Now that the classes are final (okay, maybe Toby Roma comes on board, but let's just say they're final for now), everyone's going to dig into the rankings. Here's how ND's class stacks up currently according to the 'experts':
ESPN: 14
Rivals: 21
Scout: 24
Not bad for coming off a 3-9 followed by a 7-6 record, and not bad considering all the talent that came into ND in last year's #1 consensus recruting class. But not great either.
The problem with these services is that volume has a lot of influence in their rankings. For example, each each system, there are a lot of teams who have more Top 100/150/200 players that fall below teams with fewer. I get why - they need to ensure that a team that pulls in 3 high quality guys isn't ranked super high. The other problem is that they don't take into account need and specialists. ND had a big need for certain positions, and they were met this year. A few of those happened to be specialists - K, P, Long Snapper - and those guys always get low ratings even if they're the best at what they do. So things get skewed a bit, and it also misses a big point - who's getting the most of the real talent? The big time guys?
So I went ahead and re-ranked teams according to the number of "Top" players in their respective classes. And given that ND has a smaller class this year, guess what? We improve. Shocking!
ESPN: I used number of Top 150 players in the class. ND jumps from #14 to #9, moving ahead of teams with fewer (sometimes 3-4 fewer) Top 150 players, but more players overall.
Rivals: I used number of 4-5 star players, and ND moves up to #15 from #21. ND ties MSU for that spot, and remains behind the killer classes like Bama, OSU, etc. But we jump ahead of teams like Arkansas, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Auburn and Stanford - classes that have a ton of players, but not as many top guys.
Scout: Again I used number of 4-5 star players. We move from #24 to #12! Clearly Scout places way too much emphasis on volume. (We're tied with 5 other teams at 12, FYI). Because we have 9 players in the 4-5 star range, we move ahead of teams like Arkansas, Miss. St, Penn State and Auburn. And we end up tied with FSU, Miami, Michigan, and Florida. Heck, Scout had South Florida ranked RIGHT behind ND at #25, and they only pulled in 3 guys with 4-5 star ratings. Seriously? You think a team with 3 Top players, none of which are named Manti Te'o is BARELY worse than ND's haul? That's just moronic. And bad methodology.
Final result? ND has a class that is somewhere in the Top 20 for sure, and should probably be considered a Top 15 class given the talent, need fulfillment, etc. beyond pure numbers. No, it's not a killer class like the previous year, but you can't be #1 every year, and we got some serious studs in this class.
Besides, going Top 10, Top 5, #1, Top 15, Top 5 (with next year's 2010 class) ain't bad at all.
By san diego irish February 5, 2009 - 2:32 pm
I read somewhere that you only really need 8 or 9 quality guys per class to build a good program. Obviously teams take many more than to cover guys that don’t work out, injuries, transfers etc. But if you pick good players, quality is definitely better than quantity.
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By NDcivil03 February 5, 2009 - 2:42 pm
You gotta love those SEC jokers like Ole Miss who sign 36 kids in one class, hoping that half of them will be academically eligible come August.
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By san diego irish February 5, 2009 - 2:48 pm
like Alabama last year.
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By Matt '09 February 5, 2009 - 3:13 pm
I’d certainly take that 5-year stretch of results–Top 10, Top 5, #1, Top 15, Top 5–in the final AP polls for 2009-2013.
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By The Biscuit February 5, 2009 - 4:01 pm
Alabama oversigned again this year. Matt, good point. This year should be the beginning of our consistent return to the Top 15 of the rankings, if our on-field results mirror our talent hauls.
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By BigE February 5, 2009 - 9:10 pm
Scout.com doesn’t make a lot of sense. They rated Miss. St. at #19 which had zero top 100 players and zero 5 star players. They rated Florida #22 which had 6 top 100 players and four 5 star players. I love the talent ND signed and I can’t wait to see them on the field.
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By Solo076 February 5, 2009 - 10:26 pm
Like I said yesterday I love this class. To me it is just as important as last years class because it fills holes that we needed plugged just like last year but they are not the prolific positions. Remember that Wood spent all but the last 2 weeks of the year ranked as a 5 star prospect via Rivals. Also Watt is the #2 ranked by position. I think Rivals system for ranking sucks, but they put in a hell of a lot of work. Watch out for Motta he is gonna be one hell of a bull and in 2 years our D will be ranked top 5!
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By trey February 6, 2009 - 1:44 am
This is one of the reasons I’m not huge into recruiting like a lot of you guys and I could care even less about final team rankings. For me, did you get the guys you WANTED to get. Regardless of star level, regardless of ranking, are they the player in a position you need and is he THE best guy you can find for that position. If you are hitting at a 75% rate on the guys you want, I consider that an A+ year. Correct me if I’m wrong, anyone, but I think we hit the absolute home run with Watt and Te’o this year. We have had shit OL depth and Manti is an absolute man-child and we knew that like everyone else in the country. Two for Two in my opinion.
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By www.southbendblarney.com February 7, 2009 - 3:19 pm
ND needs to be top 10 recruiting every year. You can never have enough studs. USC doesn’t finish out of the top 10 ever (with Pete), so down years aren’t necessarily bound to happen.
I’m not sure about recruiting rankings, but teams that dominates them tend to be good teams.
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