LOOK: 5-star WR Shelton Sampson Jr. at Texas A&M
Dozens of top recruits are in College Station this weekend for Texas A&M‘s BBQ/Pool Party event. One of them is Baton Rouge (La.) Catholic five-star wide receiver Shelton Sampson Jr.
Sampson Jr. recently included the Aggies in his top four alongside Alabama, Florida State and LSU. He is making his third unofficial visit to Texas A&M and first since Jan. 22.
The 6-foot-3.5, 190 pound wideout is the No. 32 overall prospect and the No. 6 wide receiver in the 2023 On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also rated as the No. 3 player in Louisiana. On3 ranks him even higher as the No. 21 overall prospect and No. 4 wide receiver in the 2023 On300.
Sampson Jr. was recently photographed at the event. Other attendees of the festivities include Denton (Texas) Ryan five-star linebacker and Aggies commit Anthony Hill, Shiner (Texas) four-star safety and Aggies commit Dalton Brooks and Orlando (Fla.) Westlake four-star interior offensive lineman T.J. Shanahan.
Sampson Jr. would be a huge commit for Texas A&M
Any school that adds Sampson Jr. will likely see its class rise. For Texas A&M, the wide receiver could be a piece that gets them closer to a top-10 class in the 2023 On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Rankings.
If Sampson Jr. commits to the Aggies, he would be their second-highest-ranked prospect behind Hill, the No. 15 overall recruit in the On3 Consensus. However, the Aggies — whose 2023 group is currently ranked No. 17 — are not the favorite to land Sampson Jr. according to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine.
The RPM gives LSU the best chance to earn Sampson Jr.’s commitment at 89.4%. He has visited the Tigers seven times, the most of any school during his recruiting process. Meanwhile, the Aggies’ odds on the RPM are 2.3%, the lowest of his four finalists.
RPM was released to the public in December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college.
It factors in machine learning, social sentiment, visits and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.
Sampson Jr. has an On3 NIL Valuation of $223K. The On3 NIL Valuation is an index that looks to set the standard market value for both high school and college-level athletes. The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.