Where Auburn’s 2027 Recruiting Class Ranks After Branch Commitment

On Saturday, the Auburn Tigers added James Branch, yet another top-level player, to their highly ranked 2027 class, who represents the second commit the Tigers have landed in July. Of course, Alex Golesh’s program has been making headlines for its recruiting prowess, but where do they stand in official rankings?

After all, the Tigers’ recruiting efforts have slowed down exponentially in the month of July, with Branch’s commitment coming as a surprise to those who figured that the Tigers already had just about every commit they needed. June, however, saw the Tigers ranked within the top-10, so how are they faring in a slower month?

Auburn Tigers on SI takes a look at three major ranking systems and analyzes the Tigers’ ranking in each.

247Sports - No. 11

The Tigers have been all over the board in 247Sports’ eyes throughout the summer, and even ranked as high as seventh in the country last month. Now that the Tigers have slowed their efforts down, and other schools have begun to pick up the pace significantly, the Tigers are falling more towards the late teens to early 20s, where their class is expected to land.

This is not to say Golesh has not had the recruiting summer of a lifetime, though. In fact, I would wager that Auburn fans would take a recruiting summer like this one just about every year, especially looking back at the low expectations many fans had surrounding Golesh’s recruiting early in the summer.

On3/Rivals - No. 13

Rivals has always been a bit more critical of the Tigers and, in fact, has yet to rank Golesh’s class within the top-10 at any point this summer. With that said, Branch’s commitment now leaves the Tigers with just over a tenth of a composite point to land within the top-10, illustrating the significance of Branch’s commitment, even if just in the rankings.

Notably, Golesh ranks behind three other first-year head coaches in these rankings, namely Jon Sumrall and Florida, Lane Kiffin and LSU and Kyle Whittingham and Michigan, though he is trending dangerously close to ranking above both Michigan and LSU, who are currently ranked 10th and 11th, respectively.

ESPN - No. 9

Contrary to Rivals’ harsh grading of the Tigers, ESPN has been quite high on the program and its class throughout this summer, and was the first to rank the Tigers within the top-10 back in June, with 247Sports following behind not long after. The Tigers have consistently sat at this No. 9 spot since late June, and Branch’s addition may persuade ESPN’s analysts to keep the Tigers in the top-10 through July.

ESPN, notably, ranks OL Layton von Brandt as the Tigers’ most highly rated offensive commit and S Chance Gilbert as the Tigers’ highest rated defensive commit, which is in stark contrast to both On3 and 247Sports, who rank RB Myson Johnson-Cook as the Tigers’ best offensive add and LB Isaac McNeil as the Tigers’ best defensive add.

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