8 Decommitments and Counting for Syracuse

Brooks remains uncommitted but is taking an official visit to North Carolina this weekend, while Bala and Nnabuife made immediate flips to Boston College and Alabama.

The first two decommitments came in February, with four-star defensive tackle Stanley Montgomery (Philadelphia, PA) and three-star athlete Davion Crumitie (Tallahassee, FL) starting the trend. Both have since found new homes, with Montgomery committing to Penn State and Crumitie committing to Vanderbilt.

They were followed by three-star athlete Tristin Hughes (Rocky River, OH) later in February and then three-star quarterback Justin Dixon (Towson, MD) in April. Hughes later committed to Kentucky in April while Dixon ended up at Monmouth.

With seven of the eight decommitments having already ended up at or planning to commit to a P4 program, there are a couple of ways to look at this exodus. A positive is that head coach Fran Brown continues to identify top-level talent early. He has always been known as an ace recruiter and evaluator of talent, and continues to show that.

However, he has been unable to keep that top-level talent committed. When other programs come calling, and likely offering more NIL money, Syracuse is unable to win the battle. As mentioned, the lack of NIL funds is a major liability for the program, especially when competing against schools top-level competition.

Coach Brown also took a very aggressive early recruiting approach, which can produce mixed results. Initially it may lead to commitments, which it did for Syracuse, but in the long-term, some of these players will examine other options if their process begins to blow up.

Compared to other ACC programs, Syracuse solidly has the most decommitments, followed by Florida State (6) and Boston College (4). On the other end of the spectrum, Duke and SMU have yet to experience their first Class of 2027 decommitment.

And if you look at the other P4 conferences, Syracuse currently tops everyone. Houston leads the Big 12 with four, Penn State leads the Big Ten with seven and Alabama leads the SEC with six.

Overall, the Orange still have 18 commitments, including nine in June. But the key now is stop the bleeding. Excuses can easily be made for a few decommitments, but that gets more difficult to do when you lead the country. Syracuse is out of excuses and needs to stabilize this recruiting class.