We like to debate this subject a lot so I became curious about a simple comparison that I could do while eating my lunch before going to visit a relative in the hospital.
It shows a balance of some teams take advantage of 4&5 stars and find their way into the playoff while some teams waste them. It also shows teams 10-25 in the Final AP Poll can be ranked anywhere in recruiting. There are deeper comparisons that can be done but I think this does provide hope that teams lower in recruiting are winning a lot games.
The number to the left is the Final 2018 AP rank. The number to the right is that team’s 2014 recruiting rank from Rivals (the Rivals list I found only had a top 100)
1 Clemson 13
2 Alabama 1
3 Ohio St 3
4 Oklahoma 15
5 Notre Dame 11
6 LSU 2
7 Georgia 7
8 Florida 8
9 Texas 20
10 Wash St 69
11 UCF 73
12 Kentucky 17
13 Washington 36
14 Michigan 31
15 Syracuse 51
16 Texas A&M 6
17 PSU 24
18 Fresno St 80
19 Army (not in top 100)
20 WVU 45
21 Nortwestern 67
22 Utah St (not in top 100)
23 Boise St 65
24 Cincinnati 68
25 Iowa 59
So 12 teams that made the Final AP rankings had a recruiting class 4 years earlier that ranked 35 to 100+.
On the flip side there were 13 teams with a top 25 Rivals recruiting rank in 2014 that went unranked this year. Those teams and their recruiting ranks were:
4 FSU
5 Tennessee
9 Auburn
10 USC
12 Miami
14 Stanford
16 South Carolina
18 UCLA
19 Ole Miss
21 Arizona St
22 Michigan St
23 North Carolina
25 Virginia Tech
Pitt ranked 44th in recruiting in 2014 and won the Coastal despite 4 Coastal teams having higher 2014 recruiting rankings: Miami 12, UNC 23, VT 25, UVA 41
It shows a balance of some teams take advantage of 4&5 stars and find their way into the playoff while some teams waste them. It also shows teams 10-25 in the Final AP Poll can be ranked anywhere in recruiting. There are deeper comparisons that can be done but I think this does provide hope that teams lower in recruiting are winning a lot games.
The number to the left is the Final 2018 AP rank. The number to the right is that team’s 2014 recruiting rank from Rivals (the Rivals list I found only had a top 100)
1 Clemson 13
2 Alabama 1
3 Ohio St 3
4 Oklahoma 15
5 Notre Dame 11
6 LSU 2
7 Georgia 7
8 Florida 8
9 Texas 20
10 Wash St 69
11 UCF 73
12 Kentucky 17
13 Washington 36
14 Michigan 31
15 Syracuse 51
16 Texas A&M 6
17 PSU 24
18 Fresno St 80
19 Army (not in top 100)
20 WVU 45
21 Nortwestern 67
22 Utah St (not in top 100)
23 Boise St 65
24 Cincinnati 68
25 Iowa 59
So 12 teams that made the Final AP rankings had a recruiting class 4 years earlier that ranked 35 to 100+.
On the flip side there were 13 teams with a top 25 Rivals recruiting rank in 2014 that went unranked this year. Those teams and their recruiting ranks were:
4 FSU
5 Tennessee
9 Auburn
10 USC
12 Miami
14 Stanford
16 South Carolina
18 UCLA
19 Ole Miss
21 Arizona St
22 Michigan St
23 North Carolina
25 Virginia Tech
Pitt ranked 44th in recruiting in 2014 and won the Coastal despite 4 Coastal teams having higher 2014 recruiting rankings: Miami 12, UNC 23, VT 25, UVA 41
