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Weighted Recruiting Composite

The WRC (Weighted Recruiting Composite) is the average recruiting ranking weighted based on the typical percentages of recruited talent that comprises the two-deep on a P5 depth chart. This is used to determine the functional talent level for each team‘s recruited talent in any given year. This metric has been extremely good at predicting success at the highest level.

  • The number 1 team of that year’s WRC has won the 3 of the last 6 National Championships.
  • A team in the TOP 2 of that year’s WRC has won 8 of the last 15 National Championships (53%).
  • A team in the TOP 6 of that year’s WRC has won 16 of the past 20 National Championships (80%).
  • From 2006-2025, the average WRC ranking of the National Champion is 6.8.

Major credit and thanks to on3 and 247 Sports for the player data. These are on3 and 247 Rankings for the past 5 years combined to get an average ranking. Then those averages are weighted 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.

You can find the WRC ranking used in the Head Coach Rating to gauge how the head coach attracts talent within his culture. Then we will also gauge the season results vs. the talent level to find out if the coach is overachieving or underachieving.

And yes, I have been working on incorporating the transfer portal into these rankings. However, the issue I’m having is that, despite Indiana winning the National Championship, the correlation between the transfer portal rankings and elite results is not as strong as the WRC that I have now. It will probably take several years of results to find out exactly how the transfer portal should be weighted within the WRC.

Elite Programs are in their school colors and the “diff” column is how many spots they moved up or down from last year’s rankings.