SEC football, long hailed as the recruiting juggernaut of college football, will stay atop the mountain in 2019, bringing in four of the nation’s top five classes.
As the dust begins to settle on the 2019 college football recruiting class the SEC remains entrenched as the nation’s most talented conference. For the 11th year in a row an SEC school will take home the nation’s No. 1 class. This time it’s Alabama, who reclaims the top spot from Georgia
The SEC finished with four of the top five and 10 of the Top 25 recruiting classes. Here’s how the rest of the Top 25 rounds out:
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Texas
- Texas A&M
- LSU
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Michigan
- Florida
- Clemson
- Auburn
- Tennessee
- Penn State
- Notre Dame
- Ohio State
- Florida State
- Washington
- USC
- South Carolina
- Nebraska
- Stanford
- Ole Miss
- Arkansas
- Mississippi State
- Purdue
Jimbo Fisher and the Texas A&M Aggies look to have cemented themselves among the SEC’s powers. The No. 4 finish is the highest ranked class in school history — this was Fisher’s first complete recruiting cycle in College Station.
Tennessee and Arkansas both turned in quietly impressive classes as well. The respective last-place finishers in each SEC division last season each finished inside the Top 25 with more than 10 blue chip recruits each. For a big brand like Tennessee, it’s not too surprising, but the incredible work done by Chad Morris and the Razorbacks shouldn’t go unnoticed.
The Challengers
The five non-SEC powers that cracked the Top 10 don’t come as much of a surprise either. Big 12 titans Texas and Oklahoma continue to run circles around the rest of their conference. Jim Harbaugh is still stockpiling talent in Ann Arbor and Dabo Swinney’s Tigers remain in the Top 10 after winning their second national championship in three years.