA or AAAA school and allowed to focus on her natural position, I believe she would have garnered far more recognition, although she would have been the same player.
If we swapped those players (striker at large school for elite player at small school), I believe people would be surprised at what player is actually superior.
Then add in Hurt66's point—access to club/elite training skews the impact of school size. His BE example is dead-on.
BE players have a large list of advantages over other small schools, and their players ride a bias that other small and public schools don't receive.
My point, however, is NOT that those receiving the biases do not deserve the recognition, but that players at smaller schools are overlooked and/or under-appreciated.
Don't we assume that the top players who lead their AAA or AAAA teams to a state championship match are "better" than the top players who lead their team to the AA/A state match? I think 9 out of 10 people would believe that simply because of the school size.
An analogy that I think works: I know for a fact that college admissions prefer top-ten students from LARGER schools because there exists a bias that larger school students are superior to smaller school students. Thus there is a bias that a #3 student at a AAAA school is superior to a #3 student at a A school. A similar "popular" view of athletes exists as well.
