Final Recruiting Ranking Notes after National Signing Day

Feb 6

Now that signing day passed on Wednesday, the recruiting rankings are set in stone. If you haven't seen the final rankings, you can look at them here. Here are some takeaways from that list:

The historic streak of Alabama recruiting continues

Alabama won the national title a month ago, and the recruiting “championship” a month later, with Nick Saban pulling in his ninth top-ranked class in the last 11 recruiting cycles and the highest-rated class in the history of the 247 Composite rankings. That’s just bananas.

Reporter Brett Hudson of The Tuscaloosa News put in perspective of how historic this 2021 class is. The Crimson Tide signed seven five-star recruits in its 2021 class. Compared to some other notable programs, in-state rival Auburn has signed three five-stars since 2017, Florida has signed two since 2016, Texas A&M has five in the last three cycles, and Michigan has just six in the entire Jim Harbaugh era (since 2015).

Bonkers.

Do you know how that happens? You sign more top-10 players in Texas than the Longhorns, or you sign as many top-10 players in Florida as UF/FSU/Miami combined. Watching LSU winning the 2019 National Championship must’ve really pissed off Nick Saban enough to put together one of the best all-around calendar years in program history.

The top of the Pac-12 had a nice rebound

It’s very nice to see Oregon and USC back in the top ten together, with the Ducks coming in at No. 6 and USC coming in at No. 8. The Pac-12 is in sore need of a face-lift after the performance of the conference in the last few seasons, and the Trojans and Ducks delivered.

The Ducks brought in their third straight Pac-12 recruiting crown, signing 19 four-stars in their 2021 class, and a class that Mario Cristobol nabs as the best class Oregon has ever signed. Oregon signed the No. 1 recruit in Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, and New York.

The difference-maker in this class was USC. Crazy that I have to say that sentence, but based on the poor recruiting performance last year (last in the Pac-12), the Trojans really needed this class. The conference is only as good as the top of the league performs, and USC wasn’t pulling their weight on that end. The class is punctuated by No. 1 overall recruit Korey Foreman from Corona, Calif, on top of 14 four-star recruits. The conference needs contenders, and recruiting like this makes that possible.

Other classes to note

Notre Dame(9th): First top-ten class since 2018, 12 4-star recruits.
Wisconsin(15th): Top-ranked class in the modern recruiting era (since 1999).
Iowa(23rd): Highest-ranked class since ranking No. 6 in 2005.
South Carolina(78th): Yikes.