Enrolled Team Rankings

With kickoff for the 2009 season a matter of hours away, let's take a revised look at the recruiting rankings for the Class of 2009 based on who reported to campus after attrition has taken its toll.

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From grayshirts to baseball to academic casualties, the dream that is the Class of 2009 on National Signing Day undergoes inevitable changes when it comes time to suit up for games in September.

Scout takes a look back at the Class of 2009 and re-ranks the classes once attrition is factored in. Scout tries to limit the effect of attrition by limiting the amount of players counted towards the Team Rankings in February to the Top 25 players, so a team that signs 30 players may not see a drastic drop in the rankings after losing five, since Scout didn't count all 30 players in February. 

The most drastic example of this policy in action would be Ole Miss. Ole Miss signed 37 players in February and lost 10 to attrition. Scout only counted 25 players from Ole Miss' Class in February, enrolled nearly all of its high profile targets, and held steady with a national ranking of 17th in the country.

Not all teams sign over 25 players though (and no SEC team will be allowed to oversign as dramatically in the future), so there will be some shuffling among the Top Classes. Let's take a look at how the Class of 2009 shook out post-attrition.

There was virtually a three way tie at the top of the Scout rankings with Ohio State, LSU, and Alabama all having a legitimate claim to the top spot in the country. For the star gazers, Ohio State enrolled 24 players at 3.79 stars per player (s.p.p.), LSU enrolled 24 at 3.79 spp, and Alabama enrolled 23 at 3.78 spp.

While the star ratings are a key component in the team rankings, another key component is the position ranking. A three star player ranked 15th at his position is considerably more valuable than a player with three stars ranked 70th.

Team	Enrolled	Stars Per
Ohio State	24	3.79
LSU	24	3.79
Alabama	23	3.78

Ohio State held on to the No. 1 spot in Scout's Team Rankings by virtue of enrolling nearly a full class of prep players (no junior college players) and having 14 players ranked in the Top 15 at their positions. LSU signed the most five star prospects in the country (5) and included 11 players ranked in the Top 15 at their positions. Alabama enrolled a whopping 15 four and five star players and finished just behind LSU by the slimmest of margins after losing four players to attrition.

Three of the Top 5 teams didn't lose a single player to attrition over the summer. LSU, Georgia, and Texas enrolled all of its signees from February. Georgia and Texas enrolled classes that matched the Top 3 in quality, but the Top 3 were able to bring in several more high caliber players to flush out its list of enrollees.

USC moves up a couple of spots with a stunning 4.0 s.p.p., the highest in the country. USC's 13 five star and four star enrollees placed it fifth most in the country.  

Lane Kiffin and Tennessee had a remarkable first class in what is normally a transition year. The Vols lose 3-Star wide receiver James Green, but managed to bring in the No. 1 running back in the nation, Bryce Brown and tied USC with 13 five star and four star players.

Oklahoma went heavy on defense in the Class of 2009 and is bringing in all of its key contributors including five star linebacker Ronnell Lewis and Top 5 outside linebacker Tom Wort.

UCLA held onto a spot in the Top 10 despite some attrition on the strength of bringing in nine players on the Scout 300 including No. 1 tight end Morrell Presley.

Rounding out the Top 10, Stanford was a team that just wouldn't go away during the 2009 recruiting season. The Cardinal got off to a strong start, including five star linebacker Shayne Skov, and as is typical, didn't lose any players to attrition. 

North Carolina is the team that may have been hit the hardest by attrition. The Tar Heels planned for some of the attrition by oversigning by four players, but losing high profile signees like Justin Dixon, Johnnie Farms, and Donavan Tate dropped North Carolina double digit spots in the Revised Rankings.

Of Scout's five star prospects, only Missouri's Sheldon Richardson did not enroll with his team.

Scout.com 2009 Enrolled Team Rankings
Sept .	Feb.	Team	Key Losses*
1	1	Ohio State	Carlos Hyde
2	3	LSU	None
3	2	Alabama	Petey Smith, Anthony Orr
4	4	Georgia	None
5	7	Texas	None
6	9	USC	Frankie Telfort
7	8	Tennessee	James Green
8	10	Oklahoma	Terry Franklin
9	5	UCLA	Brandon Warner, Lester White
10	15	Stanford	None
11	14	Michigan	None
12	21	Florida	None
13	12	Texas A&M	Chris Henderson
14	11	Penn State	Darrell Givens
15	23	Notre Dame	None
16	19	Mississippi State	None
17	17	Ole Miss	Willie Ferrell, Artice Kellam
18	6	North Carolina	Justin Dixon, Johnnie Farms
19	20	Arkansas	Turrell Williams
20	13	South Carolina	Leon Mackey, Duane Chisolm
21	18	Florida State	C.J. Mizell, Willie Downs
22	22	West Virginia	Deon Long, Tevita Finau
23	24	Miami (Fl)	Malcolm Bunche, Prince Kent
24	16	Auburn	Terrance Coleman, B. Jacobs
25	29	Rutgers	Added Darrell Givens
26	26	Oregon	Avery Patterson
27	32	Georgia Tech	None
28	28	Maryland	Lorne Goree, David Mackall
29	30	Texas Tech	James Scott
30	25	South Florida	Adaris Bellamy, Kamran Joyer
31	37	Michigan State	None
32	33	Nebraska	Deandre Byrd
33	31	Pittsburgh	Todd Thomas
34	34	Cal	Markish Jones
35	42	Clemson	None
36	36	Arizona State	Kipeli Koniseti
37	27	Kentucky	Donte Rumph, Terrell Mitchell
38	35	Illinois	Cornellius Carradine
39	41	Virginia Tech	Duan Perez-Means
40	45	Oklahoma State	None
41	39	NC State	Raynard Randolph
42	51	Wisconsin	None
43	44	Baylor	Enrico Forbes
44	47	Arizona	Ryan Milus
45	52	Duke	None
46	50	Kansas	Darian Kelly
47	46	Minnesota	Hasan Lipscomb
48	40	BYU	Kyle Van Noy, Adam Hine
49	56	Wake Forest	None
50	38	Missouri	Sheldon Richardson

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