Here’s how this works in a nutshell. I took the Rivals and 247 Rankings for the past 5 years and combined them together to get an average ranking between the two services for each year. Then I weighted those averages based on the percentage of each class that typically comprises a two deep:
- First Year players (FR) count as 10% of the two deep.
- Second Year players (FR*, SO) count as 22% of the two deep.
- Third Year players (SO*, JR) count as 23% of the two deep.
- Fourth Year players (JR*, SR) count as 27% of the two deep.
- Fifth Year players (SR*, GR) count as 18% of the two deep.
The lower number the better under each year. Green indicates a talent increase. Red indicates a talent decrease.
2019 WRC and Conference Talent Level
- The SEC is still the top dog by a huge margin. However…
- It appears that the SEC reached peak talent level in 2016 and is on the decline with 3 straight years of declining talent.
- 2019 is the first time in 14 years that the SEC has dropped in talent level three years in a row.
- The SEC still has a gigantic net increase (of 9.6) since the SEC Takeover of 2006.
- The Big 10 is the big winner this year as the only P5 conference to increase its overall talent level from 2018.
- The Pac 12 is 2nd here, but they have been trending down since 2013.
- The Big 10 is the most improved conference since 2013 with a huge increase of 9.1 in the past 6 years.
- The ACC is still down 8.7 from where they were in 2006. The SEC Takeover of 2006 hurt the ACC more than any other conference.
- The Big 12 was 3rd in 2013, but 5 years later, is 5th and still trending down.
- If you look at the bottom row above, you can see that the P5 teams had been gradually getting a bigger and bigger piece of the pie. Although, this year, P5 teams dropped down just a hair at 0.1.
