Who Are ACC Teams Beating For Recruits?

Two ACC teams got commitments from football recruits recently. Which prospect is better? 

Obviously, that’s why recruiting services give high schoolers star ratings–so we can rank them without seeing most of them in action. But it just so happens that both of these plaeyers are 3-stars, so that’s no help. 

We can look at how many other offers each of them had:  Tight end Jalen Wilkerson picked Florida State over offers from seven other schools. Defensive tackle Brentavious Glanton picked Georgia Tech over offers from eight other schools. 

So it appears that Tech may have gotten a slightly better 3-star than Florida State, based on demand from other schools. 

Here’s a look at the ACC schools’ Class of 2015 verbal commits, ranked by how many other offers the players received.

 

Average “other” offers for commitments

Florida State

13.4

Clemson

11.4

Virginia Tech

10.7

North Carolina

10.4

Notre Dame

8.9

Wake Forest

8.8

NC State

7.8

Louisville

7.5

Duke

7.5

Georgia Tech

7.4

Pittsburgh

7.3

Miami

6.9

Virginia

4.8

Boston College

3.9

Syracuse

3.8

It would be hard to argue too strenuously with a class ranking based on demand for your recruits, but we can still do better. Lets look at our pair of 3-star players in a little more detail: 

Wilkerson’s seven other offers were from Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Mississippi State and South Carolina.

The eight other schools that offered Glanton a scholarship were Cincinnati, Georgia Southern, Marshall, Murray State, South Alabama, Tennessee, Troy and Wake Forest. 

Clearly, all offers are not created equal, and a look at each player’s other suitors makes it clear which prospect has the higher upside.

So let’s rerank the Classes of 2015 based on who’s being offered scholarships from football’s best teams:

 

Percent of “other” offers from Power Five Conference Schools

Clemson

89%

Notre Dame

84%

North Carolina

80%

Miami

73%

Florida State

70%

Va Tech

59%

Duke

58%

NC State

56%

Virginia

48%

Louisville

46%

Ga Tech

43%

Pittsburgh

36%

Boston College

36%

Syracuse

32%

Wake Forest

31%

 Wake Forest fared the worst in this new measure. They’re near the top of the league in raw number of “other” offers, but clearly, the Demon Deacons are beating the App States and Charlottes for their commitments.  Meanwhile, Miami rocketed up the rankings. They don’t beat out a lot of teams for their prospects, but the ones they do are legitimate top-level programs.