Mark Pszonak contributed to this report.
The end of the decade is quickly approaching. So how did your favorite team stack up in the national rankings over the 10 years? Here’s the average national ranking of every Power Five school (and Notre Dame) from 2010-2019.
1. Alabama 2.2 – No surprise here as Alabama has ruled the recruiting world.
2. Florida State 7.0 -- An interesting No. 2 considering where they are now on the field.
3. Georgia 7.1 – Kirby Smart boosted this average ranking upon his arrival.
4. USC 7.5 – Not a lot of on field success for this gaudy a number.
5. LSU 7.6 – And on the come up under Ed Orgeron.
6. Ohio State 8.2 – Ryan Day will keep this number at the top of the Big Ten.
7. Auburn 9.2 -- Very high number with few results to show for it.
8. Florida 10.0 – Dan Mullen is moving in right direction but much of this was Urban Meyer.
9. Oklahoma 11.2 – Sooners are the best team in the Big 12 on field by far.
10. Texas 11.4 – Can you say underachieving on the field?
11. Clemson 11.7 -- Amazing what Dabo Swinney has done. This number will get better.
12. Notre Dame 12.0 – With academic restrictions, this is an impressive average.
13. Tennessee 13.2 – The Vols have been bad but clearly recruiting hasn’t been.
14. Texas A&M 13.5 – The Aggies continue to underachieve based on recruiting rankings.
15. Oregon 16.6 – The Ducks are primed to move up here under Mario Cristobal.
16. Michigan 17.5 – Jim Harbaugh has recruited well. Now he needs to beat Ohio State.
17. South Carolina 18.9 – Will Muschamp is a good recruiter, but is he a good coach?
18. Miami 19.5 – Miami recruits well due to geography but the results have been bad.
19. UCLA 20.1 – UCLA is in prime recruiting position but hasn't had a breakthrough.
20. Ole Miss 21.9 – This is because of Hugh Freeze and some big classes.
21. Nebraska 22.0 – Scott Frost should be able to keep Nebraska right around here.
22. Penn State 23.0 – James Franklin is a great recruiter and this number should improve.
23. Washington 24.7 – It’s a tough place to recruit but they have done a good job.
24. Stanford 26.6 – With the toughest academics standards of anyone, this is impressive.
25. Virginia Tech 27.4 – This is a good number for the Hokies and results have been solid.
26. North Carolina 28.5 – Mack Brown will take this to a higher level.
27. Michigan State 29.5 – I can see this dropping unless Mark Dantonio moves on.
28. Mississippi State 30.1 – Hard place to recruit, but SEC geography helps.
29. Arkansas 32.3 – Recruiting wasn’t the problem clearly.
30. Cal 34.1 – Cal is a sneaky program. It finds sleepers.
31. TCU 34.1 – Gary Patterson is one of the best in the business.
32. Oklahoma State 34.8 – They can’t compete with OU that often, but they still win games.
33. Arizona State 36.0 – Herm Edwards will keep this number around this range.
34. Kentucky 36.9 – Mark Stoops has done an amazing job at Kentucky, enough said.
35. Missouri 37.1 – Mizzou is in a tough geographical spot in the SEC.
36. West Virginia 39.4 – A tough place to recruit, WVU coaches have to go everywhere.
37. Baylor 39.5 – Art Briles brought this up and then plummeted it. Matt Rhule rules.
38. Utah 39.8 – The Utes are an odd team to figure out but they keep winning.
39. Maryland 40.1 – The Terps still get raided in state but this isn’t a bad number.
40. Louisville 41.6 – About where I figured for Louisville, a solid program.
41. Pittsburgh 43.5 – Western PA used to have a lot more talent.
42. NC State 44.4 -- The state of North Carolina gets raided and NC State does a solid job regardless.
43. Arizona 44.4 – Kevin Sumlin isn’t the answer and this could fall.
44. Texas Tech 44.6 – A hard place to recruit with so many hitting Texas.
45. Iowa 44.8 – Geography is tough but the staff coaches up players well.
46. Wisconsin 44.8 – They get more out of talent than possibly anyone else.
47. Virginia 45.8 – Bronco Mendenhall is not Mike London, but he’s coaching better.
48. Vanderbilt 48.4 – Having the only academic restrictions in the SEC is tough.
49. Rutgers 50.4 – Surprised? I was too.
50. Georgia Tech 51.5 – Recruiting in the same state as UGA isn’t easy.
51. Oregon State 51.9 – I thought it would be lower. This is a good number.
52. Minnesota 53.2 – PJ Fleck will have them moving up for sure.
53. Indiana 54.4 – A hard place to recruit for football.
54. Colorado 56.9 – It is a bit out of place in the Pac-12 geography.
55. Illinois 57.8 – Lovie Smith has this moving up a bit.
56. Duke 57.9 – Academic issues and a basketball school, tough combo.
57. Iowa State 58.0 – Matt Campbell could raise this if he stays.
58. Purdue 59.1 – This should rise as well despite a bad season.
59. Boston College 60.2 – Academics and a bad location in the ACC is tough.
60. Kansas 60.3 – Les Miles will push this number up a bit.
61. Kansas State 60.7 – It does a great job being this low.
62. Washington State 60.7 – Mike Leach is a genius.
63. Northwestern 61.2 – Surprised it is this low.
64. Wake Forest 63.1 -- Dave Clawson is doing an amazing job with average talent.
65. Syracuse 63.3 – Surprised it was last, but Upstate NY is hard to sell.
Ranking the conferences
For the table below, we assigned point totals in inverse order of the above list and excluded Notre Dame. For example, No. 1 received 64 points, No. 2 received 63 points, etc. We then averaged the total points for each team by conference. Not surprisingly, the SEC was No. 1, but the rest of the list was a bit unexpected.
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