Ranking Shake-Up: How the Recruiting Landscape Has Changed for College Football Teams in the Past Four Years

College football has undergone significant changes in the past four years, with the COVID-19 pandemic and name, image, and likeness regulations reshaping the landscape of college athletics. In his recent revisiting of the recruiting rankings from the 2020 campaign, Max Olson of The Athletic found that Florida Gators had dropped from their No. 8 ranking at the end of the recruiting cycle four years ago to No. 21 in the revised rankings.

The grading system used to evaluate these classes is based on players’ accomplishments over four years rather than projecting future success. Head coach Dan Mullen’s recruiting class brought in multiple future starters but lacked many All-SEC performers. Notable players like Anthony Richardson, Gervon Dexter, and Justin Shorter went on to become NFL draft picks. However, some players transferred out, including Princely Umanmielen and Richie Leonard IV, contributing to a total of 20 departures from the class.

Several other teams that were previously ranked in the top 25 also dropped out of the revised rankings, including Texas A&M, Auburn, Oklahoma, Oregon, North Carolina, Washington, Nebraska, Stanford, Florida State, Arizona State