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2016 Recruiting Reviews: Power 5 & ND

How do the Irish stack up against the best classes from each conference?

Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

After previewing each of the power five conferences, a look across the land at program's success over the past four classes, talent levels, and how they match up to the Irish. All rankings from 247 Sports' Composite rankings, 4 year composites calculated weighting the most recent classes most heavily - 40% (2016), 30% (2015), 20% (2014), 10% (2013).

Team

2016 Rank

4 Year Recruiting Composite

5*

4*

3*

% Blue Chip

Alabama

1

1

20

56

24

73.8%

FSU

2

3.6

9

49

36

60.4%

LSU

3

4

8

59

32

65.0%

Ohio State

4

4.5

3

66

28

62.2%

Georgia

7

7.1

8

47

49

52.4%

USC

8

7.1

11

43

19

63.5%

Auburn

9

8.2

7

50

43

55.3%

Tennessee

14

10.6

1

45

59

54.1%

Ole Miss

6

11.3

7

32

60

37.5%

Clemson

10

11.6

5

41

40

51.7%

Texas

11

12.3

2

42

46

47.8%

Texas A&M

18

12.4

6

45

50

49.5%

Notre Dame

15

12.6

2

57

32

62.8%

UCLA

12

12.7

5

47

42

54.2%

Florida

13

13.6

5

33

60

38.8%

Oklahoma

20

16.6

3

32

55

35.0%

Michigan

5

17.5

2

38

38

40.4%

Miami

21

20

1

33

50

38.2%

Penn State

19

20.2

2

28

54

34.5%

Stanford

16

21.3

1

25

51

32.1%

South Carolina

26

21.9

0

29

67

28.4%

Oregon

28

22.1

2

26

51

33.3%

Michigan State

22

23.9

1

21

58

27.2%

Arkansas

25

25

1

20

70

19.4%

Arizona State

27

25.3

0

20

71

20.2%

Baylor

17

25.5

2

17

70

20.0%

Mississippi St

31

27.3

2

16

71

19.6%

Nebraska

24

28

0

18

70

19.8%

Washington

29

29.3

0

22

59

25.0%

UNC

35

31.4

0

12

69

14.5%

Virginia Tech

41

32.6

1

13

78

14.0%

Kentucky

34

32.8

0

14

79

13.6%

TCU

23

34

0

11

73

11.7%

Wisconsin

32

35.2

0

9

77

9.6%

West Virginia

39

36.6

0

9

81

7.0%

Louisville

37

37.1

0

7

78

7.4%

Oklahoma State

44

37.9

0

13

76

13.8%

Pittsburgh

30

38.1

0

11

74

12.4%

Missouri

51

39.8

1

8

80

9.7%

California

38

40.2

0

7

79

7.4%

Arizona

43

40.5

0

8

88

7.4%

Texas Tech

45

40.9

0

8

82

7.1%

NC State

49

41.6

0

6

85

6.0%

Maryland

42

43.6

1

11

60

14.8%

Utah

36

46

0

4

87

4.0%

Vanderbilt

54

47.2

0

10

69

11.2%

Duke

33

47.5

0

3

68

3.9%

Virginia

61

48.7

2

5

75

8.0%

Washington State

56

51.1

0

2

86

1.9%

Indiana

55

51.4

0

5

80

5.0%

Northwestern

52

51.6

0

5

66

6.8%

Iowa

46

54

0

1

80

1.1%

Oregon State

47

54.2

0

3

85

3.0%

Georgia Tech

59

55.6

0

1

72

1.2%

Minnesota

48

56.1

0

2

81

2.4%

Iowa State

53

58.6

0

2

85

1.9%

Wake Forest

58

58.8

0

0

81

0.0%

Syracuse

64

60.3

0

1

78

1.0%

Kansas State

74

62

0

1

67

1.1%

Rutgers

75

62.4

0

3

73

2.9%

Illinois

72

62.5

0

3

71

3.6%

Boston College

78

68.9

0

0

73

0.0%

Purdue

76

69.9

0

1

71

1.1%

Colorado

69

70.5

0

2

56

2.5%

Kansas

85

71.2

0

2

74

1.8%

Quick Hits
  • In the weighted 4-year composite, Notre Dame ranks 13th nationally after signing good but not great classes the past two seasons (weighted at 40% and 30% for '16 and '15 classes). On signing day there's all kinds of hand-wringing and headlines over a "Top 10" class or if a team drops from #9 to #14. But these margins are razor thin over four years much less one - a good camp showing here that raises a three-star recruit to a four, signing a few more three-star recruits per year, or just having slightly higher rated 4-star signees.
  • A few more ELITE signings would boost the Irish cleanly up into the upper echelon with Auburn, Georgia, and USC. The Irish actually have the 4th highest blue chip percentage (behind only Bama, LSU, and USC), and have signed the 4th most blue chip players in number (59) as well. But Brian Kelly has pulled in only two composite five-star players over the past four seasons, tied for 14th best.
  • Signing less players relative to other programs has also hurt Notre Dame's rankings a bit - the Irish have signed 94 players over the past four classes. The 12 programs ranked ahead of ND in the four-year composite have signed an average of 98 players over the same time period, with seven signing over 103.
  • Doing more with less alert: Utah, Duke, Iowa (in 2015 at least), and Oklahoma State. The Utes and Blue Devils signed strong classes by their standard; the Hawkeyes and Cowboys couldn't capitalize on a combined 22 wins.
  • Doing less with more: UGA (27-11 the past three seasons despite top 10 classes every year), UCLA, Penn State, and Texas. One thing to note for teams like the Longhorns and Miami - these rankings take into account classes signed, but not attrition from transfers, suspensions, or career-ending injuries.
  • And on shutout watch: Wake Forest and Boston College were the only two programs that have not signed a single blue-chip recruit in the past four years.
Conference Comparisons:

Overall there's a lot of parity between the power five conferences, with one glaring exception: the SEC. The "average" class for each of the major conferences:

Conference

4 Year Composite

5*

4*

Blue Chip %

SEC

18.7

4.7

33.1

37.7%

Pac 12

35

1.6

17.4

21.2%

Big 12

39.6

0.7

13.7

14.7%

ACC

39.7

1.3

13

15.6%

Big Ten

41.5

0.6

15.1

16.5%

It's remarkable what an advantage many of these SEC schools have, but to play devil's advocate, why haven't more of these schools been able to put it all together and be more successful? This questions is most relevant to the SEC East, where despite strong performances on the recruiting trail, there hasn't been a real title contender since Georgia in 2012.

Any other impressions looking at the results for each power five team and Notre Dame? Drop a line in the comments below.