Latest / The Extra Point / National Signing Day 2026: Top Recruiting Classes, NIL Strategies & Coaching Changes

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National Signing Day 2026: Top Recruiting Classes, NIL Strategies & Coaching Changes · The Extra Point

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What's up y'all, you're listening to the extra point
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college football podcast. I'm your host Jacob Carnes,
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joined as always by my Co host Daniel Hammock.
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Daniel, we have turned the page on the 2025 season.
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It's time for the 2026 season and that starts with you know,
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we're recording this Wednesday, February 4th, which is national
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signing day. I just want to pause here.
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You know what, let me let me talk what we're going to what
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we're going to get to and I didn't have this on the agenda,
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but I want to mention that we're going to talk about the top
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signing classes, both transfer in high school recruiting.
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We'll talk about both is today officially ties the bow on
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classes for the 2026 recruiting classes.
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We'll talk about talent parity. Do we have more parity than we
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did a decade ago? What about talent separation,
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the Big 10 and the SEC? We'll talk about some coaching
0:47
changes how that has effective recruiting such as Lane Kiffin's
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first class at LSUNIL strategies.
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Obviously, this is a huge part of recruiting now as paying
0:58
players are just legal. So talk about ref share, NIL,
1:01
different schools using different strategies, Who's
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spending the most? Who's spending the most
1:05
efficiently? Players are getting paid the
1:07
most. The sheet is recruiting class.
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What players do coaches feel like are a bus?
1:12
Some good stuff from Pete Nakos there.
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Daniel. I do want to start here though.
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National Signing Day used to be special.
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It's a shame we're sitting here that nothing's happened today.
1:21
I mean, I remember I never called out from school on
1:24
signing day, but, you know, by the time I was in high school,
1:28
smartphone, I had a smartphone. And so you best believe I
1:32
remember specifically, I had a kid in my class or a Georgia fan
1:35
kid in my class who's a Big South Carolina fan who would,
1:38
like, make the, like, rooster noise all the time, would just
1:41
see me in the hallway and make the rooster noise.
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Oh, my goodness. Yeah.
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Really obnoxious. But I remember, like, Clowney
1:48
committing and him being, like, beside himself.
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I remember Isaiah Cruell committing.
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I remember watching that at school as a Georgia fan, holding
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to the Bulldog. That was elite.
2:00
Special Daniel, what's They've taken a special day from us.
2:03
When I was in high school, Jacob, which was only five years
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prior to you, we did not have smartphones.
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No one did. I yeah, no, no one did.
2:13
We, we had cell phones, amazingly, we could text, but
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you had to be quick with your thumbs.
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What my tradition, I always, my granddad would always give me
2:21
the sports page. I would always bring that.
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That was every day. So the sports section of the of
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the newspaper nice And that day after signing day was elite
2:30
because you had all the profiles in nice And so you could just
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open up and you could just deep dive on every person.
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You'd be like, Oh, this is their high school.
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This is what they had for breakfast.
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You know, you could just find out everything about them.
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This is before. I mean, we're really like, you
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know, and so I, I feel old, but I, that was definitely like a
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hey, we, we always would gather around.
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I'd come in with that one and that was a hot issue.
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Everybody at the lunch table be gathered around like, wait,
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wait, wait, read this guy tell me this guy.
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You know, so it was special, man.
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And it's not anymore. Early signing day started this
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process. And then I think the transfer
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portal kind of sealed the process.
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And, you know, Nili guess I sprinkled that in where, you
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know, commitments and signatures don't mean as much.
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You also there was a time when, you know, enrolling early.
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They still would have signing day after these players would
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enroll early. You have more and more push for
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that. But yeah, it's, it's just not a
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special. It's not the same day in the
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calendar that it was, you know, I wasn't necessarily thinking
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about high school, but one of my, you know, jobs right after,
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you know, in high school. And then afterwards, I ended up
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being able to work from home on Wednesdays to do a work
3:46
schedule. So part of that would be, you
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know, that's what signing is always a Wednesday.
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So that day was extra special because I could just watch all
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the coverage all day while I was working from home.
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So it was special, but. That is special, dude.
4:00
They took it from us, but we'll still talk about it.
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Daniel. Our top 10 high school classes
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according to the on Three industry rankings, USC at one,
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followed by Notre Dame, Oregon, Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia,
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Texas A and in Miami, Tennessee and Texas.
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Our transfer top ten classes according to on three.
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We've got Indiana followed by LSU, Texas Tech, Texas A and in
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Louisville or Jenny Tech Houston, Arkansas, Notre Dame
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and Texas Daniel, what any class to stick out to you a special.
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Are there any surprises that stuck out to you as you're
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looking at the rankings of teams or any classes that you're like,
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man, this, you know, I like this class, obviously USC, you know,
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number one class, but any classes that stick out to you as
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special or surprising? Yeah, You know, it's funny
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because if you're looking at like a team, you know, team
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talent, composite team rankings, you know, Alabama is number 2.
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But if you look at their class breakdown, Jacob, they've got as
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many three stars as they do four and five stars.
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So if you're doing some quick math at home, for blue chip
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ratio reasons, they recruited a 50% clip of for their a blue
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chip ratio, but their class is still very highly rated.
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And that's not to diminish their class.
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They obviously got some good, you know, four stars and five
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stars, but there's a lot more three stars being taken in the
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high school ranks. So just wanted to point that
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out. USC is impressive.
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They also signed 36 players. Like most of the time when you
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sign a bunch of players, they do have a good, you know, they've,
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they've got, you know, several elite recruits.
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I'm not, you know, diminishing that.
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Honestly, the player I'm most excited about for them I think
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is Mark Bowman. Yeah.
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I think that, you know, he's getting a lot of Brock Bauer's
5:49
comparisons rightfully so. I think same, you know, area of
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the country and you know, size profile and I think the way he
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plays the game. So a lot of people are excited
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about him seeing him potentially in that Lincoln Riley offense.
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A couple of guys that I I'm interested in are actually
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Oregon. So Oregon, they're third on the
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the composite on our our list here that we're looking at.
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There's the other third. So they jet Washington safety
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out of Bishop Gorman. I mean, dude, and he's a five
6:21
star. He's 6 foot 5 at 2:15.
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So you look at him projecting, he could be like a big, I just
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think you're going to, I'm just mentioning guys that I think
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we're going to hear about the next three years in college
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football. Anytime you watch a college
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football show, you're going to see them on the highlights.
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Mark Bowman, I think he's going to be all over the highlights
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for USC, for Oregon. I think you're going to be
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hearing about Jet Washington, what a great name as well.
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But he's a, you know, being that huge safety.
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I think he's going to be at the top of NFL draft boards in a few
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years. Also, Oregon always had these
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guys that were just like great running backs that I feel like
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we're hybrid wide receivers. Their small bodies.
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Tradarian ball, go look up, I mean tradarian ball out of
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Texarkana, TX high school and Texarkana.
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This guy's like 58510, something like that, 175 lbs.
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He had like 1200 receiving years this year as a running back.
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So like he's one of those guys that's just going to be, you
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know, he's like a 10500M guy. Anyways, I just I love, I think
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Oregon got some guys that are like traditional Oregon players
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and Lanning got his big defensive guy Jet watching.
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Anyways, I like that class. And then just a shout out for
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Ohio State and Chris Henry Junior.
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I was going to call him out. Yeah.
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Ohio State got a wide receiver. Oh, my gosh.
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Whoa. Him being a legacy Keira senior
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senior played there. It's just like, that's really
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cool to see, you know? So anyways, I, I like that my
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one of my bosses at work is a big Ohio State fan.
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So he actually brought up Chris Henry junior to me like a month
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ago and was very excited. And I'm like, dude, we still
8:02
have College Football Playoff. Why are you?
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Why are we talking about this? And he's like, I mean, you don't
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understand what he means to us. So this is a big one for their
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fan base. Like bringing his son and
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bringing Junior in is really cool so.
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To close to close the deal on him without heartline, which
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will we'll get to coaching changes, but I know that was up
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in the air for a little bit after he left, of course, and
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that was a good one. I OK.
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Speaking of players that I feel like fit the school, Notre
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Dame's put together a heck of a class and Rodney, Rodney Dunham,
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edge player to Notre Dame and then Ian Premer tied in.
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I think like big edge defensive lineman, big tied in, just like
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that. That fits Notre Dame.
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Notre Dame classic Notre Dame oddest too, as far if you go by
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average rating for the classes, your top five are Oregon, Ohio
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State, Alabama, USC, Notre Dame. So still the same top five
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schools that have the top five classes, just in a little bit
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different order if you're going by average player rating for
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those recruiting classes plus you jumps from 12:00 to 7:00
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when you filter it that way. So I think that's impressive to
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you. Another player that this again
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fits what that school producers in pro through to Georgia.
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Again, big tight in, you know, 65 and a half, 2/15.
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He'll probably put on 1015 lbs at Georgia.
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I don't know what he'll play at, but I imagine they try to get
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him up to that 225 tonight, if not 240 range put put put some
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weight on that frame Justice Fitzpatrick to Georgia safety
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the brother his brother right of Minka Fitzpatrick.
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Yes, yeah. OK, I was like, it is a brother,
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right? Yeah, yeah, younger brother.
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I think that one's a good fit. And then there was a there was a
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Bama player I wanted to highlight to Xavier Crowell.
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I mean, Bama has produced a lot of good running backs, but five
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11210 bowling ball running back and Xavier Griffin to fam and
10:01
Georgia feel like I've had a lot of linebackers just come through
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that smart and saving defenses and Xavier Griffin going to
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Alabama. I know I know Georgia wanted him
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to, but yeah, I mean, really impressed with USC.
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I went to look this up like This Is Us CS first number one
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recruiting class since like I think Pete Carroll.
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It's been a long time since UFC has had a #1 recruiting class.
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Yeah, that makes sense because all the Alabama years and it's
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coming on the heels of Carol leaving.
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So that makes sense. I wanted to ask you a question,
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Daniel. OK.
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Has NIL and the portal combined created more talent parity?
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Think this is a good question. So I think about it a couple
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different ways. So has it balanced the power?
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I mean, we just come off of, you know, Indiana winning the
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championship. Is that an anomaly?
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Is that not? But is there, you know, has it
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created more talent parity, I would say?
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Shut up your head, you know. No, I I'm not going off of the
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rankings and stuff. I think if you go to just
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rankings based, I would probably argue that it has not changed.
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But I would say the change to me has been the best teams that are
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recruiting high school players have less developed talent on
11:18
their two man. And then all of those guys that
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were on the two man are now spread to other places.
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So even if it's less like, you know, Indiana or whoever as an
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example is taking mostly transfers, they're not getting a
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five star transfer, They're not getting a four-star transfer.
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They're getting some three star guy that was developed, but he's
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older, he's played a little bit, just these guys are getting more
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opportunities to play. So I think it has maybe, I don't
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know, leveled the playing field, so to speak in some instances.
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But I don't think that there's actually a metric that would
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show that the like as far as rankings go that is skewed back
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a different way. I think there's maybe some play,
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some teams that were traditional powers that had money that were
12:11
not closing and are now able to close a little bit better.
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Texas A and in Texas, USC, maybe they can close a little better
12:19
than they used to. Notre Dame, Maybe even a little
12:22
bit. Yeah, Yeah.
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So I when I I asked myself this question because I'm like it, it
12:27
feels like it into your part. I think it's a nail on the head
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of it feels like, you know, the the Georges, the Alabama's, the
12:35
Ohio states that, you know, they have these five stars that wait
12:39
three years to play and they're just not going anywhere.
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I'm like, OK, that's changing. So the portal has changed talent
12:44
parody and created teams with less depth.
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Then I saw it to answer the question, OK, but is, is high
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school recruiting changing? And so here's what I here's the
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date I pulled Daniel because I'm like is because of and this is
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more instead of portal. This is more NIL.
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Are more schools getting top talent than they did pre portal
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and not NIL? I just picked a year because I
13:07
thought about going to 21 class, but I was you're still coming
13:09
out of COVID. That was a weird year.
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I went to the 2019 recruiting class.
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All right, last recruiting class before 2020 because COVID was
13:17
weird and that you've had some weird stuff since.
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So really this is super. I say super.
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This is definitely before portal in IO.
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So kind of like, you know, that's the 2019 recruiting
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class, the top 25 at 13 SEC schools, 8 Big 10 schools, 3 ACC
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schools and Notre Dame, 0 Big 12 top 25 classes.
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Let me asterisk there. I am including current
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conference structure, OK, Oklahoma and Texas, SECUSC, Big
13:50
10, Oregon, Big 10. It's fair, all right, Fair.
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Just just to try to be apples to apples here.
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But this year the top six classes though that year one
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through 6 SEC schools. All right, important, important
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there. Let's just go to this year.
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Top 25 recruiting classes, 9 ACC schools instead of 13, seven Big
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10 instead of 85. AC instead of three three Big 12
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instead of 0. The decrease for the SEC
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decrease by 1 to the Big 12. Big 10 increase by two for the
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ACC, increase by three for the Big 12, even though it will
14:30
accept we didn't include Texas and Oklahoma the last time, but
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increased by three for the Big 12.
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Notre Dame still in there and the top four classes this year
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for high school recruiting, all Big 10 schools are Notre Dame.
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So I think there's been a lot of talk of and I think, and I have
14:45
I have more data too, but just that I think lines up with the
14:48
state of college football right now, which is where I feel like
14:51
the SEC is not really dropping off much in that.
14:54
I think the SEC still the best conference.
14:56
If you're going by almost like you're filtering the recruiting
14:58
rankings by average, like player rating, I think the average SEC
15:02
team is still the best of any other of the average
15:04
conferences, right? But I think what you're missing
15:08
is, I mean, you could argue the best three teams in college
15:10
football this year were Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon, all from
15:13
the Big 10. And the recruiting rankings are
15:15
kind of lining up with that. And again, you go to the
15:17
transfer top ten this year, 10 are SEC schools for Big 10, five
15:22
ACC, 5 Big 12, one Notre Dame. But again, we have that 2019 top
15:27
six are SEC this year, top four Big 10 or Notre Dame.
15:30
So I'm like, OK, that's kind of aligning with the shift of how
15:33
college football is going right now of.
15:35
And I think the other six in the top ten were SEC schools where
15:38
it's like, man, SEC feels like they have a bunch of five
15:41
through 15 and not a lot of one through 3 right now.
15:44
And at least this year's recruiting rankings line up with
15:46
that. Here's the other thing, Daniel,
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are top talented players going to more schools or the same
15:53
number of schools or where are they going to?
15:57
So if you go back to the 2019 five stars, 32 five stars, all
16:02
right, 23 of those five stars, excuse me, there was 34 for the
16:07
24/7 composite. It doesn't change the rest of
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these numbers. If you go by the 24/7 composite
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that year, 25 of the 34 five stars went to SEC schools.
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Percent, 74% of the five stars, 8 went to Big 10 schools, one
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went to an ACC school, zero to Notre Dame, zero to the big,
16:26
1274% going to SEC schools. If you take off those last two
16:31
players, the 33 and 34 which went to an SEC school,
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percentage goes up and number of schools that got a five star
16:38
that year. 1515 schools got a five star of the 32 players this
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year, 32, five stars. 12 to the SEC or 38%, that is half, half
16:51
of 20/19/11 to the Big 10. That's an increase.
16:56
ACC has one that's the exact same. 12 has four, that's an
17:00
increase. Notre Dame has three. 9% of the
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five stars this year went to Notre Dame alone. 17 different
17:06
schools got a five star player this year and increased by two,
17:10
which honestly, there were more schools that got a five star in
17:12
2019 than I was expecting. But I'll I'll just say this
17:15
that's that's that's one data set.
17:17
You can manipulate data to the ever you want.
17:19
But I did start with, I'm just going to go to 2019 and C, and I
17:22
think it's interesting that the SEC hoarding talent, especially
17:26
top talent, has definitely been not the narrative.
17:30
It's been the truth for the last decade plus in college football
17:33
of the best players are going to the SEC, at least if we're going
17:37
by this year's recruiting class. It is more spread out and it's
17:41
almost even with the Big 10, but there's still a huge gap between
17:44
the SEC and Big 10 and everybody else.
17:46
Which again, I just feel like this year's recruiting class is
17:50
a great snapshot of where our sport is in 2026, which I
17:53
thought was interesting. I think it's lining up and more
17:55
schools getting a five star. Houston got a five star, Utah
17:59
got a five star player this year, BYU got a five star player
18:02
this year. So I think it's really
18:03
interesting of the state of the sport and looking at how things
18:06
played out over the last two years and also looking at
18:08
recruiting rankings now and saying I think there's a little
18:11
bit of correlation, at least at the surface.
18:13
And I haven't gone further than that.
18:14
It took me about an hour to get all that.
18:16
Yeah. In that hour, I was, I was kind
18:18
of like, huh, not I guess kind of surprised by the theater, but
18:22
I was, I thought, I just thought, I just thought that was
18:24
interesting. I wanted to talk about it.
18:26
Yeah, I mean, some people are asking, did Brian Kelly break
18:31
the SEC? He left Notre Dame because he
18:33
couldn't recruit at that level. Now Notre Dame is recruiting at
18:36
that level. That's right.
18:38
And then he broke the SEC when he came here, he beat Alabama.
18:41
But then, you know, has was hot dog water ever since.
18:46
I also so for BYU, was it Joseph Smith the 4th Was that their Was
18:53
that the? Who it was whole.
18:54
Yeah, is that their five star? I don't think, I don't, I do not
18:56
think it was Joseph 5th, the 4th.
18:58
I could say that. OK, OK, just check.
19:00
Was it BYU? OK, maybe it wasn't BYU.
19:02
Now I'm now I feel foolish. Now I was looking at something
19:05
else with BYU. It wasn't BYU.
19:07
OK, Maryland is the other surprise one.
19:09
OK? I mean, I mean, Houston,
19:11
Vanderbilt, Maryland, that's another surprising one.
19:14
Texas Tech and Utah all signed five stars, which I think if you
19:19
had said that in 2019, it. Is surprising.
19:21
Yeah, it's it's one of these things where I think that you're
19:24
definitely looking at a different data set.
19:28
You know, these guys are are moving around more.
19:31
It's interesting. It definitely feels that way.
19:34
It kind of goes back to what Nick Saban said a few weeks ago
19:37
that he kind of got some some heat for.
19:39
But he was like, well, of course NIL is helping the Big 10
19:44
because you wouldn't want to go play in the cold if you're not
19:47
getting paid to do it. And he's like, you'd have to pay
19:50
me to go there, which some people took as a, you know, a
19:53
jab some people took as, you know, he's being sour grapes
19:56
because he's an SEC guy. But I mean, truthfully, reason
20:01
geographically that the SEC was so dominant, obviously their
20:05
people care more, the fan bases care more.
20:08
So it's a bigger deal. It does just mean more.
20:11
But the accumulation of. Players, the best players lived
20:15
in the SEC footprint, you know, only other would be like
20:18
California had outside of the SEC footprint.
20:21
So that being said, yeah, those players are going to probably go
20:24
to local schools there so that their family can come see them.
20:28
But now that they're getting paid it, it makes sense that
20:31
they're they're spreading out, they're going to places that
20:35
maybe traditionally they would not have chosen to go.
20:39
Yeah, this is interesting. Yeah, I did think it was
20:43
interesting and I think the biggest number that jumped out
20:46
to me was 70, like 74% to 38% as far as number of five stars
20:51
going to SEC teams. And again, that's just five
20:53
stars. I do think that, I mean, money
20:58
has allowed the talent to spread out and that, like you said,
21:01
like schools that had the money that maybe weren't giving it
21:04
out, like USC or Notre Dame are now giving it out and being on
21:08
equal playing fields with A, you know, with a Georgia, with an
21:12
Alabama. I'm curious.
21:14
The next five years looks like, well, one, I just, if anyone can
21:17
for a certain time what the sport's going to look like in
21:19
five years. I'll still call you a liar, but.
21:21
Yeah. I'm curious that, you know, if
21:23
things were to stay the same, what they won't, what would the
21:25
next five years look like as far as you know, you start to see
21:28
schools overpay people and like, does does the market correct
21:32
itself? You know, because there's
21:33
definitely schools that are I mean there is no salary cap and
21:37
you know, no one's playing by the rules.
21:38
So does the market still correct itself or is I'm not to say
21:43
look, it's legal. So keep doing you Texas Tech,
21:45
but like or a Texas Tech is going to keep being like blank
21:48
check. We wouldn't want a championship.
21:51
We'll spend whatever we want. I'll go here.
21:54
Daniels. I mentioned it biggest spenders.
21:56
This is from Pete Nakos great article on three.
22:01
Check it out. Big he, he pulled.
22:03
I don't know coaches and GM's, so 13 different people.
22:07
He asked him who the biggest spender was, 12 of 13, said USC.
22:11
Biggest spender for the 2026 class, followed by Texas Tech,
22:15
Miami, Oregon, Texas A&M. Any of those surprise you?
22:18
The only surprise to me is that Texas is not on the list because
22:22
I felt like they were, but I think they're more tradition
22:25
like they're talking about specifically this season rather
22:28
than just in general. In high school recruits too, not
22:32
transfers. Right, OK.
22:34
Because I know they spent on transfers.
22:36
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so, but no, I all of these people have money.
22:41
I'm looking at oil money, I'm looking at Nike money, I'm
22:44
looking at cartel money. I was like.
22:48
What do you call my inn? Yeah.
22:49
And yeah, I'm, I'm looking at that, that Southern California
22:53
sweet money, that Hollywood money.
22:54
Yeah, that. So, yeah, no, that that checks
22:58
out. So yeah, there's two oil monies
23:01
on here in case you're keeping track of.
23:02
That's right. That's two oil monies.
23:04
He was. They also asked who's the most
23:06
efficient in spending their money.
23:07
Most common answer was Georgia as the most efficient, getting
23:10
the best bang for your buck for these players.
23:13
Other teams mentioned Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech,
23:17
Alabama, Washington, Georgia Tech was my surprise there,
23:20
Daniel. Yeah, that's surprising also.
23:23
Yeah. So I think all of these to me
23:27
scream proximity except Washington.
23:30
But I do think Washington's like they're they're astute.
23:33
They always seem like they're ahead of the curve as far as
23:35
they seem like they're they're smart with their resources in
23:38
general as a program. So that doesn't necessarily
23:41
surprise me. They make good coaching hires,
23:43
stuff like that. But Alabama, Georgia, they're
23:47
kind of cut from the same cloth output.
23:48
Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt kind of together as well.
23:51
Do you think they're all in the Southeast specifically?
23:54
And, you know, the, that Deep South area, you know, get
24:00
Nashville, Atlanta and you know, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, whatever
24:05
for, for Alabama. But all of those kind of make
24:08
sense from a being able to get players because they're local or
24:12
that they have some sort of a a heritage there.
24:15
I think Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech are more benefiting from
24:19
their location. I think Georgia and Alabama
24:22
maybe from their tradition are more efficient because of
24:27
because where they can spend less because of the name and
24:31
they can have people earn it. George Tech and Vanderbilt maybe
24:34
can go discount shopping because of their location to players.
24:38
Well, that and I think proven proven pipe, proven winner and
24:44
developer of talent too, of like, hey, we, we can get you
24:48
the NFL. We're not going to overpay.
24:51
That makes sense. Come play here and get to the
24:54
NFL highest paid recruits Jackson Cantwell, Eric Curtis,
25:00
Mark Bowman According to Pete Nakos, Mark Bowman the highest
25:03
paid non quarterbacker off at the tackle so far for high
25:09
school recruit. Dude is a stud, and he's going
25:12
to show that. What's funny is, Jacob, you know
25:16
this without me even saying it, but because we follow Georgia
25:20
very closely, we are Georgia fans.
25:23
All three of these were either committed or rumored to commit
25:26
to Georgia prior to accepting a huge bag.
25:31
And a lot of fans use that as a crutch anytime any player
25:35
commits. And I would not, you know,
25:38
Georgia for whatever, you know, they're on the most efficient
25:41
list, They're not on the big spender list.
25:43
And then you look at the highest paid recruits, it's like what if
25:45
they were on the big spender list?
25:46
Those three would probably be wearing red and black in the
25:49
fall. I think, you know, Georgia has a
25:52
different idea. There's a couple of teams that
25:55
feel like have a different mindset when it comes to NIL and
25:58
those things might shift. And you mentioned those salary
26:01
cap and how we're not going to know what's going to happen in
26:04
the next 5 years. The Rev share thing went into
26:07
effect last year in August. But like I don't know if there's
26:12
going to be any sort of enforcement over time if things
26:16
like you said, potentially market correct for the nil
26:18
portion of this. If Rev share, I will play a
26:21
bigger role. If it does, it's going to
26:23
benefit The Who, the haves and not the have nots.
26:26
So you could see these things swing back.
26:28
But yeah, all those three players do not surprise me.
26:31
They all came with a lot of fanfare.
26:34
A big price tag usually follows with with all of that.
26:38
Right, Right. No, you're right.
26:39
I'll, I'll add this one. They were asked what was the
26:41
dumbest use of money. Felix Ojo to.
26:44
Oh, goodness. Now I'm going to forget where he
26:45
committed to. Hold on.
26:46
Ohio State. Is that it?
26:49
This is. Great.
26:49
Wait, hold on here. No, no Texas, Texas, Texas Tech
26:52
off the tackle. My first Google of him was in an
26:55
Ohio State jersey but he went to.
26:57
Texas very, very raw. That was who they said was
26:59
probably the dumbest use of money for what he got paid
27:02
versus what they saw. That was the answer there.
27:05
Yeah. Good stuff from Pete Nakos.
27:08
Daniel, I know you had stuff on like Revshare, nil, different
27:11
strategies being used on schools like what are your thoughts
27:13
there? Yeah.
27:14
So just I think that there's the the Rev Sheriff boot that they
27:18
were thinking would drop in August when I think it went into
27:22
effect. Did not necessarily happen in
27:25
the sense that a lot of folks thought there was going to be
27:29
maybe some regulation and that did not necessarily happen.
27:32
But I don't know if that was just because it happened right
27:35
before the season with the train is already off the tracks.
27:38
Maybe there's something going forward or I don't, you know, I
27:41
don't know the specifics. I'm not a lawyer.
27:44
I'm not, you know, anything like that.
27:46
But I do see we saw today Georgia announced, you know, a
27:51
new more or less aligned NIL group.
27:54
You know, they're they've had a collective for a while, but
27:57
there's a new, you know, NIL partner, I guess that is like a
28:01
direct to consumer, you know, that the fans have direct access
28:04
to where they can share. It's not just like this big, you
28:08
know, veil of donors behind a curtain.
28:11
It's like, oh, you know, everybody could buy in and help
28:14
out and also, you know, reap some, reap some benefits or some
28:18
access. I do see this kind of going all
28:21
to at least all the big schools that have notable players.
28:23
I think that's going to happen. But yeah, there's different
28:25
strategies. Obviously you've got the the
28:27
schools that are just like, I'm going to pay high school
28:31
recruits the most money right away so they could have freshmen
28:35
making more than seniors, more than guys may be ahead of them
28:37
on the depth chart. You've got other schools that
28:40
are like, I'm going to only pay for transfers and you've got
28:44
teams that are still like trying to build it the old way and then
28:49
pay for performance on the field.
28:53
Those are like the ones that we mentioned are more in the, you
28:56
know, like Georgia and Alabama more on the more efficient side
29:00
where they're going to try to pay players that have been
29:03
there, done that and have won games and they're going to try
29:06
to more of like player retention.
29:08
So if you think about it in this sense of like the NFLI like to
29:12
think about it that way because they keep trying to make this
29:15
the NFL. But obviously your transfers are
29:18
all your free agents. All of the high school recruits
29:22
are like your draft picks. Well, player retention is a big
29:26
deal. The longer you have players that
29:28
you draft on your roster, the probably more successful you
29:32
are, probably the lower cost you're going to have, similar to
29:36
college. I think that that's probably
29:38
where those most efficient guys are coming from.
29:41
They're trying to retain players, keep them from hitting
29:45
the market or if they do test the market, have them come home
29:48
and stay. So it's, you know, jury's still
29:53
out on what is the best way. There may be a situation where
29:57
you're going to just have kind of this chaos for a while where
30:03
some teams do it one way, other teams do it another way.
30:06
They both exist in the same sport and sometimes this one
30:09
wins and sometimes that one wins.
30:10
And you know, that's your parody that you're expecting.
30:13
So I'm just it's just intriguing to me that that exists and we'll
30:18
see how this Rev share thing continues.
30:20
I think, you know, the return of the video game was all really
30:23
big for a lot of us. You know that we're playing it,
30:26
but there's stuff that goes on with that.
30:28
There's Rev share that's going to go on with what you know,
30:31
each athletic program makes every week, every week, every
30:37
home game throughout the year. Merch sales has already been
30:40
part of that. So I don't know, we're going to
30:44
see how all these different strategies kind of align long
30:47
term. But in the interim, it does make
30:49
for some crazy chaos where it's, you know, we talked about there
30:52
being two different sports being played with like the Group of 6
30:55
and the Power 4. This is almost like two
30:57
different sports being played when it comes to how you're
31:00
building out your roster. So just something I've had my
31:03
eye on. No, I think that's good.
31:05
And I think, I mean, again, I'm interested to see how it plays
31:08
out and if there's any, if there's any change to how it's
31:11
governed and enforced. Well, we will see.
31:16
Daniel, there were some coaching changes this year.
31:19
I mean, the one that jumps out as far as I mean, obviously with
31:23
the with the portal, your first class is.
31:26
And again, Signetti's ruined this for a lot of coaches.
31:29
There's no more like, you know, three years before we're ready,
31:34
you got to hit the ground running.
31:35
And someone I feel like did that well already was LSU and Lane
31:38
Kiffin. You know, Kiffin's kind of been
31:40
the portal king to this point. Anyway, he typed that again this
31:45
year and I was just typing signed a really good high school
31:48
class to again, 12th but 7th as far as average player rating
31:52
goes, plus the number 2 transfer class.
31:55
I thought his class was impressive.
31:57
What other new coaches and their impact on recruiting did you
32:01
want to call out Daniel? Yeah.
32:03
So I'll talk about a couple of these.
32:05
Just hit on your point, Elaine Kiffin, I mean, he was already
32:08
like so well thought of as far as being a transfer, you know,
32:12
guy getting a bunch of transfers at Ole Miss now coming to LSU,
32:16
you know, that kind of gets amped up.
32:19
I was looking, I did look at their transfer class, 40 total
32:22
transfers. Five of those are five star
32:25
players or former five star players, 13 former SEC players,
32:29
but 27 were powerful transfer. That's just like, you know, some
32:34
guys are kind of poaching the the group of 6 and you know,
32:39
it's like that's all well and good, but he's getting guys that
32:41
played in the Big 10, played in the SEC and, you know, have
32:46
skins on the wall, if you will. James Franklin, I'd like to
32:50
bring him up. I think him specifically in the
32:53
transfer portal brought over a bunch of Penn State guys, as you
32:56
would expect. But he brought those Penn State
32:58
guys. He flipped a bunch of Penn State
33:00
guys in high school recruiting and then he's in the ACCI mean,
33:05
I think for good reason, he's going to get a lot of smoke this
33:09
offseason. When all of the people wake up
33:11
out of hibernation in August and start talking college football
33:14
again, like, you know, you're Desmond Howard's and you're Curb
33:18
Streets, they're all going to realize, Oh yeah, hey, James
33:21
Franklin, that's the name we know.
33:22
And they're going to realize this is such a great fit.
33:25
But we're saying it like right now.
33:27
I think that he's going to be in such a place to be in the way of
33:32
a lot of these top ACC teams. I think he's going to be right,
33:35
right in the thick of the ACC Championship race this year.
33:39
And a couple that I think we're just kind of like, I don't know
33:43
if it's about recruiting or just so Brian Hartline leaving Ohio
33:47
State, it didn't affect them this year.
33:49
We talked about Chris Henry staying, Chris Henry Junior
33:52
staying, but like going forward, does it hurt Ohio State going
33:55
forward? And then the other side of it,
33:58
does it hurt by being with basically a 0 sum game?
34:01
Those players in South Florida, he's going to start pulling
34:05
them. He's not necessarily going to
34:07
get maybe the tip top guy to go to South Florida, but a lot of
34:11
those like 4 stars are guys that are there abouts he's going to
34:15
go to pull those guys that want to stay home and play locally.
34:20
He's he's built the trust. That's one thing about high
34:23
school recruiting, Jacob, you know this, it's all about trust.
34:26
It's all about those high school coaches trusting the recruiting
34:29
guys. And Brian Hartline has a trust
34:32
of like every top school in South Florida.
34:35
So he's going to be able to like benefit of the doubt times 10
34:40
and that was his area to recruit for Ohio State.
34:44
So very much think that he's going to be a success, if
34:47
nothing else, just player acquisition at that school
34:51
specifically. And then Jim Knowles, I'm just
34:54
interested in Tennessee. If you look at their class, I
34:57
mean it's a typical hypo. You know, you're looking at
35:01
Faizon Brandon, five star quarterback, TK Keys, five star
35:05
wide receiver, they got a five star offensive tackle and
35:08
ascend. They've got some players.
35:10
We saw one at Kell High School, Braden Ruse.
35:14
So he's he's linebacker, 4 star linebacker Kell High School over
35:18
here in Marietta. But they got some some good
35:20
defensive players. But you know, last year, if
35:23
their defence, you could argue if their defence was not so
35:25
atrocious after having a really good defence past two years, if
35:29
their defense was OK last year. I mean, Tennessee's probably in
35:34
the playoff. They might even play for the SEC
35:37
championship. They might.
35:38
You know, there's a lot of meat left on the bone of last year
35:41
because how good the offense was, right?
35:45
DC Jim Knowles coming over as defensive coordinator.
35:48
I think you can't like, he's a guy that's fixed a lot of
35:51
situations. He's gone to people look at Penn
35:54
State last year. Their defense was good, like.
35:56
It is what it is. I mean, that fell apart.
35:59
Yeah, that's not on him. So I think people it, it fell
36:03
under my radar, to be honest with you, because it happened
36:05
late in the cycle. It just happened a couple weeks
36:08
ago. Jim Knowles coming in as DC for
36:10
for Tennessee, but that's a big one.
36:12
Yeah, Jim Knowles. I think it was a big one.
36:15
I'm interested to see too. What?
36:20
Matt Campbell and Penn State, You mentioned James Franklin.
36:22
Oh, yeah. Campbell brought a lot of the
36:24
best players from Iowa State to Penn State.
36:27
And I'm like, it doesn't look like it if you look at the
36:30
transfer class rankings or if you look at, I mean, high school
36:35
class isn't great this year, but it's almost like an Indiana
36:38
situation where I mean, what happens when you bring 40
36:42
players with you that have already played together for two
36:44
or three years? Like, I'm curious, you're one
36:46
what that looks like because I have no doubt Matt Campbell's
36:48
going to build a program at Penn State.
36:51
But I'm curious what like how this recruiting class translates
36:54
because this is this is an interesting one.
36:56
Same thing with Oklahoma State and Eric Morris.
36:59
That his name for North Texas. From.
37:03
North Texas, Yeah, he took the best players from North Texas
37:05
with him to Oklahoma State, so you've kind of got signetti.
37:09
Indiana situations. Not saying they're gonna go 12
37:12
and oh, and make the College Playoff, but similar situation
37:14
in that G5 coach takes his whole team with him, or Big 12 team in
37:19
this case, but that'll be interesting to watch as well.
37:22
Daniel, any other recruiting stuff you wanted to highlight
37:25
here on what used to be a national holiday, National
37:27
signing day? No, I didn't even realize.
37:29
I knew that he brought Rocco Beck and a couple of guys, but I
37:32
didn't realize until you said that I'm going and looking.
37:35
I mean, there's, it is, it is same Indiana situation of
37:39
bringing in JMU guys, but these guys are better than those guys,
37:44
dude, wow. Maybe we're, I mean, we, we like
37:48
Matt Campbell. Make no mistake, we like Matt
37:50
Campbell. But him bringing in those guys,
37:53
maybe Penn State and Virginia Tech upgraded in this situation.
37:57
It was good for all parties and maybe it was good for James
37:59
Franklin and good for Matt Campbell is good for everybody
38:02
involved. Win, win, win.
38:04
Jeff Brown, pretty good transfer class at Louisville, I thought.
38:10
I thought that was interesting. Texas, really good transfer
38:13
class. Surprise, you know, they've got
38:15
some plug and play immediate impact players.
38:18
Cam Coleman. If I'm going to question one,
38:21
they kind. Of replace their running back
38:23
room. I like so Florida State, they
38:26
were really heavy last year or past few years.
38:29
They've been really heavy in transfer portal.
38:30
They got some transfer guys again last year.
38:33
I was high on them way too long for way too many times.
38:37
Guess what I was on. Of course, he just announced
38:40
yesterday, I think that he retired.
38:42
So they're going to be figuring out offensive coordinator.
38:45
They got a decent class, you know, 18th ranked or whatever at
38:50
14th ranked in the composite. But like Florida State, I think
38:56
they're kind of stuck in no man's land because they're on
38:59
the in between. Aren't they going to fire
39:00
Norville? Is it too soon?
39:03
They got Ashton Daniels from Auburn.
39:06
Like what it what's going on season?
39:09
Yeah, so. I mean, they're saving.
39:11
Money. It's just, there's such a big
39:14
program historically, I mean last 30 years.
39:19
So what you know, is something going to change?
39:24
It just is like it seems very dysfunctional.
39:26
It's that's probably the best word I can use right now,
39:28
dysfunctional. So we'll see.
39:30
We'll see if things turn. But it seems like Miami's trying
39:34
to get everything aligned. Florida just made a change.
39:36
You know, the ACC is kind of making a turn.
39:39
Florida State might get left behind if they're not careful.
39:42
And they were the one that was the loudest.
39:44
As Chuck Oliver said, they were screaming in the front yard with
39:48
the ACC. That's that's where you don't
39:49
want to be. You don't want to be screaming
39:51
in the front yard with anybody, but they're screaming in the
39:53
front yard with the ACC about getting more money and all this
39:57
kind of stuff. Now, I think they're lucky to
40:00
stay in the ACC for how things are going.
40:03
I had a couple of seasons that. Maybe they shouldn't be piping
40:08
up so loud. Yeah, anyways, just that's the
40:11
team I'm kind of keeping an eye on as a disappointment.
40:13
Totally fair as a disappointment.
40:15
I think, you know, obviously they spent all their money in
40:17
one place, but Vandy signing the number one overall quarterback
40:21
and Jerry Curtis, but also not having a top 30 class.
40:23
Interesting. And they're on the most
40:27
efficient list, and that's most efficient.
40:29
Hey, most important position. Pay for that and then the rest
40:33
of it. I agree, not a bad strategy.
40:37
Not a bad strategy. You know, Clemson at 20, S
40:41
Carolina at 18, BYU, a top 25 class.
40:45
I think that's interesting. That's where I saw them.
40:47
SMU, a top 25 class, Iowa and Illinois, West Virginia top 25
40:51
class. So I thought that was a
40:54
surprise. North Carolina at 17, I thought
40:55
was a surprise. We'll see.
40:57
We'll see if it translates. Yikes.
41:03
Yeah, man, that's all I got for recruiting.
41:05
Not another another year of recruiting in the book.
41:07
Decided to see these players in the spring and see how many of
41:09
them are playing this fall. Daniel.
41:12
Yes, Sir. Be sure to follow us here at the
41:16
Extra Point pod on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
41:19
We've got a lot of cool content coming in this offseason.
41:22
We're actually having a plenty mini here in a few days to go
41:25
over all the content we're going to do this offseason in next
41:28
football season. So be sure to follow us here.
41:30
Keep listening. You can follow Daniel on Twitter
41:33
at Deep South of Daniel. You can follow me on Twitter at
41:36
Jacob Karns with AK. That'll do it for this edition
41:38
of the Extra Point. He is Daniel.
41:40
I am Jacob. See ya.