Recruiting Comparison: Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin

There are many ways to evaluate matchups, and one of those ways is to look at things from a recruiting standpoint. Notre Dame faces the Wisconsin Badgers this weekend, and at least from a recruiting matchup the Irish should have the advantage.

Here are the 247Sports composite rankings for the starters and top rotation players for the Notre Dame offense and the Wisconsin defense.

If you only look at this from a pure recruiting standpoint this should be a matchup that Notre Dame dominates. Notre Dame has nine five or four-star recruits in the starting lineup and five more come off the bench at the skill positions. Notre Dame's offensive lineup has six former Top 100 recruits in its regular rotation.

All but one of Notre Dame's starting skill players (RB, WR, TE) are former four-star recruits, as is the top running back off the bench. The lone exception is tight end Michael Mayer, who was a five-star recruit. Up front the Irish have three former Top 150 recruits in the starting lineup, including two that were Top 100 recruits (Tosh Baker, Zeke Correll).

Wisconsin's starting defense only has two four-star recruits in the lineup and none coming off the bench. There aren't any Top 100 recruits in the lineup on defense and just one player ranked in the Top 300.

Now let's look at the Notre Dame defense and the Badger offense.

Notre Dame's defense is coming off its best performance of the season. It has six former four-star recruits in the starting lineup, including three that were Top 100 recruits. There are five former Top 150 recruits in the defensive rotation for Notre Dame. Not listed in the rotation is sophomore Rylie Mills, another four-star recruit that ranked as the No. 159 overall player in the country.

Wisconsin's offense stacks up better against Notre Dame than its defense. The Badgers have five former four-star recruits in its starting lineup and two offensive linemen that have gotten snaps this season that were also four-star recruits. Wisconsin's lone former Top 100 recruit in the rotation on either side of the ball is quarterback Graham Mertz.

CLASS RANKINGS

Here are the class rankings of the two programs from the last five seasons. (247Sports composite)

NOTRE DAME

2021 - 9
2020 - 18
2019 - 15
2018 - 10
2017 - 10

WISCONSIN

2021 - 16
2020 - 26
2019 - 29
2018 - 46
2017 - 39

Advantage: Notre Dame

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Irish Breakdown Content

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Notre Dame 2022 Commits Big Board: Offense
Notre Dame 2022 Commits Big Board: Defense

Notre Dame 2022 Scholarship Offers

Notre Dame 2022 Class Big Board
Notre Dame 2023 Class Big Board

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