With the 2021 class finally wrapped up, I went on 247 and tried to summarize the past five years of college football recruiting using their composite data and rankings (2017, 18, 19, 20 and 21 classes). Here are a handful of categories, just for fun …
TOP 20 BY AVERAGE CLASS RANK (simply add up the five yearly ranks and divide) — Alabama 2.0, Georgia 2.2, Ohio State 5.0, LSU 6.8, Clemson 8.2 …… Oklahoma 9.0, Texas A&M 9.6, Texas 10.8, Florida 11.0, Oregon 11.2 …… Auburn 11.6, Michigan 12.4, Notre Dame 12.4, Penn State 13.8, Miami 15.0 …… FSU 16.0, Tennessee 16.6, USC 19.8, UNC 21.2, Washington 21.2.
Ohio State would still be third if the outlier 2019 class had been better than 14th; they’d just be closer to Bama and Georgia. Those three schools account for all #1 and #2 classes in that five-year span. …… USC would be much higher if not for the 2020 debacle of having the #64 class.
TOTAL COMMITS (over five years for the 20 schools listed above) — Alabama 130, A&M 127, Georgia 121, Michigan 121, Oregon 120 …… LSU 116, Florida 116, Oklahoma 115, Texas 114, Notre Dame 114, UNC 114 …… Tennessee 112, Penn State 112, Ohio State 111, Auburn 111 …… Miami 108, FSU 108, Clemson 102, Washington 102, USC 101
There’s a pretty clearly defined top 5, bottom 5 and middle 10. Not surprising to see Bama at the very top. A&M is just behind, then a big gap. Interesting that Clemson’s near the very bottom.
TOTAL 5-STARS — Georgia 23, Alabama 22, Ohio State 20, Clemson 16, LSU 10 …… USC 7, Texas 6, A&M 5, Oklahoma 5, Michigan 5 …… Oregon 4, Penn State 4, FSU 4, Auburn 3, Tennessee 3, Miami 3, Stanford 3, Florida 2, Washington 2, UNC 2, Wisconsin 2, Maryland 2, S.Carolina 2, UCLA 2, Notre Dame 1, Iowa 1, TCU 1, Miss.St 1, Ole Miss 1
Exactly half of all five-star recruits in this span went to Georgia, Bama, OSU or Clemson. Ten different SEC schools got at least one five-star, compared to six Big Ten schools.
PERCENTAGE OF ALL RECRUITS THAT WERE 4 OR 5-STAR — Alabama 83.8, Ohio State 81.1, Georgia 79.3 ……. then a huge drop-off to …… Clemson 67.7, LSU 65.5, Oklahoma 64.4, Florida 62.1, Texas 61.4
SUCCESS, MEASURED BY AVERAGE FINAL AP POLL RANK — Only six teams have been ranked at the end of all four years (2017, 18, 19 and 20): Clemson 2.5, Alabama 3.0, Ohio State 3.25, Oklahoma 5.0, Georgia 5.0, Notre Dame 8.25. …… Among teams that went unranked one of those four years, the average ranks are: LSU 8.3, Penn State 11.3, UCF 13.7, Northwestern 16.0, Texas 17.7, Cincinnati 17.7, Iowa 18.7 and Boise 22.7. …… Most of the other recruiting powers were ranked two of four years, but two schools qualify as massive underachievers — they were among the top 20 in average recruiting rank, but didn’t finish any of those four seasons in the AP Top 25 — Tennessee and Florida State.
