I recently looked at 247sports composite rankings and something felt a little off so I went and the rankings for the other recruiting sites to see if the rankings matched. See for yourself: (Note: I only used top ten rankings from each website and only made a composite of those in the top 10 of all four sites)
Ranking Rivals Scout 247 ESPN
1 Florida Michigan Alabama Florida
2 Notre Dame Ohio St Ohio St Alabama
3 Alabama Notre Dame Florida Notre Dame
4 Ohio St Texas AM Michigan Ohio St
5 LSU LSU Notre Dame Michigan
6 Michigan UCLA USC LSU
7 USC Florida LSU Texas AM
8 Texas AM Georgia Texas AM USC
9 UCLA Alabama Georgia Georgia
10 Georgia USC Texas Florida St
Which results in a composite ranking of:
Composite ranks AVG School
T1 3 Florida
T1 3 Ohio St
3rd 3.25 ND
4th 3.75 Bama
5th 4 Michigan
6th 5.5 LSU
7th 6.75 Texas A&M
8th 7.75 USC
9th 9 Georgia
Compared to 247's rankings:
Composite rank School
1 Bama
2 Ohio st
3 Florida
4 Michigan
5 ND
6 USC
7 LSU
8 Texas A&M
9 Georgia







Did you do 247's formula for your analysis?
The composite is not w composite of the rankings of the teams, but rather a composite of the rankings of the individual players with the 247 ranking system then applied on the composite player rankings. Which is why the difference. It's the team rankings based on the 247 team rankings system using the composite players values instead of 247.
This, plus (and FWIW I could be a little off here) I believe the different team rankings are all using potentially different formulas. For example, 247 uses a certain statistical formula, possibly with just the top 20 or 25 recruits. Rivals or Scout may use a different formula, and may do it for a different number of recruits. This is because of some of the schools having 30 in their class, with early enrollees and such, and not giving them extra points for that which would skew the rankings.
"What we do in life echoes in eternity"
They do have different ways to ranking, different algorithms.
i may be alone here, but who cares where our recruiting class is ranked? i mean, we're top 5, and it's not like finishing with the #1 recruiting class gets you money/trophy/tv time...it's just for stupid bragging right amungst fans...its like being the best in call of duty...
now, dont think by me saying this i dont want to have the absolute best players possible at each position when NSD comes. but to get upset enough to try to call out a recruit service for their formula and prove them wrong (and you didnt even do that, see above) is kinda sad.
mini-rant over
Its fun to discuss...
i guess, but just this week ive seen like 4 threads about it. had to give my $0.02 on it. consider it my addition to the discussion haha.
Lol, considered ;)
Does anyone know what statistical formulas these services use, or are they some tightly held secret? I thought I read somewhere on this site that 247 includes some weighting for NFL potential, for example.
Nope, just look on their site... each one on their team rankings page have a link that tells you how they calculate them.
247:
Click on the "i" icon located to the right of the Team Ranking header and read all about the 247Sports Ranking Formula.
http://247sports.com/Team/Ranking
Rivals:
http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=880&CID=1364602
Scout:
http://www.scout.com/3/about-team-rankings.html
ESPN:
???
Thanks! Not a mathematician, but I like stats.
OSU: only team ranked in the top 4 in all 4 recruiting services rankings yeah buddy
Only Two BigTen teams? Nebraska or someone else in the BigTen needs to step it up. Takes more than 2 to make a good league.
I checked rivals and it seems like PennState used to have pretty decent top 10ish classes before JoePa's got REALLY old.
Great analysis. Love to see where this ends up post signing day!
Final 2013 Recruiting Rankings
Scout
1. Ohio State
2. Michigan
3. Alabama
4. Notre Dame
5. UCLA
6. LSU (T6)
6. Texas A&M (T6)
8. Florida
9. Georgia
10. Ole Miss
Rivals
1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Notre Dame
4. Florida
5. Michigan
6. LSU
7. Ole Miss
8. Auburn
9. FSU
10. Texas A&M
ESPN
1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Ohio State
4. Notre Dame
5. Ole Miss
6. Michigan
7. LSU
8. Texas A&M
9. FSU
10. Georgia
247 Sports
1. Alabama
2. Ole Miss
3. Notre Dame
4. Florida
5. Ohio State
6. LSU
7. Texas A&M
8. Michigan
9. FSU
10. Auburn
247 Composite
1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Notre Dame
4. Florida
5. Michigan
6. Ole Miss
7. LSU
8. FSU
9. UCLA
10. Texas A&M
Composite is really the best representation, as it takes into account each players rating across all four major services
Sorry Urban, Woody is still my favorite