What is a company like Signing Day Sports built on? To answer that, consider why you are here, as a parent, a student-athlete, or an otherwise invested party. 

You want to participate in collegiate sports and are willing to do anything it takes to get to the next level. 

In certain circumstances, that opportunity may not be present. And in today’s recruiting landscape, it can feel as though David has no chance against Goliath. That is to say, if you’re not an already heralded recruit, you won’t be seen by any power-5 schools. Or, if a program isn’t a perennial contender, there is no way they can compete on the national stage against those that recruit blue-chip prospects exclusively. 

With all of that said, consider this college football season a breath of fresh air. Texas Christian University has flipped this notion on its head. 

TCU Recruiting & Talent Rankings

247Sports releases composite rankings for every team in college football in two areas: recruiting and team talent

In recruiting, TCU is middle of the pack, and by no stretch of the imagination should they be competing with the likes of Georgia or Michigan. 

In the last four recruiting cycles, here is where TCU’s recruiting class ranks:

2022: 45th

2021: 54th

2020: 23rd

2019: 32nd

With these four recruiting classes comprising the 2022 Horned Frogs, and any transfers that came into Fort Worth, or left, they fielded the 32nd-ranked team in terms of talent. 

For comparison, they’ve beaten the 6th, 9th, and 13th ranked teams this season. And this Monday, they are set to square off against Georgia, who trails only Alabama in team talent. 

Reevaluating how to view recruits

This talent and recruiting discrepancy between TCU and some of their recent opponents has led to people reconsidering how to attract talent in the first place. If TCU can get to this stage with where they rank, others can follow suit. 

“TCU could be the program that forces us to reconsider how we view roster talent,” said Ari Wasserman, senior college football writer with The Athletic. “We’re going to have to also evolve in how we break down the sport and who is capable of making it to this stage.”

A team’s success is predicated on more than just how well recruiting sites expect individuals or teams to perform. TCU shouldn’t be here according to the rankings, but here we are. They’ve continually shown throughout this season that these rankings don’t matter. 

“In today’s college football world, it is a lot different assembling a team than it used to be,” said TCU head coach Sonny Dykes. “There (used to be) only one way to acquire players, and that was through traditional high school recruiting. Well, in today’s world, it’s a lot different, you know, you can acquire players in a lot of different ways.”

Takeaways

Here’s what this means for the Signing Day Sports team, and our users: what we are doing is working. 

More and more people are realizing that hard-working athletes make a difference, no matter their star-rating. If you can find a way to exemplify your abilities and be seen, there’s no telling the success that could follow. 

You don’t need to be a highly recruited, semi-celebrity prior to arriving on campus in order to make a difference at the next level. And, as evidenced by Dykes, you also don’t need to follow the same path of recruitment as everybody else seems to take. 

College football recruiting is an ever-evolving entity. Signing Day Sports understands the nuances of it, and we have proactively offered prospective student-athletes a chance to showcase themselves and prove that they are deserving of a scholarship.

We stand behind every athlete that has the same dream as us and hope to see more underappreciated athletes make impacts like the athletes at TCU have done.