Though the late spring and summer months are a virtual wasteland for college football news, this is the exact time that the annual recruiting cycle starts to heat up.
December’s early signing period has sped the entire process up by placing more emphasis on building early relationships with recruits. Fall visits are still valuable, but summer is often where the difference is made. The next handful of months will be heavy on visits before an onslaught of commitments in late-June and July. The top of the 2026 recruiting rankings are sure to shift fast and furiously when the commitment dominos begin to drop, but recently they’ve bee stable enough to allow a deep dive into the current top 10 classes before they change too much.
Let’s evaluate whether the schools off to quick starts are here to stay at the top of the class by the time national signing day rolls around.
Total commits: 16 (10 Top247 prospects)
Everyone who follows recruiting probably has USC’s 2025 class in the back of their mind when evaluating the current recruiting cycle. The Trojans got off to a blazing-hot start last year, reeling in blue-chip prospects from around the country while gradually climbing the rankings to the upper echelon. Then things unraveled late in the summer, and as the early signing period approached, the Trojans lost four five-star commits. Two of those — defensive lineman Justus Terry and edge rusher Isaiah Gibson — were from the state of Georgia. In total, USC had nine four or five-star prospects from the…
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