SEC dominating major recruiting outlets’ high school big boards
By Ethan Levine
Published:
The SEC’s rise to prominence in the 2000s has been largely fueled by a stellar recruiting record, especially at the high school level.
SEC schools have dominated the recruiting trail in recent years, plucking many of the nation’s best prep prospects to build their programs around in the coming years. That trend has continued to hold true this year, as the SEC continues to woo the nation’s best high school recruits to the FBS’s most powerful and polarizing conference.
In the midst of the ongoing recruiting dead period, SEC schools have more commitments from perceived top 100 recruits than any other conference. Each of the nation’s four premier recruiting media outlets — ESPN, 247Sports, Rivals and Scout — has its own big board featuring the top 100 high school prospects in the class of 2015, and although those top 100 lists may vary, the SEC’s dominance on each one of them does not.
Here’s a breakdown of how many players from each outlet’s top 100 have already committed to a school, and how many of those commitments were given to schools in the SEC.
| Outlet | Top 100 players committed | SEC commits | Top 10 SEC commits |
|---|---|---|---|
| ESPN | 71 | 31 | 2 |
| 247Sports | 73 | 27 | 2 |
| Scout | 59 | 21 | 2 |
| Rivals | 73 | 32 | 5 |
As you can see, the SEC is hauling in the vast majority of top-flight recruits in this year’s class. It has already claimed at least 35 percent of the top 100 recruits on all four big boards, and has claimed more than 43 percent of top 100 prospects on ESPN and Rivals’ big boards.
It also leads all other conferences in top 10 commitments, claiming two of the top 10 on three big boards and a whopping five of the top 10 on the Rivals list. Only the ACC can say it has two top 10 recruits on any of the four big boards, thanks to commitments from two top 10 prospects to Florida State.
Perhaps Florida State’s success in recruiting in the midst of its 29-game winning streak is a sign the SEC is falling back to the pack on the recruiting trail. With National Signing Day still more than a month away, a lot can change between now and February, especially when dealing with highly exposed teenagers.
Still, even if the gap is closing, there is indeed still a gap between the SEC and everyone else.
Numbers never lie, and the numbers state in a rather obvious manner that the SEC continues to set the standard during recruitment season.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
