David Shaw & Co. only have 11 commitments in '17. But an absurd four of those are five-star recruits, including the No. 1 overall player.
http://www.flotrack.org/ranking/1332-2016-ncaa-recruiting-class-rankings#.WIUJrbYrKi5
http://www.flotrack.org/article/30949-official-recruiting-class-rankings
Totally different sport, but the past two years, Stanford has had the best men’s recruiting class for cross country and track and field. They also had the strongest women’s recruiting class in the history of NCAA cross country and track and field last year. So far this year, they have landed some of the top runners for the class of 2017 already for both men and women.
Not to rail on their class(currently 17) but frankly 247 rankings aren’t as good as other ranking sites. In fact their #1 guy Walker Little is currently #48 on ESPN.
Stanford football has done an excellent job in taking advantage both of the dysfunction at Notre Dame on the one hand and the decline of USC and Oregon on the other. While they don’t have the history or tradition Notre Dame does, they are clearly now the best “high academic” program going. And with the absence of a truly dominant team out west, they can make a claim as the top program on the left coast over the last five years or so. That is a heck of a combination. Now to see if Shaw can take them to the next level.
It will be interesting to see how things shake out now that Washington and USC are both back in a big way, especially USC as that’s historically the first choice for most elite players in So Cal, where a lot of the Pac 12 recruits across the conference come from.
Three Rose Bowls in four years is better than Stanford has ever done, and this season receded back closer to the Stanford norm . . . .especially getting blown out by Washington, which used to be a regular occurrence . . . but on the other hand for recruits who strongly value the academic side, the chance to get into Stanford via the athletic route is more highly valued than in the past, as it’s gotten so much harder to get in the school.
I haven’t studied it in detail, but it also seems like some other high academic Power 5 schools have also had some recent seasons well above their historic norm - Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt.
^Duke strung together a few nice seasons, even playing for the conference championship a few years ago, but they are not generally a program which is a contender for a big six bowl. They also took a huge step back this year. While they play in a generally weaker conference than either Vandy or Northwestern, they still need to get through Clemson and FSU to win a championship, something they have not shown the ability to do at really any point. Northwestern and Vandy may occasionally be above 500, Northwestern sometimes significantly better than that, but neither team is really competitive with the top of the Big Ten and the SEC, respectively.
Where Stanford is different is that over the last decade they have proven to be very competitive with the top of the PAC 12, and year to year with most teams in the country. When you are talking about kids with lots of options and maybe pro aspirations, that makes a huge difference. Of course, Stanford admissions has a history of “changing” its level of support for the athletic department. I have posted before about a kid I know well who was asked to jump through all kinds of hoops by Stanford, but not by Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, etc. That has killed that program before, and it is anybody’s guess how much they will be willing to bend for Shaw’s guys.
Regarding admissions, I do think the powers that be at Stanford have a higher appreciation of the football program now, having seen the impact of the recent successes on alumni engagement and overall brand. Obviously football (and men’s basketball, although that program at Stanford has struggled in recent years) are more impactful on those dimensions than other sports.
There is the x factor of a new Stanford president - coming from a school that doesn’t even play varsity sports - and time will tell if that has any impact on the balance between athletics and academics.
new prez censoring the band sets a really bad precedent.
Stanford has always been a top recruiter in most sports… football is new though…
it’s great to see Shaw out-recruit the U of Texas, Georgia, Alabama’s of the world:)