Power 4 Class of 2025 Recruiting Rankings: Week 9
We have a new #1 recruiting class in the nation!
Following an exciting week of college football, we have some significant shake ups in the national Power 4 recruiting rankings! Namely, Alabama has overtaken Ohio State with the best Class of 2025 recruiting class in the nation. This comes not off the back of any major commitments or flips, but rather beneficial positive ranking changes as a result of 247sports making changes to their Top247 ratings.
Alabama’s star QB commit 5 Star Keelon Russel made headlines by jumping up to the #3 recruit in the nation according to 247’s rankings, but this move did not actually change his On3 rating much at all. On3 is actually fairly low on him, so his rating is pretty much the same (97.63 → 97.67). The biggest boost in rating comes to new 5 star IOL Michael Carrol (95.39 → 97.29) and 4 star OT Jackson Lloyd (93.69 → 94.92). These changes are of course all small, but they’re enough to barely break their near tie with LSU and Ohio State.
Just to preempt any potential complaints about an unfair “Bama Bump” to the Tide’s commits, that doesn’t seem to really be the case. Bama’s 2025 commits got an average On3 industry rating boost of +0.15, which is good for the 10th-highest of any Power 4 class this cycle. They obviously benefitted, but from this small individual time stamp I don’t see any reason to believe its anything other than the random noise of re-evaluations. If you’re wondering of the class which benefitted the most from the rating changes, it was Mississippi State with an average change of +0.42!
Ohio State, however, did end up on the wrong side of the ratings changes. They had the 2nd-largest average recruiting drop (-0.11), trailing only Virginia Tech (-0.19). This was driven mostly by 3 of their commits - Tarvos Alford, London Merritt, Isaiah West - dropping a collective 325 spots in the national rankings without changing their star ratings. As a Michigan alum I think these are righteous and correct changes.
Notable Commitments:
Pooler, GA 5 Star DL Elijah Griffin (Georgia)
Griffin is the #1 DL recruit in the country and the #1 recruit in the state of Georgia according to the On3 industry rankings. There are only 4 uncommitted 5 stars remaining in the Class of 2025.
Notable Flips
Spanish Fork, UT 4 Star OT Aaron Dunn (Utah → USC)
Blue Chip Rating Increases
4 Stars → 5 Stars
Doylestown, PA IOL Michael Carrol (Alabama)
Texarkana, TX EDGE Lance Jackson (Texas)
3 Stars → 4 Stars
Snelville, GA LB Jaiden Braker (LSU)
Lancaster, TX WR Emmanuel Choice (Oklahoma)
Warner Robins, GA CB Michael Clayton (Rutgers)
Warner Robins, GA S Rasean Dinkins (Georgia Tech)
I found it interesting that two players from the same home town each had their ratings positively changed. They go to different high school (Northside and Warner Robins, respectively) but they played each other in a game that Warner Robins won comfortably 34-12. I like to think that the 247 team either sent a scout live or watched the tape from that game and came away impressed enough to give both players a boost.
Indianapolis, IN IOL Cameron Herron (Notre Dame)
Minneapolis, MN LB Emmanuel Karmo (Minnesota)
Loganvilla, GA DL Joseph Mbatchou (Florida)
Midlothian, TX IOL Nelson McGuire (Texas A&M)
Mansfield, OH WR Bodpegn Miller (Ohio State)
Colquitt, GA RB JP Powell (Georgia Tech)
Rabun Gap, GA TE Marshall Pritchett (North Carolina)
Enterprise, AL CB Andrew Purcell (Kentucky)
Athens, GA WR Landon Roldan (Georgia)
Frankenmuth, MI DL Derrick Simmons (Michigan State)
Bellflower, CA EDGE Epi Sitanilei (UCLA)
Portland, OR OT Zac Stascausky (Washington)
Blue Chip Rating Decreases
5 Stars → 4 Stars
Goodland, KS TE Linkon Cure (Kansas State)
Folkston, GA TE Elyiss Williams (Georgia)
I found it interesting that both players which lost their 5th star were tight ends. We know that TE evaluation at the CFB → NFL level is extremely difficult as evidenced by all of the 1st round busts at the position, so I wonder how much of this is a result of similar difficulties in evaluation at the HS → CFB level.
4 Stars → 3 Stars
Burlington, KY EDGE Austin Alexander (North Carolina)
Fishers, IN CB Mason Alexander (Pittsburgh)
St. Louis, MO OT Lucas Allgeyer (Iowa)
Boynton Beach, FL WR Waden Charles (UCF)
Culpeper, VA LB Brett Clatterbaugh (Virginia Tech)
Dinwiddie, VA RB Harry Dalton (USC)
Auburn, WA LB Jonathan Epperson (Washington)
Bridgewater, VA WR Micah Matthews (Virginia Tech)
Hattiesburg, MS DL Kevin Oatis (Arkansas)
St. Louis, MO RB Jamarion Parker (Nebraska)
Port Arthur, TX EDGE Michael Riles (Oklahoma State)
Cincinnati, OH WR Quintin Simmons (Kentucky)
Las Vegas, NV LB Christian Thatcher (Utah)
Barnegat, NJ WR Michael Thomas (Rutgers)
Buford, GA CB Devin Williams (Auburn)