I took a few minutes to track the Rival team rankings for each of the past 4 years. It's mind boggling when you see it all laid out in front of you.
SEC
In 2018 only Bama & Georgia of the SEC were the only teams to crack even the Top 10 rankings. Since then there was a serious change. Five SEC teams now are firmly planted in the Top 10 as Aggies, Gator, & LSU have joined the party. Meaning, for the past 3 years, five of the Top 10 schools are of the SEC. Long gone are the days when Bob Stoops often reminded the National Media that the SEC was top heavy. Aggie is moving up significantly w/ classes of #16, #6, #6, & #6.
ACC
Unlike the SEC, the ACC is all Clemson but even then they only made the Top 5 once (2020). The Irish is not near what one would think...#11, #14, #22, & finally cracking the Top 10 this year @ #9. Miami just continues to hang around w/ #11, #14, an ugly #22, and finally back to #10. If any school is trending the wrong way in the ACC it's FSU. 10, 17, 20, & 37. I don't think Mike Norvell will make it.
PAC 12
It's Oregon and the rest. Oregon has made the Top 10 for the past three years & only missed a 4th yr by coming in at #12 in 2018. They've been steady for years. USC... wowza... they went from #3 in 2018 to #71 last year, and back up to #12 this year. NCAA penalties can and do hurt a program.
Big 10
Nobody's fooling anybody here... everyone is chasing tOSU & it isn't a race.. They've made the Top Five 3 of the last 4 recruiting seasons. Oddly, they didn't make the Top 20 in 2019. Mich & Penn made the Top 5 in 2018 and the conference has went to shit since. A huge trend downwards for the entire conference.
Big 12
Who's kidding who here? It's OU & Texas and that's it. I didn't even track the others. Oddly, OU is NOT trending in the right direction. At least recruiting wise. OU's past four years looks like this....#8, #5, #16, & now #13. Riley got off to a fast start as the OC & HC but it's slipping folks. Now I recognize that I'll hear all about rankings don't matter blah, blah, blah... but they do. Losing the final 3 players in the waning weeks of this recruiting cycle will eventually catch up. OU will continue to make hay in the B12 but to get up to a different level and win a Natty, recruiting MUST improve. Period. Now for Texas... Herman's smell test failed but he did attract some talented kids in his first couple of years,, #4, #4, #14, & #16. Actually, overall a bit better than OU. But now w/ a new sheriff in town, a new smell test will occur as well. So I expect UT to jump signicifacntly in the recruiting rankings. But w/ Aggie, LSU, Bama, tOSU fighting for the top talent in Texas, OU best better get a better plan. Because it's already showing a bad trend in the recruiting wars w/ these schools.
Having posted this stuff, I recognize that the transfer portal is changing the landscape of CFB. Riley is telling us by a lot. We can only hope so at this point.
