Inside the numbers: Five-year rankings
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DeShaun Watson was a five-star recruiti for Clemson.
Of the top 10 best performing teams in the national recruiting rankings over the last five years, half are also ranked in the College Football Playoff Top 10 and two have made the College Football Playoff. No. 1 Clemson and No. 2 Alabama are both in there, with average five-year recruiting classes ranking ninth and first, respectively.
The other three schools in the College Football Playoff who also rank among the top ten five-year average class rankings are Ohio State (No. 7), Notre Dame (No. 8) and Florida State (No. 9). Three more make the College Football Playoff top 25 and they are Florida (No. 19), LSU (No. 20) and USC (No. 25). Only Auburn and Georgia miss out on the top 25 among the 10 best recruiting performers over the last five years.
20
Most five-stars signed by a single school in the last five classes.
Calvin Ridley had a big freshman year for the Crimson Tide.
Once again, Alabama is the top performing team in this category. The Crimson Tide signed a total of 20 five-star prospects in that stretch for an average of four per year. The only other teams that have signed double-digit five-star prospects over the last five classes are Florida State (15 five-stars signed), USC (15) and LSU (11).
Alabama's five-star haul accounts for 12.6 percent of all five-star prospects in the classes of 2011-2015. And, the Crimson Tide have turned that talent into production. Four are currently in the NFL. Eight more are listed as starters for their College Football Playoff semifinal game on Jan. 1, while another three are listed as second team on the bowl game depth chart.
48.6
Lowest five-year average class ranking for a team in the College Football Playoff Top 10
Quarterback C.J. Beathard and Iowa put together a surprising 12-0 regular season.
Which team in the College Football Playoff top 10 outperformed their recruiting ranking the most? By a large margin, it is the Iowa Hawkeyes. Kirk Ferentz's program finished the 2015 regular season with a 12-1 record and just missed out on the College Football Playoff, coming in at No. 5. Their five-year average class ranking, though, barely ranks in the top 50.
Fourteen of Iowa's 22 starters are either junior or seniors, and that correlates with their recruiting rankings. Their best performance was in 2011 when they signed the No. 30 overall class. Their second-best performance was in 2012 when they signed the No. 43 overall class. The only other top 10 ranked teams with an average five-year class ranking higher than 25 are North Carolina (30.6) and Michigan State (31.2).
11
Five-year recruiting ranking for 5-7 Texas.
Charlie Strong and Texas lost three games by at least 24 points.
While Iowa outperformed its average recruiting class ranking significantly, Texas clearly underperformed compared to their five-year average. The Longhorns finished with a sub-.500 record and eighth in the Big 12 in 2015 despite having the best preceding five years of recruiting in the conference. Its average class ranking was one spot out of the top 10, tied with Tennessee for 11th best during that stretch.
Texas was not alone in underperforming its recruiting rankings, though the crowd is quite small. Auburn was the only top 10 recruiting performer over the last five years not to have a winning record in 2015, finishing at 6-6. The only other school with a losing record which had an average five-year class ranking in the top 20 was South Carolina, which finished 3-9 this season with a 17.6 recruiting average.
Josh Helmholdt
Midwest Recruiting Analyst
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