Early Top 25 College Football Recruiting Team Class Rankings for 2025 feature just nine SEC teams

Yes, you read that right. 57% of the variance in team win totals can be explained by one thing: recruiting. Michigan somewhat broke the mold with their championship run this past year, but for the most part if you want to build a winning program you must dominate on the recruiting trail.

So which college football programs are off to a fast start for next year's class already? Which classes are falling behind? And what could that mean for your favorite college football team?

Let's jump into the 2025 Team Recruiting Class Rankings via the 247SportsComposite as we head into spring practice season.

247sports.com

Dominant Blue Blood Programs

It's no surprise to see top tier programs like LSU (2nd), Ohio State (4th), and Georgia (8th) all inside the top ten again. Those three programs (plus Alabama) have been the best high school recruiting teams throughout the College Football Playoff era. Not only are they already ranked top ten for 2025, but their average player ratings are 2nd, 3rd, and 4th overall with multiple five stars already committed. It's likely all three finish top five when it's all done at this pace.

Notre Dame (1st), Clemson (3rd), and Oklahoma (5th) all find themselves inside the top five classes so far. All three look to be on pace to finish near the top in the end. The Fighting Irish have an incredible 16 commits already, five more than any team in the nation. Nine of them are four stars. Clemson also has nine four stars that boast a higher average rating than Notre Dame's, so their class is pacing to finish perhaps even higher. Oklahoma is propped up a bit by their commit total, but still have five four-star recruits early.

Surprisingly Promising Programs

Wisconsin never finds their way into the top ten for recruiting, but they're sitting there at the moment. They were barely a top forty recruiting program during the four-team College Football Playoff era. They're a bit propped up by volume of recruits at the moment, but they're on pace for back to back top thirty classes right now (props to head coach Luke Fickell).

This is the third year in a row Texas Tech has jumped out to a fast start in recruiting. Nine commits ties them for fifth in total players early on, even if their average recruit rating is low. Baylor is just ahead of the Red Raiders too, which is a quite refreshing considering their on-field results the past two seasons.

UCF currently has the highest average recruit rating among their early commits of any Big 12 program. If they hold anywhere near current pace they should absolutely destroy program records for recruiting across the board.

Disappointing Recruiting Programs

Alabama is noticeably absent from the early Top 25 Team Recruiting Class Rankings. Yes, they just lost the GOAT Nick Saban to retirement, but they currently have just two recruits committed for the 2025 cycle. They're both highly rated four stars, but Kalen DeBoer has a ton of work to do.

Michigan, despite just winning it all, is also absent. They too just went through a coaching change, so a slow start makes a little sense. They have just three total recruits committed for next year, but they're on average barely four star rated players. The Wolverines need to get it in gear, otherwise they could fail to finish inside even the top twenty for recruiting next spring.

USC has one recruit for next spring right now: five star quarterback Julian Lewis. This could mean great things are set to come as players will likely want to play with him. It could also mean that the Trojans are one decommitment away from complete catastrophe.

Yes, it's still quite early in the 2025 recruiting cycle, but this is where things stand heading into spring practices. We'll be back with more recruiting breakdowns throughout the year here at A to Z Sports.