National Signing Day Part Deux has come and gone and the Oregon Ducks are once again top of the Pac-12 conference with 19 four-star recruits, finishing just ahead of Southern California in the 247 Sports composite. It’s a stat that suggests the “Conference of Champions” is top heavy in recruiting talent. When we spoke with national recruiting writer for The Athletic, Ari Wasserman, he agreed.
“The bottom half of that conference is horrid,” he said. “There are certain teams that have put together solid classes, like Washington for example.” But even the Husky’s success came with discouraging news about their local talent pool. “They had an opportunity to do something really special because the Seattle area has three top 10 national players, and only one is going to Washington.”
According to 247 Sports, Oregon ranked 6th nationally among recruiting classes, with no five-star recruits. Four teams in the SEC landed spots in the Top 10 (Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M). Three of those four schools have reached the college football playoff at least once. If the Pac-12 wants to return to the CFP, Wasserman believes there needs to be major changes.
“Breaking through is really hard. When you look at the Pac-12 specifically, the discussion is why didn’t they get as much respect as a conference?”
He believes some of the factors that play into the conference’s lack of interest are late kick times for games, which discourage recruits from tuning in, and the lack of consistent talent choosing those schools. “You look at the SEC and realize the fifth best team could probably beat the best team in the Pac-12.”
According to Ari’s research, 30 of the top 100 recruits in the 2020 recruiting cycle came from a school in the Pac-12 region. Only eight of those players signed within the region. It’s a disparity that can’t be ignored. “If you take USC and Oregon out of the equation, it’s laughable. Until it’s not, you’re not going to have the quality wins you need to impress the playoff committee,” he said. “That’s the way it works.”
