My recruiting ratings differ from the other fine recruiting publications.  Mine take into account the strength of the Top 5 signees, the Top 10 signees and the average signing grade per player for the overall class. This list is not about the quantity of the recruits signed but the overall quality of the class.

Sometimes a team with a small class of just 15 players may rate higher than one with 30. A perfect example of this would be this year's USC class, which I rank #8 (at least 5 spots higher than any other publication). The Trojans signed just 12 players, but those 12 players are as good as any team's Top 12 and they also captured their 12th straight top class in the Pac-12 barely edging out cross-town rival UCLA!

This year's #1 class should come as no surprise as Alabama not only took home their 3rd National Title in 4 years on the field last year, but also topped my team recruiting rankings for the 3rd time in 5 years while signing their 6th straight top 5 class!

Texas has failed to live up to expectations on the field the last 3 years and after signing 14 straight Top 10 classes, they fell to #15 this year, but still had the top class in the Big 12 as I rated them higher than all other publications!

Obviously, recruiting rankings are a good tool to predict a team's future success, but are clearly just a part of a team's success. Great coaches like Gary Patterson of TCU, Bill Snyder of Kansas St and Chris Petersen of Boise St have all achieved multiple double digit win seasons in the last three years despite not signing a single Top 25 recruiting class!

2013 Team Recruiting Rankings