I coach Umass, Darthmouth in lba D3.
I had 8 scholarships open and brought in 8 players (a few juco) with an average rating of 535.1

That includes:
-A 619 rated D1 Junior transfer PF
-133rd overall PG at 555 (D1)
-A 1 star recruit, 160th overall player and 47th PF at 592
(He was the ONLY star-rated player to go D3 in the whole world)
-199th overall SF rated 491 (D1)
- A 527 rated D1 center
- A 512 rated D1 pg
-A 498 rated D3 Senior transfer
-A 487 SG projected D2 Freshman

So I technically signed the highest ranked incoming freshman in all of Division 3 with the 1-star recruit and 5 other Division 1 players.

How was my class ranked 26th overall?

#1 class signed 3 guys with avg of 543
#2 class signed 3 guys with avg of 517

The #3 class signed the second most players behind me with 5 guys averaging 526.8....nobody signed 5 or more guys with a higher avg rating than this team besides my team at 535.1 with 8 guys

Only 3 teams in the top 30 have a higher avg than my 535.1 and none of them signed more than 4 guys.

#4 class had 2 guys with 550 avg and that was the highest avg.

#5 class signed 1 guy with a 501 avg (How is the the #5 class?)

I know this was long, but I see no rhyme or reason to how these classes are ranked.

I can make the argument for having a top 5 class because I signed the only 1- star recruit and he is the highest ranked overall incoming freshman in D3 and my average is 535.1.

With the 5th highest avg and highest ranked player signed in all D3, I can argue its the #1 class in the D3 nation.

Any thoughts or info would be appreciated.

Don't think too much about it. Those rankings are window dressing, for amusement only, and they have no impact on anything in game.

Thanks for responding. I was more curious than concerned, but I guess I was wondering if class rank has any affect on prestige maybe?

Sounds like it doesn't mean anything but if it means nothing, they should come up with a logical algorithm to determine the ranking. It's just like stats and awards; we play to win but they are a consolation prize and help drive you to continue playing.

I do think the rankings factor potential / projected ratings in to be honest but not 100% sure how. But yes, the recruit class rankings are pretty meaningless. You can win an NC with 3-4 classes ranked pretty much anywhere in the top 50 if you team build well & recruit wisely for potential / development (WE).

At Elmhurst we view the #1 recruiting class as an institutional birthright, and therefore slip money and free bags of cheetos under the table to the media who evaluates such things so that we can continue to oversell the depressing Chicago suburban Midwest to elite recruits.

That said, send me a challenge if you want and we can start a rivalry, we'll play anyone anywhere!

Also, the general ATH and SPD ratings for your recruits is kind of low, which might have affected how the algorithm ranks things.

I've always felt potential was NOT factored in. But I'm with the majority here. I don't know the exacts behind it.

I "think" it factors in the rank of players. And overall rating. And possibly other factors.

But one thing everyone is right on, it is absolutely meaningless. I'm a D2 coach mainly. And there's 3 stars out there that I'd rather pass on and take a walk on. While there's guys in the 470s overall with great potential that I will do backups for when I sign them. It's safe to say that if you're ranked in the top 10 classes, you "probably" did pretty good. But if you're not ranked in the top 10, that doesn't mean you did bad at all. I haven't had a top 5 rated class in I don't know how long. And I keep winning big

Posted by topdogggbm on 9/4/2020 7:23:00 PM (view original):
I've always felt potential was NOT factored in. But I'm with the majority here. I don't know the exacts behind it.

I "think" it factors in the rank of players. And overall rating. And possibly other factors.

But one thing everyone is right on, it is absolutely meaningless. I'm a D2 coach mainly. And there's 3 stars out there that I'd rather pass on and take a walk on. While there's guys in the 470s overall with great potential that I will do backups for when I sign them. It's safe to say that if you're ranked in the top 10 classes, you "probably" did pretty good. But if you're not ranked in the top 10, that doesn't mean you did bad at all. I haven't had a top 5 rated class in I don't know how long. And I keep winning big

I know one thing that's factored in is % of filled roles. If you take a walk-on it docks you.

Reason I say I think potential may be factored in is from studying the rankings at D3 at close of RS1 when it's mostly sims. But it could also be rankings distributions...one of the top 5 ranked classes in D3 in Knight right now has 1 signing (out of 1 opening) with a kid in the low 400s but he has a DU rating of 1 and looks like a kid I'd take at D2 if he has good potentials (though I don't know his pots).

Yesterday I was ranked #1 in Phelan for the whole day until today when D1 kids signed with D3 schools and knocked me to ~30th. The one kid I is D2 projected and low 500s to start but projects to the high 700s with 80/90+ in most cores and 70+ in ATH.

Lol. We will never understand exactly what's happening with class rankings I guess. It was my first season with this world and I took them because they had 8 openings. I wanted a total rebuild. I even cut two junior sub 470 bums and took two walk ons to open up 2 scholarships a year earlier. I kept 2 seniors total and everyone else is new.

I'm trying to get the best players possible and worry about everything else later. It's gonna take a while to advance in the national tournament. If I build around this young talent over the next couple years and add better spd/ath in recruiting, I believe that I can build a program that can compete for a title within a few years.

I will play Elmhurst though. You are way ahead of me right now. I grew up in Addison, a neighboring town to Elmhurst. It's Elmhurst University now. I had a few friends go there. I almost took them in Wooden, but I went with Aurora because they had more open scholarships.

I doubt potential has much, if anything, to do with it. I think the system evaluates each recruit along the same or a similar paradigm used to evaluate players for the NBA draft. It’s mostly, if not all based on how good the system thinks he is *right now*. Ranking isn’t directly involved necessarily, though ranked players tend to be starting higher than unranked, D1 pool players tend to start higher than D2 pool players, and so on. The one diversion here, and it relates to OP, is that juco players and transfers tend to start higher, but teams don’t get as much credit as one would expect for bringing them on; so I think the system also takes into account how long you will have him. It gives more credit for a player you will have for 4 seasons.

So averaging them out by overall isn’t going to tell the whole story, because like most users, the system knows OVR rating is pretty useless. You may notice that the system will hate it when you sign a project, it will drop you hard - this is why I’m pretty sure it ignores potential. And as others have noted, taking a walkon also hurts your class quite a bit. At D1, you’ll notice many of the “top classes” are teams that had only one opening, and used it to sign a 3 or 4 star recruit. It seems a little counterintuitive to think that class is ranked ahead of the classes that include all the 5 stars, but most of those classes also include either walkons or lesser recruits, and often both, to go along with the superstars.

Yeah its just so hard to rate recruiting classes, and the system overreacts to walkons for sure.

I guess my 2 sub 400 walkons ended up hurting the ranking then. They aren't even on my depth chart. I just couldn't find any more juco seniors to offer to as placeholders. I just wanted 2 more scholarships for next year.

If you recruit studs, walkons shouldn't matter.

I shoot for top ten each season. Good enough

This thread reminded me that recruiting class rankings exist

To me it went lower because of this

-A 498 rated D3 Senior transfer

When you sign transfers that are your level (except maybe D1) it hits your ranking. Also if you cut someone to force an opening that hurts too