Recruiting rankings and services can obviously be misleading, and reputation and loose information can often fuel the numbers. So it’s important to remember great classes don’t always correlate to success, and poor ones don’t entirely equate to losing seasons. But right now Syracuse’s recruiting class sits at 63rd in the nation, according to 247Sports.com.
This puts the Orange right behind two other academically elite, basketball strong, but football shaky schools: Northwestern (61) and Duke (62). In the recruiting mix with the Wildcats and Blue Devils is not where any SU fan wants to be, but probably understandable.
Looking for the bright side? Syracuse actually ranks ahead of Boston College (65), Nebraska (66), UConn (67) and Kansas State (80). But if we go inside the numbers, Syracuse has 21 total commits (zero 4-star commits, 11 3-star), while for example the powerful Huskers have only 11 commits, but more than half are 4-stars (6).
- The Fizz on Twitter for the latest SU news before Signing Day
The rankings will continue to move until National Signing Day on Feb. 1st, and if Syracuse manages to finish in the Top 50 nationally, that should be considered another step forward for the program. SU did not help itself by losing the final five games of the season and missing a bowl game. The buzz from last offseason has quieted to a murmur this January. But the good news is late scholarships have opened with the losses of Chandler Jones, Dorian Graham, Philip Thomas and Adam Harris.
The Big East’s best rankings come from West Virginia (27) and Rutgers (28), which both have at least two 4-star kids. Pitt (33), Cincinnati (39) Louisville (45) and USF (50) all also stand higher than SU. The interesting (or terrifying) dynamic is when you start factoring in Syracuse’s new conference.
The ACC places four schools in the Top 15: Florida State (9), Clemson (11), Miami (12), and Virginia (14). It also owns 10 schools ahead of the Orange. But there is a chicken-or-the-egg question. Will Syracuse be submarined by better football schools on the recruiting trail in the ACC? Or will being in a stronger conference help recruit better talent? The Fizz believes it will be more the latter.
Sugar Bear Thompson, George Morris and (hopefully) Ashton Broyld are all exciting additions for SU. Devante McFarlane and potentially Wayne Morgan proves the Orange is culling the New York City region successfully. And the ability to improve the class with those late scholarships increases the potential for NSD.
These rankings are also only a rough barometer of the types of athletes each school is bringing in. It doesn’t take into account a million other intangibles which decide college football success. But Doug Marrone is looking at one of the lowest rated classes in the Big East, not to mention his future conference, the ACC. Time for a late push by the Orange.
Posted: D.A.
16 responses to “Crunching the Recruiting Class Rankings for Syracuse, the Big East, and ACC”
I think these rankings are erroneous to say the least. Look at Cincy, L’ville Boise State TCU and some other programs who rank worse than SU and go to a bowl game year after year. We will get Morgan and Standifer and the OG from Georgia.. GO CUSE
Do you guys purposely pick the worst recruiting site/agency to base your article on just to be negative ??
Scout ranking 44th 4th in the Big East with 2 – 4 stars recruits and 9 – 3 star
Rivals ranking 54th
Horrible reporting, at the very least take an average.
Seriously DA. The site you reference has UCANT with only 1 4 star recruit, not 6. I love the daily recruiting analysis but if you are going to compare our group to others then do a little more detail. Harold Brantley is a 280lb kid who runs a 4.8 forty. For some reason he is not even ranked by ESPN because Nick Saban hasn’t talked to him.
Ashton broyld is a TE? According to scout at least? That cannot be right.
Hahaha… that is not right. Recruiting sites are such a disaster.
I’m really looking forward to watching Brantley. I still say we run him 2-3 times each drive just to wear down opposing defenses. I don’t care how he runs, 280 pounds moving that fast is just hard to tackle.
JR Huskers is Nebraska which has six not U-Conn.. Read a little better before you criticize
No question, you guys are right – all the recruiting sites have big time differences. I actually like 247, but thats just my opinion. I prob should’ve taken an average of SU’s ranking, but this was just to highlight one system’s rankings. As I mentioned in the piece, you cant put too much stock in any of these things. But its always interesting.
I think its great reporting DA…I love the site and information…this is the best site for a Syracuse fan who enjoys year round recruiting coverage. I’m in NC, so looking forward to having the Cuse down here much more. Keep up the great work! Go Cuse!!
Honestly i would rather have morris over any of uva’s recruits at this point, since their top 2 prospects are a athlete and a mlb, where we have spruill and with bailey gone morris will do great. And MR ur lucky I’m from texas and I’m pissed that i leave when schools from texas join
D.A the next time you report on recruiting sites for rankings, don’t average, just list the site and the ranking. Then discuss who’s ahead of who per each site. You did a poor job of this last year when reporting recruiting ranking and as I remember you got nailed back then to.
I agree… terrible reporting here. SU ranks in the top 50 classes right now and can only move up with a couple more of their dream recruits still deciding! BTW… we have a 4 star recruit. Though I want better talent, at least report with the information correct!!!
let me tell you that coaching and teaching will lead to a great future for SU and bring us better recruits in the future…
GO SU
Whats wrong with the higher rated recruits?….dont they realize well be competeing in the ACC?and why are so many commiting to Rutgers??come on Dougie..step it up.
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