National Signing Day 2018 has come and gone and the college football recruiting period is up, but how do the Power 5 conferences stack up for this class?
Due to the institution of the early signing period in college football recruiting, there were concerns from fans that National Signing Day 2018 would come and go without much of a whimper at all. There were fewer top-end recruits left to sign than normal, sure, which added to that fear. Fortunately enough for everyone, those fears turned out to be unfounded as Wednesday was quite entertaining.
Whether it was Olaijah Griffin, the son of Warren G, committing to USC with his father and Snoop Dogg in the building, Jacob Copeland committing to Florida and his mom leaving the table, or Tommy Bush signing with Georgia by using his baby niece as a prop, the antics that we’ve come to love about National Signing Day were present.
Also present was the drama that you expect from high-stakes recruiting. The Georgia Bulldogs came into the day with one of the best recruiting classes in the country, but then pulled off some major signings throughout the day. Perhaps the two biggest were landing Tyson Campbell, one of the best cornerbacks in the country, and then flipping two recruits — Quay Walker and Otis Reese — from Alabama and Michigan.
At the end of the National Signing Day 2018, there were a few surprises, a great deal of action and futures set for both players and programs. As for the Power 5 conferences as wholes, though, how did they all fare at the conclusion? Let’s take a look by ranking them against one another.
5. Pac-12
While the USC Trojans were able to crack the top five in the final recruiting class rankings, that’s really where the pleasantries stop for the Pac-12 looking at the conference in comparison to the other Power 5 conferences. Each of the other conferences have at least two teams in the top 10 of the class rankings, while the next-highest ranked Pac-12 team after USC is the Washington Huskies at No. 13.
The Oregon Ducks and UCLA Bruins were admittedly able to salvage what could’ve been a rough recruiting period given their late coaching changes. Oregon was able to pull through and finish with the No. 16 class and the Bruins weren’t far behind with the No. 18 class. Then things start to get quite ugly for the rest of the Pac-12 after National Signing Day.
Shockingly enough, the next highest-ranked team in this mix is the Arizona State Sun Devils, who salvaged the day with a late surge to move up from being the lowest-ranked Power 5 school to No. 36 overall and the fifth-best class in the conference. However, that’s more of a damnation of how the conference performed overall in this recruiting period than a testament to the quality of ASU and Herm Edwards.
When you get down to it, the conference could simply be quite weak next season. USC lost a ton of talent and, even with the fourth-best class, it’s hard to see them recovering from their losses. Washington is the only team in a great position it would seem and the recruiting period and NSD did little to change that.