ESPN Ranks Cal's 2026 Recruiting Class in the Top 20

June has been a particularly impressive recruiting month for the Cal football program, which pulled in 17 commitments for the class of 2026 in that month alone. 

That brought the Golden Bears’ total commitments for 2026 to 23, pushing Cal up to the top 20 in the team rankings of several noteworthy sites, including ESPN.

ESPN ranked Cal’s 2026 recruiting class as the 19th-best in the country in this week's ranking of the top 25 classes. The Bears rank fifth in the ACC, behind No. 6 Clemson, No. 8 Miami, No. 10 Florida State and No. 18 North Carolina.

Rivals ranks Cal’s 2026 class 14th in the country, while 247Sports puts the Bears’ class at No. 19, and On3 places Cal 27th.

Offensive lineman Tommy Tofi is the highest rated commitment in the Bears’ recruiting class at this point, and ESPN’s assessment of Cal’s class provides one cautionary phrase: “If the Golden Bears hold on to Tofi . . . “

There is some question whether the Bears will hold on to Tofi, because he visited Oregon after his commitment to Cal, and the Ducks are trying to flip Tofi. Tofi remains committed to Cal at the moment, but he is expected to declare a final decision on his college destination in the not too distant future.

Losing Tofi would push the ranking of the Bears’ recruiting class down several pegs.

Here is ESPN’s assessment of Cal’s 2026 class as it stands now, with a lot of commits still to come throughout the country.

19. Cal Golden Bears

Previous rank: NR

ESPN 300 commits: 2

Top offensive prospect: OG Tommy Tofi

Top defensive prospect: DE Camron Brooks

Cal cracks the top 25 after Justin Wilcox opened June by landing a commitment from four-star guard Tommy Tofi, the nation's top-ranked guard. At 6-foot-6, 340 pounds, the San Francisco-area player brings overwhelming size and physicality, consistently finishing blocks with an edge and flashing the power to impact both sides of the ball as a high schooler. If the Golden Bears hold onto Tofi, he would be the program's highest-rated offensive line signee in more than a decade, edging out fellow guard Justin Hasenhuetl, part of Cal's promising 2025 class.

The good news in the trenches doesn't stop on offense, either. Four-star defensive end Camron Brooks committed in late April. While Tofi and Brooks are Cal's lone ESPN 300 pledges so far, Wilcox and his staff have assembled a 20-plus player class loaded with quality depth as they continue to build in the trenches and beyond to compete in the ACC.

To some degree, Cal's high ranking is the product of the high number of commitments to the Golden Bears so far. Sites simply add up the rating scores of all the committed players to establish a ranking.

But when the rankings are based on the average of the rating scores of the committed players, Cal's class is ranked 37th in the nation by Rivals and 36th by 247Sports.

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