The State of College Football: Recruiting
MERRY FLIP-MAS! A deeper dive into the early signing period with top 10 classes, perfect player fits and schools that might be in trouble.
Welcome to the offseason…kinda. We are still a few weeks away from the National Championship game but teams have to start the offseason process now for some reason. Players and teams shouldn’t be in offseason mode and post season mode AT THE SAME TIME!!! Something needs to change. Players should be able to complete a full season and then make their decision on transferring, entering the NFL or staying with their school. Players on Playoff teams are almost penalized for being on good teams. Imagine the NFL starting free agency during the playoffs? Fixing this problems means completely changing the schedule and it will most likely never happen. But it should. College football players should be allowed to finish their season and their academic semester around the same time. If we started the season ONE week earlier then the Playoff games would be played December 26th and the National Championship on January 1st (a sacred day in college football) that would allow ALL players enough time to make their decisions before the start of the next semester in mid-January. Maybe we eliminate some of these ridiculous non-conference games and shorten the regular season? Maybe we start the season a week earlier? Whatever the fix may be - we need something different. Now let’s take a look at how recruiting went this week.
Class Rankings (per ESPN):
1. Georgia Bulldogs
2. Alabama Crimson Tide
3. Oregon Ducks
4. Ohio State Buckeyes
5. Texas Longhorns
6. Miami Hurricanes
7. Oklahoma Sooners
8. Auburn Tigers
9. Florida State Seminoles
10. Penn State Nittany Lions
The early signing period of college football recruiting came and went this week and it offered more drama than usual. Sorry Florida fans! The Gators started the day Wednesday with a top 5 class, but as you can see, ended the day on Friday outside the top 10. Florida lost numerous prospects and what makes it even worse is that a few committed to SEC schools like Georgia and Texas. It’s no surprise to see the Georgia Bulldogs in the top spot but they lost a pretty big recruit themselves. Quarterback Dylan Raiola had originally committed to the Dawgs but flipped to his fathers alma mater - Nebraska. Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule spoke honestly about the price of a transfer portal QB and wanting to build through recruiting. I’m not sure what the price tag is on a five-star QB recruit but I’m glad the Huskers got their guy. I grew up in the Cornhusker triple option era of college football and long to see them return to glory. Rhule and Raiola appear to be a step in the right direction for a once premier program. The top 10 rounds out with a who's who of college football. Maybe the most surprising, but it shouldn’t be, is Oregon. Dan Lanning has done a tremendous job in Eugene and has the Ducks flying high. Has Oregon entered “blue blood” territory? And we should mention the outstanding job they’ve done in the transfer portal as well - adding two quarterbacks in Dillion Gabriel (OU) and Dante Moore (UCLA).