Got into a discussion with one of the local Okie Lite Cowboy alum. (He's definitely on the fire Gundy train.) My take is the Big 12 is the most interesting conference but only because every team has a chance to beat the other making the race interesting. He says it only looks that way because some coaches aren't maximizing talent. Talent is better than performance. I say the talent level isn't that high.
Soooooooooo, I showed him recruiting rankings. Right now the Big 12 only has two 5* (BYU, Houston), and twenty 4* (KU-3, BYU-2, ASU-2, TCU-3, Baylor-4, Zona-1, Okie Lite-3, UCF-1 and Colo-1) That ain't many for 16 teams. Hell, Utah, WVU, Cincy, K-State, ISU and Texas Tech don't have ANY!
@WhosYourDawggy - I'm not sure NIL is really leveling out talent to the point that was anticipated. Granted, this doesn't take into account the transfer portal, but.............
I'll try to find the article, but last year, if you compared the number of top 100 that Bama, UGA, and tOSU landed in 2022 and compared to last year, it's way different. There is still a lot of time to go in recruiting, but I am already seeing lower top 100 rankings for UGA. And, it looks like this is going to be a killer year for UGA.
I do an article for Rivals every year. Here are the last 3 years compared:
As of today, Top 100 - Class of 2026 - 5; 2025 - 4; 2024 - 8 - this changes rapidly ... UGA added a couple since I wrote that article. However, the days of UGA, Bama, and tOSU accounting for 30-35% of the top 100 are gone.
Recruiting has undergone several indirect changes. Some players are committing earlier now. NSD is totally irrelevant, and even ESD is a nothingburger. Most teams are entirely wrapped up by October or November.
I just did some quick napkin comparisons. I used 2025 and 2020, which was right before COVID.
2020 - Top 100 players:
UGA - 11
Bama - 10
tOSU - 7
Clemson - 10
LSU - 9
That's 47 of the top 100 going to the top 5 teams.
Then look at the point totals for the top 5, then the 10th:
313
310
309
299
295
10th - 263
Now, forward to 2025.
Top 100 players:
Bama - 8
UGA - 8
tOSU - 7
Texas - 10
Oregon - 6
That's 39 (compared to 47 in 2020) in the top 5 teams in 2025.
Now look at the point distribution of the top 5 teams and the 10th (2020 numbers are in parens):
312 (313)
304 (310)
298 (309)
297 (299)
292 (295)
10th - 281 (263)
Notice that the top teams are far lower in 2025 than 2020, meaning that they aren't getting as many high-end players.
Comparing the 1st and 10th is always interesting:
2020 - 313 - 263 - 50 points
2025 - 312 - 281 - 31 points
So, the gap between the top 10 teams has shrunk considerably. To me that says that some players are getting spread out. I never expected the top teams to lose their recruiting juju. Just that they wouldn't get all the top players.