Is South Carolina Recruiting Even Better Than You Think?

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South Carolina gave signs that 2015 could be a historic recruiting class as early as June, and the Gamecocks have continued to add commitments throughout July. Georgia running back Mon Denson is the most recent addition to what has already become the most geographically diverse group in school history. The South Carolina class is now rated 4th in the 247Sports Composite team rankings, which excites Carolina fans accustomed to classes rated in the mid to low teens.

However, that excitement comes with one caveat.

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As long as the four major services are equally valid, this doesn't matter. They should all have roughly the same number of outliers, and the composite is fine. The problem comes in when some services produce more outliers than others. I have no way of knowing which service is the Billingsley of recruit rankings (it's Scout), but I do know that 247 is the one in which I place the most trust.

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247 is also the only one that does not provide team rankings, which makes sense from a business perspective. They want their composite to become the industry standard, and they are willing to forego service-specific ratings to further that aim. However, they do provide a fun work-around. Anyone willing to put in the effort can use their class-calculator toy to sub recruits in and out and construct a Frankenstein 247 team rating.

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South Carolina fans who claim other services consistently underrate their commits will not be surprised that the Gamecocks experienced the greatest jump. The South Carolina class improved from 253.5 to 269.1, a jump of over fifteen points that would be good for several spots of movement almost anywhere within the team rankings. Of the twenty-five Gamecock commits, fifteen are underrated by the composite, while only four are overrated.

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Eleven of nineteen Aggies are overrated, while only four are underrated. However, two of the four are significantly underrated, so A&M's adjusted rating of 257.22 is only slightly off from their 262.9 composite.

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Get out your tin foil hat! Twelve of nineteen Alabama players are overrated, and only two are underrated, though Montrell Custis is egregiously so (-3.8). I guess you could argue for a slight Bama bump from some service, but nine of the twelve vary by less than a rounded +1.5. The three severely overrated players are Jonathan Ledbetter (+3.4), T.D. Moton (+2.7), and Shawn Burgess-Becker (+2.7).

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