Colleges and universities from across the Southeast showed the results of their recruiting efforts as National Signing Day for High School athletes jump-started the 2015 football season.
According to Fox Sports, every team that has won a title since 1998 has had at least two top ten signing classes in the four years before a title. (And every team but 2010 Auburn has had three of those classes). So while individual recruits might not live up to the expectations, the more four and five star recruits your team signs, the better your chance of winning a national title or making the playoff, according to the report.
According to 24/7 Sports composite recruiting ranking — a compilation of all the major recruiting rankings — the SEC has 11 of the top 22 recruiting classes in the country.
As this report, Alabama is 1, Tennessee is 4, LSU’s 5, Auburn’s 8, Georgia’s 9, Texas A&M is 13, South Carolina’s 17, Ole Miss is 18, Mississippi State is 19, Arkansas is 21 and Missouri is 22.
(Kentucky is 35, Vanderbilt is 45, and the Florida Gators are 51.)
Here’s a look at how the 2015 recruiting class rankings stack up (courtesy Fox Sports):
Rank | School | 5-Star | 4-Star | 3-Star |
1 | Alabama | 3 | 16 | 5 |
2 | Southern California | 4 | 12 | 8 |
3 | Florida State | 3 | 10 | 11 |
4 | Tennessee | 4 | 11 | 12 |
5 | LSU | 3 | 12 | 8 |
6 | Ohio State | 1 | 16 | 10 |
7 | UCLA | 1 | 10 | 9 |
8 | Clemson | 3 | 8 | 11 |
9 | Auburn | 2 | 16 | 9 |
10 | Georgia | 1 | 13 | 14 |