NIL era changing 5-star recruitment in way football fans never saw coming

The NIL era in college football was expected to allow the rich to get richer as everyone thought that the blue bloods would be able to pay for any player they wanted. Instead, it's allowed the programs that typically lived in the bottom of their conference to start to even the playing field. On the recruiting trail, that's never become more evident.

Typically on the recruiting trail, we're used to seeing the likes of Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State collect all the 5-star talents while it would be rare for a single 5-star player in a class to make it to a lower level program. In this NIL era, the exact opposite is seeming to become the new normal as it's never been easier for schools to land a 5-star.

The 2026 recruiting class highlights the drastic shift under the NIL era

On Tuesday, Rivals released their final set of recruiting rankings for the 2026 recruiting class after the end of the High School season and all the showcase events.

When you look at the 10 highest ranked players in the class, it speaks to how the playing field has leveled for the schools everyone used to overlook. In the past, it would've seemed truly insane to say that Houston, Vanderbilt, Utah, and Maryland signed more top 10 recruits than Ohio State, Alabama, Texas, and others.

In the past, the top two quarterbacks in the Country would've been highly sought after, but would've landed with teams with a great track record developing quarterbacks. Instead, Vanderbilt was able to flip Jared Curtis away from Georgia while Houston was able to hold off several blue bloods for hometown quarterback Keisean Henderson.

The top offensive tackle and a top 5 edge rusher were pieces that Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, and every other SEC head coach used to battle over. Despite the uncertainty around Mike Locksley's future, Maryland held on to Zion Elee while Utah was able to keep Kelvin Obot despite Kyle Whittingham stepping down to take the Michigan job.

Moving forward, we're only going to see the list of schools that sign a 5-star recruit widen as it's easier than ever for these programs. With NIL and Revenue Sharing, a program can go all in to keep a 5-star at home, and it's going to change recruiting for the foreseeable future.