Accumulated Recruiting Totals

In following up on our last post regarding the average “star” talent recruited over the past four years per Rivals.com we present here the total accumulated points from 2005-2008 for 111 Division I teams.

Is this a perfect indicator of total talent for the teams for the upcoming season? Of course not. For one we are relying on Rivals assessment of talent. Additionally, this does not take into account players that have graduated early, or players that were highly ranked but have proven to be “busts”.

It does show however those schools that have been most successful over the past 4 years in attracting the big names – the talent every school wanted. Thus in that way it shows where the most desired recruits have chosen to play their college ball in the past 4 years.

It also shows, if the near past is any indication, the limited pool of possible schools from which a mythical national champion will be named as in the past 4 years, the eventual MNC was a name somewhere in this top ten list.

First the top 10 in accumulated recruited talent totals for the past 4 years (with point totals) –


1 Southern Cal 10,722
2 Florida 9927
3 Florida State 8930
4 Oklahoma 8747
5 Georgia 8466
6 LSU 8402
7 Alabama 8176
8 Texas 8173
9 Michigan 7934
10 Miami-FL 7680

One of these will be your 2008 MNC (with a strong maybe at that!)

USC has a commanding lead on any other school, nearly 800 points ahead of Florida. And, even though Miami makes the top 10, it is still nearly 29% behind the talent of USC.

USC was also first for the 2004-2007 period, but actually has lost points from their total of last year, down from 11,318. Florida on the other hand, while still second, has closed the gap with USC, going from 9392 to the current 9927. For reference, last year’s top 10 –

1 Southern Cal 11318
2 Florida 9392
3 Florida State 9056
4 LSU 8760
5 Oklahoma 8380
6 Georgia 8219
7 Tennessee 8122
8 Texas 8118
9 Michigan 7835
10 Miami-FL 7542

Moving up strongly year-over-year is Alabama, from 13th last year with 6706 total points to 7th this year and 1470 points stronger. Tennessee which was 7th last year falls from the top 10 to 13th overall this year with 7401, a loss of 721 points.

Finally the other 101 schools in our study, and their point totals –

11 Notre Dame 7526
12 Ohio State 7460
13 Tennessee 7401
14 Auburn 7114
15 Clemson 6840
16 Nebraska 6503
17 South Carolina 6058
18 California 5776
19 UCLA 5423
20 Penn State 5398
21 Texas A&M 5281
22 Virginia Tech 5238
23 Ole Miss 5084
24 Maryland 4726
25 Arizona 4691
26 Oregon 4683
27 Arkansas 4563
28 Pittsburgh 4550
29 North Carolina 4324
30 Oklahoma State 4312
31 Illinois 4274
32 Arizona State 4048
33 Iowa 4043
34 Virginia 3725
35 Colorado 3724
36 Missouri 3499
37 Kansas State 3482
38 West Virginia 3353
39 Washington 3344
40 Wisconsin 3324
41 Michigan State 3305
42 NC State 3200
43 Texas Tech 3082
44 Boston College 3065
45 Mississippi State 2919
46 Louisville 2739
47 Georgia Tech 2661
48 Kansas 2587
49 Minnesota 2433
50 Rutgers 2376
51 Oregon State 2275
52 Purdue 2106
53 Syracuse 2041
54 Stanford 2031
55 Southern Miss. 1858
56 Kentucky 1807
57 South Florida 1486
58 Washington St. 1316
59 Duke 1275
60 Baylor 1217
61 Iowa State 1186
62 Utah 1169
63 Northwestern 1142
64 Brigham Young 1033
65 UCF 928
66 TCU 847
67 Marshall 826
68 San Diego St. 798
69 Wake Forest 777
70 Boise State 762
71 Vanderbilt 732
72 Fresno State 719
73 Troy State 711
74 Connecticut 641
75 East Carolina 611
76 Toledo 604
77 Tulsa 576
78 UAB 573
79 Hawaii 516
80 Middle Tenn St. 489
81 Western Michigan 484
82 Louisiana Tech 463
83 Indiana 462
84 Cincinnati 447
85 Temple 421
86 Ohio 406
87 UNLV 395
88 Nevada 395
89 Memphis 386
90 Miami-OH 366
91 New Mexico 358
92 Wyoming 352
93 Kent 348
94 Eastern Michigan 334
95 Louisiana-Laf. 332
96 SMU 308
97 Rice 307
98 Houston 300
99 Colorado State 284
100 North Texas 278
101 New Mexico St. 273
102 Idaho 260
103 Utah State 255
104 Louisiana-Mon. 252
105 Tulane 244
106 Northern Illinois 232
107 San Jose St. 231
108 Air Force 208
109 Army 159
110 Navy 132
111 McNeese St. 54

At 54 points, McNeese State is only 1/199th of USC’s point total.