Ohio State has passed Georgia for the top-ranked college football recruiting class in 2018, by virtue of ratings adjustments just ahead of National Signing Day on Feb. 7.
Ohio State leapfrogged Georgia for the No. 1 2018 recruiting class, but it’s not over yet
The next Signing Day should decide things.
Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
When the sport’s first ever Early Signing Period ended on Dec. 22, Georgia had the top-ranked class this year and the sixth-highest-ranked class in the recruiting rankings era, according to the 247Sports Composite. Ohio State was in second, but the Buckeyes leapfrogged the Dawgs sometime this week when players’ Composite ratings were adjusted. (The Composite is an aggregation of player evaluations from all the major recruiting agencies, and it’s SB Nation’s preferred metric for these things.)
The current standings:
- Ohio State (309.58 Composite points)
- Georgia (309.00 Composite points)
It’s a barnburner between these two over who will finish in the top spot.
Ohio State passed Georgia in part on technicalities.
These ratings get adjustments just before Signing Day every year. The changes include tweaks for players who already committed to a school. Either some of OSU’s commits got bumps, or some of UGA’s commits got downgrades, or both.
It’s not, in reality, a big deal when someone’s decimal-point score on a recruiting website ticks downward. The ratings are hilariously precise, and even the best scouts might not be able to distinguish between a player with a 0.9143 Composite score and someone with a 0.9221. But for the purposes of rankings champs, it matters.
Also, Ohio State’s added a couple of blue-chip signees.
Four-star defensive end Tyreke Smith and four-star defensive tackle Tyler Friday have both committed to the Buckeyes since the ESP. (Smith signed during that period but didn’t announce it publicly until later, so he wasn’t include in the Buckeyes’ class score at the time.) Those pickups have pushed the Buckeyes upward a bit. They currently have 23 commits to Georgia’s 22, which largely explains their moving into first place.
The race for the top class will come down to the wire.
Georgia is likely to add at least one more five-star, to go with the outrageous six five-stars it already has: Five-star American Heritage (Fla.) cornerback Tyson Campbell.
Ohio State is probably taking a big class and might add three more players. Four-star Maryland offensive tackle Rasheed Walker and four-star California receiver Chris Olave are among their top remaining targets. If Ohio State winds up taking 25 or 26 players and Georgia takes 23 or 24, that’ll be a rankings edge for the Buckeyes.
At any rate, one of these schools will finish with the highest-ranked class. It’ll probably be the first time in seven years that Alabama, with a class currently ranked sixth, doesn’t finish on top of the heap. But if the Tide have a perfect finish, it’s possible that they finish first anyway, because life’s not fair.
