Just how good is the 2007 Florida class?

Florida’s 2007 class may be not only the best ever at Florida, it may be one of the best ever period. The class is not only large it is deep, with talent from the top to the bottom.

When classes are ranked by services like Scout.com and Rivals, they are given simple numerical orders rankings. However, these do not tell the whole story. Take the instance of the billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Warren Buffet was the “2nd richest man in the world” per Forbes in 2006, and Gates the first, but Gates total net worth was estimated at $53 billion, while Buffet’s was $46 billion. In other words, although Buffet is 2nd, Gates is 15% richer than Buffet with $8 billion more, a difference alone of 3 times the total estimate wealth of Donald Trump ($2.6 billion).

A similar situation can be found in the 2007 recruiting classes. While Rivals and Scout both rank Florida first, the drop off in classes between the Gators and the other top classes is most telling. Both Rivals and Scout use a point system to rank the total class, which like a billionaire’s dollars, can be used to separate the truly wealthy from the merely wealthy. First per Rivals –

























The chart shows the ranking order of the teams per Rivals, with the total points in the 3rd column. The 4th column shows a percentage basis of that team’s class as compared to Florida’s. So while USC was second in Rivals, its class was 6.7% worse than Florida’s. The difference as we go down the chart becomes even more dramatic. The 20th class in Clemson (out of 115 classes), is 51.5% worse than Florida’s per Rivals. FSU, ranked 18th in Rivals (more on that later), had essentially half the class Florida did.

The situation is even more dramatic at Scout.com –

























In this case, 2nd ranked LSU has 19% less a class than Florida, and USC nearly 21% less.

Both services have team rankings back to 2002, but Scouts appears to have changed their point system this year, so comparing the totals with past years is impossible. For Rivals, however, this year’s Florida team at 2959 was the 2nd highest point total ever calculated, behind only the 2006 USC class that had 3018.

Naturally, all these rankings are subject to the inherent uncertainty of college football recruiting. That said, it appears Florida’s class this year was exceptional.

Finally, I would like to make a note regarding the rankings of our in-state competitor FSU. Rivals has, for many years, been accused of “over ranking” FSU teams, with specific allegations of bias. Last year, for instance, Rivals gave FSU the 3rd ranked recruiting class, while they were 12th on Scout.com.

This year the misranking appears even more questionable, as Rivals somehow managed to get FSU in the top 20 at 18th, while Scout saw them at 33rd, a difference of 15 spots. If you look at the top 25 teams on Scout and compare them to Rivals, only in FSU is there such a difference of opinion. The top 25 teams on Scouts are the same ones found in the top 25 teams on Rivals (with minor difference in rankings) with the exception of FSU, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, and West Virginia.

The difference in rankings between Rivals and Scout on those teams are (Rival to Scout ranking)–

Virginia: 24 to 32
Virginia Tech: 29 to 24
Oklahoma State: 28 to 23
West Virginia: 36 to 25
FSU: 18 to 33

I don’t feel I am in a position to definitely determine an FSU bias at Rivals, but as they say, if it quacks like a duck…