No conference has ever owned the top of the rankings like this, and that doesn’t even explain it fully.
With February’s National Signing Day now pretty well in the books, what seemed obvious after December’s Early Signing Period is now final. The SEC just had the best recruiting year for a conference in the history of recruiting rankings.
The SEC did something that’s never happened in the internet rankings era: finish with teams in four of the top five spots on the 247Sports Composite class rankings. That represents a slight falloff from December, when SEC teams had the top four all to themselves. Texas has since jumped up to No. 3, but the SEC’s success is still unprecedented.
The SEC is now always the conference that comes closest to overloading the top of the rankings. But nobody’s ever done anything like this.
The conference has Alabama at No. 1, Georgia at No. 2, Texas A&M at No. 4, and LSU at No. 5. Compare that to the most dominant showings in previous years:
- In 2004, the ACC had two of the top three classes.
- In 2005, the top five all came from different conferences.
- In 2006, the SEC had the No. 2 and 3 classes.
- In 2007, the top three all came from different conferences.
- In 2008, the top four all came from different conferences.
- In 2009, the SEC had three of the top four, with No. 2 USC interrupting.
- In 2010, the top three all came from different conferences.
- In 2011, the top four all came from different conferences.
- In 2012, the SEC had two of the top three.
- In 2013, the SEC had two of the top three.
- In 2014, the SEC had the top two and No. 5.
- In 2015, the SEC had two of the top four.
- In 2016, the SEC again had the top two and Nos. 5. and 6.
- In 2017, the SEC had two of the top three.
- In 2018, the SEC had two of the top five.
In ‘09, when LSU was No. 1 and Bama and Georgia followed in the 3-4 spots, the SEC had what you could call the most dominant recruiting year ever by a conference. It’s not a coincidence that the SEC won the next four national titles after that.
But there’s no analog to a conference sweeping the top four spots. If the SEC pulls it off this year, it will be an incomparable infusion of talent.
The top of a conference’s class is what matters most, because that’s where national championships are won.
Titles are reserved for programs that sign more blue-chip recruits than non-, and only 13 teams in the whole country met that threshold in 2018, including all four Playoff teams.
The SEC has seven teams above that cut right now for 2019, including three — A&M, Florida, and Tennessee — whose 2018 rosters left them just below the Blue-Chip Ratio line. The Vols got there by signing a five-star tackle, Darnell Wright, and four-star linebacker, Henry To’oto’o, in the last hour or so of the February NSD.
But the conference also has incredible recruiting depth.
Arkansas, which just won two freaking games, somehow has a top-25 class. So does Ole Miss, transitioning out of NCAA sanctions with a strong finish. South Carolina’s ahead of both of them, just inside the top 20 at No. 19.
Thirteen of 14 teams finished in the top 36. The last of those is Mizzou, which just got hit with an NCAA bowl ban. Every team in the conference except Vanderbilt (at No. 56 nationally) is at least pulling its weight.
The top of the conference’s recruiting is unprecedented on its own. Rolling it in with the depth gives it an even more convincing case as the best.
The SEC always has a talent advantage. That’s natural when two of the clear top four recruiting states are in the heart of a league’s footprint, fellow top-four state Texas is now partly an SEC state, and other talent-rich states like Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the Carolinas are there, too.
But 2019 is a perfect storm. Bama’s signed a dominant class and has seen recent success with young players translate to the trail. Georgia’s become the closest thing to the Tide. Jimbo Fisher’s won the state of Texas back for A&M this year, one recruiting cycle after Tom Herman’s Longhorns dominated. And Bama’s recruiting success has generally not come at the expense of LSU, which swept the best players in Louisiana with two exceptions.
It’s already known that the SEC collects more talent than its peers. The gap’s only widening.