Oklahoma Sooners general manager Jim Nagy's dismissal of star rankings in recruiting is a risky gamble

The Oklahoma Sooners are ranked fairly low with their 2026 recruiting class, sitting at 41st in 247Sports' rankings, and are close to the bottom of the SEC in terms of rankings. 

Despite that, the Sooners are undeterred in their approach under new general manager Jim Nagy. Nagy, who took over the job back in February, remained steadfast in the process the Sooners are building with their new-look front office, and are committed to finding value in recruiting. 

In a recent interview, Nagy had this to say regarding Oklahoma's approach to recruiting. 

"We’re not going to pay any attention to that. I think what we saw this spring, which I think was a really good way to do it, was we graded the players on our scale. And then, when you get to OV (official visit) season is where you can get value. Because what I think is going to set the market for a lot of these players, in terms of what they’re being paid and what agents expect to be paid, is the star system. I think five stars want to get paid like five stars.

So, when we get into the OV season, we may have the same grade on a five-star and a three-star. When you’re looking at where they’re taking their OVs to, if they’re going to Ohio State and Oregon and Texas and Texas A&M, that’s going to be a certain market. But if the same graded player is getting offers from Group of Five schools, we know what direction we’re probably going to go because we’re looking for that value.

"When you look at National Football League rosters and look back into their high school backgrounds, that league is littered with two and three-star players. So, they’re out there. Again, we need to identify those guys and trust our evaluations."

I think this approach is a fascinating one, as obviously, you would like to land a five-star talent on a three-star budget. There's a reason I wrote a few weeks ago about how they were viewing three-stars as Day 3 draft picks and targeting specific skill sets or tools there.

However, there are established things like the blue-chip ratio for a reason. Having elite talent of four and five-star players has been proven to matter in college football. Even with the new revenue-sharing model set to kick in, teams are going to budget and still believe in the BCR. At some point, if the Sooners want to compete at the top of the SEC, they will too.