FSU Football: Recruiting Deep Dive | Shannon Terry & The New Era | Tribe24 Updated Ratings!
While we have covered the 2024 recruiting class here quite heavily at the Renegade Report we had very dissenting opinions from 247 and ON3. They have come around. Updated rankings at the bottom.
A New Era In CFB Recruiting
Twitter | @LukeKromenhoek
The Godfather of Recruiting Rankings | Shannon Terry
ON3 has finally updated their Industry Average ranking in a move long overdue. Those of us that have been following recruiting closely here the last few decades can remember a time when recruiting rankings were dominated by Rivals and ESPN was similiarly respected with their ESPN300 being very well constructed if not the lower end of their rankings.
That all began to change with the sale of Rivals to Yahoo in 2007. Although Rivals was initially launched by Washington alumnus Jim Heckman, Rivals had aquired Alliance Sports around 2000 a decision that led to some of their executives purchasing the rights to Rivals after the initial dot com bubble burst in 2001. Former Alliance Sports Executive Terry Shannon took over as CEO and led the company all the way back to profitablility, buying up Scout.com Heckman’s attempt at competing with his former company not long after.
Twitter | @RenegadeReport1
Shannon eventually secured a deal with Yahoo to sell Rivals.com and all of it’s assets to the giant media company in 2007. While the exact numbers and terms of the deal were never made public it was believed to be around 100 million dollars quite the hefty amount, especially in 2007. Terry having become one of the most succesful businessman in the country all before turning forty would not ride off into the sunset.
In 2010 Terry would found 247 Sports and quickly build the gold standard in recruiting rankings/sites. It took very little time after Terry set up shop before all of the National and Regional media took notice. Places like the Washington Post and Sports Illustrated quickly took notice and started referencing 247’s ratings.
There were no big collapses or rebranding efforts needed with Terry calling the shots from day one. He would strike a deal with CBS in 2012 and one by one start locking down all of his former contracts and assets as they came open. 2013 saw him reach a long-term agreement to become the official online selection partner of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and the U.S. Army National Combine, replacing Yahoo’s Rivals.com. In 2015 247 was aquired by CBS, two years later with Terry still at the helm, they aquired Scout.com as well. In 2020 with utter domination in the recruiting world in hand Terry again ten years later walked away from a decade worth of building.
Of course he didn’t just ride off into the sunset this time either. This new decade brought with it a brand new era of college football. Rather than remain at what had become another wing at CBS and a network ran under the care of Paramount TV Terry set out to launch a brand new company; one that would totally revolutionize the recruiting game forever. With Name Image and Likeness, the Transfer Portal, and the atomic bomb that is the one time transfer rule things will never be the same and Terry’s brand new site ON3 Sports was launched with this new era specifically in mind. This will be his final work, his pièce de résistance if you will.
With all of the changes in the industry the past two decades no single person has been more impactful than Terry. 247 had completely dominated the market to a level no one could have seen coming. Rivals never found a new leader and are like the Big Bad coach in the Waterboy Movie screaming at their playbook from 2007. Scout was swallowed up first by Rivals then again by 247. ESPN while maybe not being as bad off as Rivals lowpoints simply has bever been able to compete with 247 and now ON3 but they know where their bread is buttered and simply aren’t a direct competitor.
A New Formula
One of the biggest achievements and likely the biggest piece that revolutionized the recruiting game in the 2010s was the 247 Composite. Its propriety formula weighted all the top outlets somewhat evenly and produced a universal ranking. One that took into account all outlets and just about everyone could agree or at least settle on when comparing players.
The launch of ON3 and their Industry Average is beginning to change that. In my opinion and as evidenced by the rankings used here at the Renegade Report ON3 did not and could not immediately overtake everything he built at 247 for a decade. The biggest issue? The CBS entity still has all the best of the best when it comes to on-air and behind the scenes talent. These are folks for the most part that were hired by Terry and studied at the alter of his recruiting rankings design for over two decades.
Twitter | @ShannonTerry
The past year that has begun to change. Even to this day I still prefer 247 to ON3 but that chasm is shrinking at an unbelievable rate if not for Shanon Terry being at the helm. They have launched NIL values, and all sorts of brand new metrics along with beginning to even the playing field as far as talent goes as well. JD Pickell, Josh Newberg, Matt Zenitz to name a few, they are on the rise and fast.
ON3 certainly is on a rise reminiscent of that of 247 Sports, but I don’t see them going the way of Rivals abd Scout before them. Both of those sites were launched by the aforementioned son in law of Don James, Jim Heckman. 247 was launched by Terry to last and will be a perfect dancing partner for ON3 as they adjust and battle for engagement moving forward.
We find ourselves here in 2023 with the prospect of a true competition between these two industry titans. Covid-19 was an abhorrent disaster I pray we never face again in our lifetimes. One effect of the pandemic while largely insignifant on the larger human scale was that for eighteen months scouting, and player evaluation was all but impossible. High schools skipped seasons, no seven on seven competitions or camps for the Bud Elliots of the world to get a real look at recruits.
This led to even 247 struggling to get accurate recruiting rankings on these affected classes 2020-2022. While the top 250-300 players in any given year are pretty obvious, their order and ranking of the 700 recruits after them is where things got really hard. This period of time to my perception played perfectly into ON3s hands. Any advantage held by ESPN and Rivals over his brand new site were crushed by the pandemic. It was time to evolve, come up with new solutions, adapt amd overcome.
That is exactly what ON3 did and as we sit here today they are undisputedly top dogs in the recruiting world only slightly trailing 247 at this point but also paving its own trail in which they may coexist. This leads us to their latest move which is one that I have been clamoring for and can only hope they will apply to the Transfer Portal rankings as well. ON3s Industry Average was originally a completely equal rating between Rivals, ON3, ESPN, and 247 at 25% each.
Twitter | @ShannonTerry
That is no more, as the same team that created the 247 Composite formula has a brand new one that weighs ON3 and 247 at 35% with Rivals at 20% and ESPN at 10%. It is my belief this will provide the most accurate recruiting rankings we have ever had. When you add in the fact that we had a full year of high school, CFB, and camps un-interrupted the service ls are locking back into who the top players truly are and how they should stack up.
#Tribe24 Rankings & Player Rankings Post February Update.
4☆ RB Kameron Davis
ON3 | 95 & #46 | ➡️ First Value is a score from 0-100. Second value is the National Overall Ranking.
247 | 92 & #45
ON3 Industry Average | 95.14 & #32 OA
4☆ QB - Luke Kromenhoek - Top 5 QB
ON3 | 94 & #59
247 | 91 & #94
ON3 Industry Average | 92.6 & #103
4☆ S - Jordan Pride
ON3 | 92 & #160
247 | 92 & #41
ON3 Industry Average | 92.9 & #87
4☆ DB - Tawaski Abrams
ON3 | 91 & #224
247 | 90 & N/A (outside the top 247 recruits)
ON3 Industry Average | 90.82 & #227
3☆ WR - Camdon Frier
ON3 | 88
247 | 88
ON3 Industry Average | 88.95 & #422
3☆ DB - CJ Heard
ON3 | 89
247 | 87
247 Composite
ON3 Industry Average | 88.44 & #441
3☆ LB - Jammorie Flagg
ON3 | 85
247 | 86
ON3 Industry Average | 83.50 & #760
3☆ DT - Keishawn Mashburn
ON3 | 85
247 | 84
ON3 Industry Average | 83.5 & #1060
K - Jake Weinberg
Kohls Kicking Camps Top Kicker and 5☆
Glad we went out and recruited a kicker, we lost many points to that nightmare last season. May have given us an extra win if we had that on track.