Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney has a trio of predictions about the top of the 2025 rankings, which team will finish at the top of the team rankings and five-star quarterback flip watch.
MORE: October's winners and losers on the recruiting trail
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1. THERE WILL BE A NEW NO. 1 BY THE END OF THE 2025 CYCLE
The old days are gone when we would re-rank prospects following their senior seasons but put an intense spotlight on the all-star events to really finalize and polish up the rankings. Back then, nearly all of the top prospects in any given recruiting class would head to Orlando or San Antonio to back up their rankings.
This will be the first time where the major all-star games are split with 2025 and 2026 prospects because so many seniors either opted out of the games for health reasons or because they were headed to college already. That’s fine, we can still figure it out.
That could help solidify Ohio State commit Tavien St. Clair as the No. 1 prospect in the Rivals250 essentially because we might not see many of the elite five-stars playing in the all-star games. But it also opens up a window of discussion to move someone else that high.
No knock on St. Clair since we’ve loved him ever since he proved his No. 1 ranking at the Elite 11 and the Rivals Five-Star over the summer but there will be many that push him including LSU commit Bryce Underwood (who’s being heavily pursued by Michigan), Alabama commit Keelon Russell (who is having an unreal senior season) and Julian Lewis, the USC commit who is again putting up huge numbers.
2. OHIO STATE WILL FINISH WITH THE TOP-RANKED CLASS
It’s not really a blockbuster prediction to say Ohio State – which currently has the top-ranked recruiting class by a wide margin – will end up No. 1.
But it is noteworthy still because no team from the North has ever won a team recruiting title in Rivals history dating back to 2002. In almost all circumstances, an SEC program or USC has won the championship in recruiting but the Buckeyes could buck that trend for a few reasons this recruiting cycle.
First, Ohio State is the only team with five five-star commitments and the only one really at risk of flipping is Birmingham (Ala.) Parker cornerback Na’eem Offord unless something shocking happens with McKinney, Texas, linebacker Riley Pettijohn.
The other reason is that unless there are massive flips to Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Auburn or Texas, there just aren’t enough elite prospects left uncommitted to drastically change the team rankings at the top.
There have been numerous instances where especially Ohio State or Notre Dame took an early lead in the team rankings only to see it wither away as SEC programs caught up late with five-star commitments and flips. It just seems unlikely barring major changes in the Ohio State class that anyone can catch the Buckeyes this cycle.
3. AT LEAST ONE FIVE-STAR QUARTERBACK WILL FLIP
There are four five-star quarterbacks in the 2025 class in Tavien St. Clair (Ohio State), Bryce Underwood (LSU), Julian Lewis (USC) and Keelon Russell (Alabama). At least two are being heavily courted by other programs and the prediction here – although it’s not worth of standing on a table or shouting from the mountaintop that it’s definitely happening – is that at least one flips.
The two leading contenders would be Underwood or Lewis.
Underwood has been committed to LSU since January and has stayed out of the recruiting spotlight but Michigan has been heavily pursuing him in recent weeks. Coach Sherrone Moore is reportedly involved and an NIL deal is being worked on.
Lewis is the other one to watch as he’s been committed to USC for more than a year but visited Colorado again over the weekend. He has a great relationship with coach Deion Sanders, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and others. Indiana is also making a major run at him which seemed like a pipe dream during the offseason but with the Hoosiers 8-0 and with Lewis’ relationship with assistant coach Tino Sunseri, both are worth watching.
