The 2022 recruiting season is basically over. There are still two unsigned 5-stars. There are no unsigned 4-stars in the Rivals 250.

For the last 4 or 5 years I have been gathering recruiting data for the 65 P5 teams. I use Rivals data. Yes, there are some other sites (24/7, 24/7 composite, ESPN, and On3) but to be consistent and because I consider Rivals the easiest to understand & duplicate, I use Rivals.

For those of you who are not steeped in the intricacies of Rivals ranking here is this explanation from Rivals: https://n.rivals.com/news/rivals-com-football-team-recruiting-rankings-formula

The chart (Pitt’s) below shows the basic Rivals formula at work. All the key points are covered – Stars (5 thru 2), Rivals Rating ( 6.1 thru 5.2), Points awarded (150 to 15). The only thing missing are Rivals bonus points awarded for a recruit listed in their top 250. Unlike the 2021 class, both of Pitt’s 4 stars were not in the top 250.

For those interested in the math behind the chart, here is a simple explanation:

1. Avg Star Ranking – Multiply your total number of 5-stars by five, your total number of 4-stars by 4 and do the same for the 3 and 2-stars. Sum those numbers and divide by the total number of recruits. Pitt’s cumulative stars are 37. Divided by 12 gives a 3.08 average star ranking. Rivals includes all committed recruits in this ranking be it 29 (Texas A&M, Georgia) or seven (Kansas).
2. Rival Points Ranking (20 or less commits) – Multiply the number of recruits in the assigned Rivals “Rating” (6.1 down to 5.2) by the assigned “Points” for that “Rating”( 150 down to 15). (Example: Pitt’s two 4-stars have a rating of 5.8.  Multiply the assigned “Points” (105)  by two (recruits) for a total of 210.) Sum the individual Ratings and you have the basis for how Rivals ranks team except for:
3. Rivals Points Ranking (21 or more commits) – Rivals only uses a team’s 20 top rated commits in calculating a team’s points. Calculation is the same as above bullet point #2 but includes only the top 20 commits.
4. In addition, Rivals awards bonus points for commits in the Rivals 250. These points are awarded in addition to the calculated points in bullet points 2 or 3. The points awarded range from 100 for the number one recruit down to 3 points for numbers 246 thru 250.
5. Numerical Rivals Ranking (NRR) – This is my attempt at judging the overall quality of a team’s commits. It uses Rivals Ratings (61 thru 5.2) as the basis. It sums the value of each rating and divides by the total commits. In Pitt’s case, the value is 5.608.

I’m sorry for the long winded explanation. In the future (if I’m still doing a recruiting recap), I will just throw in a link to this article.

Continue reading “2022 ACC Recruiting and More” →