How to Rank the Colleges on Signing Day

In college football, National Signing Day occurs the first week in February and is the time in which high school athletes throughout the nation select which college they will attend. Signing Day has become a sporting event unto itself, with live coverage provided by several national sports channels. Schools compete not just for quality athletes, but also jockey for ranking position, knowing that a top 10 Signing Day ranking can attract other stellar recruits for the following year. Several sports websites release rankings of these signings, which may differ slightly in team order, but include factors such as total number of commitments.

Instructions

    • 1

      Determine a player's rankings. Most recruiting services and websites rank players in a "star" system, from 2 star, which is the lowest rating, to 5-star prospect, which is the highest rating.

    • 2

      Determine a player's rating, which is based on a star system and the player's ranking among his position group. For example, Scout.com, one of the major recruiting websites, assigns 20 points for 2-star players, 40 points for 3-star players, 120 points for 4-star players and 200 points for 5-star players.

    • 3

      Determine a player's ranking among players at his own position. For example, a No. 1 ranked quarterback is typically a 5-star player. Most recruiting websites will assign a point system based on the player's ranking at his position.

    • 4

      Add the player's star rating and position ranking to determine his position in the top 100 of all players in the nation.

    • 5

      Review the players that signed with a college. Determine total points by the number of star-ranked players (with associated points) that a college recruited. The school with the largest point total is ranked first. The school with the next highest total is ranked second. The average star rating of a college's recruited players is calculated by adding the total star rating of all players and dividing it by the total number of players recruited.