College football recruiting determines the success or failure of any program. Successful schools recruit very well and a number of recruiting sources analyze just how well these schools recruit over the course of a specific period. The recruiting site 247Sports compiles a composite list of school rankings that include the lists from Scout, Rivals, ESPN.com, and its own. These services compile team rankings based on the number of athletes a school signs who are ranked using a star system; for example, the highest ranking is a five-star, then four-star, three- star and two-star. Simplistically, the more high star athletes a school signs the higher that school will be ranked. Conversely, a school signing athletes who are ranked as three stars and two stars will receive a lower ranking. However, the Composite Rating system is much more complicated than that. A degree from MIT may help someone understand the system.
According to the 247Sports.com website:
The 247Sports Composite Rating is a proprietary algorithm that compiles prospect “rankings” and “ratings” listed in the public domain by the major media recruiting services. It converts average industry ranks and ratings into a linear composite index capping at 1.0000, which indicates a consensus No. 1 prospect across all services.
The 247Sports Composite Rating is the industry’s most comprehensive and unbiased prospect ranking and is also used to generate 247Sports Team Recruiting Rankings.
All major media services share an equal percentage in the 247Sports Composite Rating.
The composite index equally weights this percentage among the services that participate in a ranking for that specific prospect.
Interpret this as you will but the 247Sports Composite list is widely regarded by media and college football personnel as the gospel when it comes to college football team recruiting rankings.
The Top 25 list for 2016 follows:
- Alabama
- Florida State
- LSU
- Ohio State
- Michigan
- Mississippi
- Georgia
- Southern California
- Auburn
- Clemson
- Texas
- UCLA
- Florida
- Tennessee
- Notre Dame
- Stanford
- Baylor
- Texas A&M
- Penn State
- Oklahoma
- Miami
- Michigan State
- TCU
- Nebraska
- Arkansas
The 247Sports Composite List from 2012-2015 follows:
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Florida State
- LSU
- Southern California
- Florida—Tie with Georgia
- Georgia
- Auburn
- Texas A&M
- Notre Dame—Tie with Texas
- Texas
- UCLA
- Tennessee
- Clemson
- Oklahoma
- Miami
- Michigan
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Mississippi
- Stanford
- Virginia Tech
- Mississippi State—Tie with Arkansas
- Arkansas
- Washington
When you analyze this year’s rankings with the composite from the last four years, you see the same teams, albeit in different order. Oregon and South Carolina slipped this year while Mississippi, Michigan and Baylor seem to be moving up. The Southeastern Conference had nine out of the Top 25 in 2016 and 11 out of the Top 25 the prior four years. Clearly, a school must make a commitment to a winning program in order to recruit the best athletes. This means top-notch facilities; high paid head coaches and assistants; large recruiting budgets; financial assistance from alumni, fans,and donors; leniency from the school’s admissions group from time to time; and classes that allow athletes to be successful both on and off the field. The vast majority of schools cannot or will not make such a commitment, so look for the same 15 or so schools to be competing for spots in the College Football Playoff system over the next few years.