We’re about a week from recruiting truly kicking into gear. So now is a good time to examine the most interesting programs of the 2027 cycle.
Note: All rankings are from the 247Sports Composite.
Indiana
We’ll start with the defending national champions, a program that has never been viewed as a recruiting power. To Curt Cignetti’s credit, that hasn’t really mattered. His first two full classes with the Hoosiers ranked 49th (2025) and 29th (2026).
But that doesn’t mean the Hoosiers aren’t talented — they just had eight players picked in the NFL Draft. But Indiana hasn’t made back-to-back College Football Playoff trips based on star rankings. The staff has done a great job with its evaluations and player development, mostly in the transfer portal.
But a national championship dramatically changes the conversation about the caliber of prospects a program has access to.
Now, do we think Cignetti will go star chasing? Of course not. The Hoosiers have a formula that clearly works, but now they have more credibility if they elect to go big-game hunting on the recruiting trail. And it’ll be fascinating to see which players they put that effort into.
Indiana’s 2027 class ranks 48th nationally with only one blue-chip commitment — four-star offensive lineman Mason McDermott.
LSU
The Tigers have been the talk of the offseason, and everyone will be watching to see how Lane Kiffin’s first year in Baton Rouge unfolds. Of course, a lot of attention will be placed on what he does on the recruiting trail as well.
Part of the reason Kiffin took the job was that the recruiting ceiling at LSU is higher than it was at Ole Miss. As an assistant coach, Kiffin had a stellar reputation as a recruiter at USC and Alabama.
He routinely signed high-end classes while he was the Trojans’ head coach from 2010-13. But at Ole Miss, he relied heavily on the transfer portal to build his roster and never signed a high school class that ranked higher than 16th nationally.
Recruiting expectations will be much higher at LSU. The Tigers’ 2027 class ranks No. 43 nationally, but that’s mainly because they have only five commitments. Four of those prospects rank in the top 200, so the quality is there.
LSU has spared no expense in trying to get its football program back to an elite level. It spent a lot on Kiffin. It spent a lot in the transfer portal. It only makes sense that it’ll spend on the recruiting trail as well.
Kiffin will have every possible resource necessary to succeed in Baton Rouge. There’s no reason why that top-tier investment shouldn’t produce an elite class this cycle. Adding Ed Orgeron to the staff will only help.
Michigan
While in the Mountain West, Kyle Whittingham was able to build a roster good enough for Utah to go 13-0, beat Alabama and finish in the top five of the AP poll. In the Pac-12, he won two conference titles while routinely finishing outside the top 25 of the recruiting rankings.
Now, Whittingham is recruiting at a school with much greater resources. Like Cignetti, it’s never been about the recruiting rankings with Whittingham. His teams are tough and physical, and he and his staff have evaluated and developed really, really well. There’s an identity there, and they recruit to it. Michigan has that same sort of hard-nosed, grind-it-out mentality as a program, so the fit feels natural.
He has more brand power behind him.
The Wolverines were signing top-15 classes through the dysfunction of Sherrone Moore’s tenure. Whittingham hasn’t had to recruit to those sorts of expectations, but his first full cycle with Michigan has gotten off to a good start. The Wolverines have 15 commitments in a class that ranks eighth nationally. Eleven of the prospects are blue-chippers, and six are among the top 150.
These next few weeks will offer a better glimpse of what Whittingham is capable of in terms of talent acquisition at Michigan.
Florida
Billy Napier was hired to turn Florida into a more serious recruiting outfit. He recruited better than Dan Mullen but won far fewer games, which ultimately led to his firing last October.
Jon Sumrall is now tasked with getting the program back on track after he led Tulane to the CFP last season. Sumrall spent four years in the SEC as an assistant at Ole Miss and Kentucky, so he has experience recruiting in the league. But it’s one thing to recruit as an assistant and another to do it as the head coach at Florida, where you’re not only battling it out with other SEC schools, but in-state foes like Miami and Florida State as well.
So far, Sumrall has displayed some really encouraging signs. The Gators just landed a commitment from four-star receiver Elias Pearl, a top-100 prospect, on Tuesday. Pearl is one of six top-150 prospects in Florida’s class, which is now 16 members deep with an average player rating of 92.32. The Gators’ class ranks fifth nationally, so the bones are there for a really impressive group.
Florida’s fan base was generally lukewarm to Sumrall at the outset of his tenure because there was a strong desire to hire Kiffin. But Sumrall has weathered that storm by building a strong coaching staff and recruiting at an exciting clip. He’ll ultimately be judged by wins and losses, but he can lay a solid foundation for future years with this recruiting cycle.
Texas Tech
We’re in the second offseason of the Red Raiders operating like a major force on the NIL front. Their 2026 recruiting class was solid, ranking 18th nationally and including two top-50 prospects, but most of the talk about Texas Tech’s spending has been focused on the transfer portal.
This might be the first time the program truly flexes those muscles with high school recruiting. The Red Raiders have only nine commitments in the Class of 2027, but eight are ranked in the top 175 and three are five-stars — including the nation’s No. 1 player, defensive linemen Jalen Brewster. Yes, the financial aspect helps, but the staff displayed last year that it can develop talent and win games.
Virginia Tech
How quickly can James Franklin make the Hokies relevant in terms of talent acquisition?
After Miami, the spot for the ACC’s No. 2 team seems up for grabs. Franklin has the potential to quickly vault the Hokies into the mix. Bringing in talent was rarely the issue for him at Penn State, and he’s recruited the state of Virginia very well in the past.
He recently landed a commitment from four-star quarterback Peter Bourque, the highest-rated player in the Hokies’ class, which ranks 18th nationally.
Virginia Tech has more three-star prospects committed (eight) than blue-chippers (five), so that ratio will have to change, but Franklin’s recruiting will definitely be worth keeping tabs on at a program that hasn’t finished with a top-25 class since 2018.
Penn State
Matt Campbell never sniffed a top-25 recruiting class at Iowa State and was never expected to. He still produced the most successful stretch of football in that program’s history.
Just because Campbell hasn’t done those things before doesn’t mean he can’t, and this cycle will be the first opportunity he’s had to recruit at a brand-name program with significant NIL resources.
Right now, Campbell’s class is sort of similar to Franklin’s at Virginia Tech. Penn State is ranked ninth nationally with 20 commitments. There are six blue-chippers in that group, along with 14 three-star prospects. Penn State’s average player rating (89.05) is also similar to Virginia Tech’s (89.24).
Campbell had a successful roster-building formula at Iowa State, so we’ll see how that evolves starting this cycle.
UCLA
The Bruins have basically been irrelevant on the recruiting trail for almost a decade since Jim Mora was fired late in the 2017 season.
First-year head coach Bob Chesney is doing all he can to change that. The Bruins’ 2027 class ranks sixth nationally, and they are on pace to finish with their first top-25 class this decade.
UCLA has received commitments from 10 blue-chip prospects this cycle. It signed eight blue-chippers combined in the previous four recruiting cycles under Chip Kelly and DeShaun Foster.
Chesney has provided a jolt of energy. UCLA is also investing more with increased third-party/NIL spending as well, which always helps.
From a recruiting perspective, Oregon and USC have generally stolen most of the headlines on the West Coast, but having an active, engaged UCLA back on the trail would make things more fun.
Cal
Speaking of the West Coast, the Golden Bears’ recruiting shouldn’t be overlooked either. Tosh Lupoi and his staff will certainly provide more competition in the region and will win their share of battles.
Cal’s class ranks 23rd nationally. The Golden Bears have just 10 commitments, including four blue-chippers. Lupoi has been successful in landing elite recruits in the past, so we’ll see if he can sign any at Cal.
One of the biggest battles he’s involved with right now is against UCLA and Cincinnati for three-star QB Dane Weber.
Kentucky
Lupoi and first-year Kentucky coach Will Stein worked together as coordinators on Dan Lanning’s staff at Oregon for the past three seasons.
Lupoi returned to his alma mater at Cal, and Stein returned to his home state in Kentucky. Mark Stoops did a great job raising the bar for the Wildcats, but it grew stale in his final years. Stein was hired to provide more energy on the field and in recruiting.
After signing a top-15 class in the 2022 cycle, Kentucky hovered around 25th for the next few cycles and fell to 60th last year amid the coaching change.
Stein’s first class currently includes 19 commitments, with seven blue-chippers. The average player rating of 88.91 isn’t great, but there’s time to address that.
