2011 Recruiting Rankings

by Braden Gall (@AthlonBraden)

There are many different facets of the recruiting world to consider when dealing with any sort of ranking.

First, consider the source. Different scouts look for different attributes and value things differently. For example, Scout.com favors quantity slightly more while web-counterpart Rivals.com tends to lean ever-so slightly to the quality side of things. Who runs these companies? Whose best interest do they have at heart? Does the four-letter network evaluate its own commodities (SEC, Texas, etc) differently? What about Tom Lemming and NBC - and their giant Notre Dame contract? As a public disclaimer: SEC websites generally have the biggest subscriber bases and therefore make web recruiting companies the most money.

This is actually how Athlon Sports spawned the Athlon Consensus 100 to begin with. Why shop at one store, when you can shop at seven - all at once? Eliminating travel time, parking and annoying sales people. The AC100 is designed to offer the truest and most accurate representation of the nation's top 100 high school football prospects. It pulls regional, conference and monetary biases out of the rankings and gives recruitniks the best possible set of rankings anywhere on the web.

Whether it is team, conference, national or positional rankings, Athlon Sports has the recruiting junkie covered:

Conference Rankings:

ACC Team Rankings
Big East Team Rankings
Big 12 Team Rankings
Big Ten Team Rankings
Pac-12 Team Rankings
SEC Team Rankings

Class of 2011: Notre Dame

Everybody's No. 1: Jadeveon Clowney

Athlon countsdown the Top 50 recruiting classes of 2011:

Wed., Feb. 23rd: Teams 41-50
Thur., Feb. 24th: Teams 31-40
Thur., Feb. 24th: Teams 21-30
Fri., Feb. 26th: Teams 11-20

Mon., Feb. 28th: No. 10 Oregon Ducks
Tues., Mar. 1st: No. 9 Clemson Tigers
Wed., Mar. 2nd: No. 8 LSU Tigers
Thur., Mar. 3rd: No. 7 Georgia Bulldogs
Fri., Mar. 4th: No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes

Mon., Mar. 7th: No. 5 Auburn Tigers
Tues., Mar. 8th: No. 4 USC Trojans
Wed., Mar. 9th: No. 3 Alabama Crimson Tide
Thur., Mar. 10th: No. 2 Texas Longhorns
Fri., Mar. 11th: 2011 National Recruiting Champion: Florida State Seminoles

2011 Positional Rankings (dates coming soon):

Editor's Note: I hold off on publishing positional rankings until all schools have officially posted heights, weights and positions of incoming freshmen.

Quaterbacks
Running Backs
Wide Receivers
Tigth Ends
Offensive Line
Defensive End
Defensive Tackle
Linebacker
Defensive Back
Athlete

Stay tuned to Athlon Sports for an in-depth nationwide preview of spring practice starting Mon., March 14th.