BYU Has Ground to Make Up Heading Into Critical Recruiting Weekend

The Cougars rank last in the Big 12 - but their is time to make up ground

Lavell Edwards Stadium for BYU vs Portland State | BYU Photo

This weekend, BYU is hosting more than a dozen recruits on campus for official visits. Compared to Big 12 peers, the Cougars have ground to make up. As of Thursday evening, BYU ranks dead last in the Big 12 recruiting rankings and 80th nationally.

Fortunately for BYU fans, there is plenty of time to close the gap. Over the last several years, BYU has targeted the last official visit weekend to host its top targets. That's exactly what the staff is doing for this recruting class. This upcoming weekend is the last weekend in which recruits can take official visits.

The downside to this strategy is that some of BYU's top targets commit to other schools before getting to Provo for their official visits. The upside is BYU gets a chance to make the final impression, something that has been very important in the past.

Last year, it paid off in a big way. BYU hosted 16 recruits on campus during the final official visit weekend in June. Of the 16 official visitors, 10 of them were not committed to BYU at the start of the visits. Those 10 uncommitted recruits were weighing competing offers from multiple P4 schools. The Cougars secured commitments from 9 out of the 10 official visitors.

The Cougars are hoping for a similar result this weekend.

Where BYU Ranks in the Big 12 Recruiting Rankings

BYU ranks dead last in the Big 12 recruiting rankings. However, the quality of BYU's commitments has been high. Once the Cougars add more players to their list of committed players, they will start climbing the recruiting rankings.

At this stage, the quantity of commits can vary widely across college football. BYU ranks 80th in the recruiting rankings because only six players are committed to the Cougars. No other Big 12 team has less than eight players committed, and 13 out of 16 have 10 or more committed. In terms of average star rating, BYU ranks 8th out of 16 teams in the Big 12.

Team	# of Commits	Avg. Rating
1. Texas Tech	16	91.2
2. Kansas State	24	87.2
3. West Virginia	21	87.1
4. Iowa State	23	86.2
5. Colorado	16	87.0
6. Kansas	16	86.7
7. Cincinnati	16	86.0
8. Houston	13	87.2
9. TCU	14	86.6
10. ASU	11	87.4
11. Utah	12	85.9
12. Arizona	12	85.5
13. Baylor	9	86.3
14. UCF	11	86.2
15. Oklahoma State	8	85.9
16. BYU	6	86.7

It's safe to expect BYU to land multiple commitments after this weekend. On the low end, BYU could land five or six players and move up to ~57th in the recruiting rankings. In the best-case scenario, BYU could secure commitments from upwards of 8-10 players and move all the way up to 40th in the recruiting rankings and 5th in the Big 12.

This weekend is the most critical recutiing weekend of the year for BYU. The Cougars are looking to capitalize on the opportunity and stack another solid recruiting class together. This class doesn't have the ceiling of last year's record-breaking recruiting class, but it does have the potential to be a top five class in the conference.

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