I’ve averaged the recruiting classes since 2020 on Rivals for U of L and all their opponents.
Recruiting doesn’t mean everything, but it means a lot!
If you flipped the results of U of L’s upset of Notre Dame with Pitt’s upset of U of L, then Rivals’ rankings would have perfectly predicted all U of L won/loss outcomes, to date. U of L has yet to play UK and Miami. Murray State is FCS and listed last, with no numerical average, as they never made Rivals’ top 100.
So, from Top to Bottom, the average recruiting class ranking for four years of U of L and their 2023 opponents:
1. Notre Dame . . . . . 12th
2. Miami . . . . . . . . . . 17th
3. Kentucky . . . . . . . 24th
4. U of L . . . . . . . . . . 39th
5. Pitt . . . . . . . . . . . . 46th
6. Georgia Tech . . . . 47th
7. Indiana . . . . . . . . . 50.5th
8. Virginia . . . . . . . . . 51st
9. NC State . . . . . . . . 51.5th
10. VPI (Va. Tech) . . . 52nd
11. Boston College . . 52.5th
12. Duke . . . . . . . . . . . 54th
13. Murray State . . . . N/A.
For the fans of recruiting rankings, they can hang their hat on the 80 percent accuracy of U of L’s outcomes.
For those that hate or discount recruiting rankings, you can point out that Duke has done well. They “should have” lost to U of L and did, but have faired well against other ACC teams.
Look at the odd grouping of so many ACC teams (and IU) right around the 50th mark. Given that there are 65 traditional P5 teams, being 50th or so in recruiting is pretty poor.
Recruiting doesn’t mean everything, but it means a lot!
If you flipped the results of U of L’s upset of Notre Dame with Pitt’s upset of U of L, then Rivals’ rankings would have perfectly predicted all U of L won/loss outcomes, to date. U of L has yet to play UK and Miami. Murray State is FCS and listed last, with no numerical average, as they never made Rivals’ top 100.
So, from Top to Bottom, the average recruiting class ranking for four years of U of L and their 2023 opponents:
1. Notre Dame . . . . . 12th
2. Miami . . . . . . . . . . 17th
3. Kentucky . . . . . . . 24th
4. U of L . . . . . . . . . . 39th
5. Pitt . . . . . . . . . . . . 46th
6. Georgia Tech . . . . 47th
7. Indiana . . . . . . . . . 50.5th
8. Virginia . . . . . . . . . 51st
9. NC State . . . . . . . . 51.5th
10. VPI (Va. Tech) . . . 52nd
11. Boston College . . 52.5th
12. Duke . . . . . . . . . . . 54th
13. Murray State . . . . N/A.
For the fans of recruiting rankings, they can hang their hat on the 80 percent accuracy of U of L’s outcomes.
For those that hate or discount recruiting rankings, you can point out that Duke has done well. They “should have” lost to U of L and did, but have faired well against other ACC teams.
Look at the odd grouping of so many ACC teams (and IU) right around the 50th mark. Given that there are 65 traditional P5 teams, being 50th or so in recruiting is pretty poor.