Notre Dame makes big move in Rivals Team Rankings after five-star QB flips to SEC program

Bombshell news broke in the college football recruiting world as Nashville (Tenn.) Christian’s Jared Curtis, the consensus No. 1 quarterback in the 2026 class, reportedly flipped his commitment from Georgia to Vanderbilt.

Curtis has not confirmed this news himself, but the expectation is that he’ll sign with the Commodores this week.

The flip is already reflected on his Rivals profile, which impacts the 2026 Rivals Industry football team recruiting rankings.

Georgia slid from No. 2 to No. 5 after the flip was entered, which moved Notre Dame up to No. 2 one day before National Signing Day.

Notre Dame hasn’t signed a top-five class per the Industry Ranking since 2013, when the Irish brought in the likes of Jaylon Smith, Isaac Rochell, Mike McGlinchey and Torii Hunter Jr. That class ranked No. 4 nationally, a mark Notre Dame has never surpassed.

This is, again, per the Industry Ranking, which dates back to 2004. Other outlets may have different rankings. The Rivals Industry Ranking is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all three major recruiting media services.

The Irish have never signed more than three Industry Ranking five-star prospects. It did so in the 2011 class (Aaron Lynch, Ishaq Williams and Stephon Tuitt). Barring a decommitment, Notre Dame will break that record with four: safety Joey O’Brien, cornerback Khary Adams, tight end Ian Premer and EDGE Rodney Dunham.

While not an Industry Ranking five-star prospect, Rivals’ own rankings list offensive tackle Grayson McKeogh as one. He’s the No. 9 player nationally and No. 3 offensive tackle in America.

Notre Dame has four five-star recruits, 15 four-star players and eight three-star commits in its 2026 class. The blue-chip ratio (percentage of four- and five-star commits) for the class sits at a strong 70 percent.

USC has the No. 1 class in the country. Behind Notre Dame in the top 10 are Oregon, Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Miami, LSU and Texas A&M, in that order.

This cycle marks Marcus Freeman’s fourth full recruiting class as Notre Dame’s head coach. In 2023, the Irish signed the No. 10 class, and they followed with the No. 11 group in 2024. For the 2025 class, the slight downward trend continued as Notre Dame signed the No. 12 group.

For what it’s worth, Freeman was the defensive coordinator for the 2022 cycle before taking over as head coach in the final weeks before signing day. The Irish signed the No. 6 class that year.

Below is a look at the top 10 schools according to the 2026 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings, as of Tuesday afternoon.

Understanding Rivals’ team rankings system

The Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Ranking utilizes all three major recruiting media companies: Rivals, 247Sports and ESPN.

It uses a score average of the player rankings, which solves the problem of varying class sizes during the recruiting cycle. It compiles the highest-rated commits for each team up to a total based on a rolling average of current total commitments among Power Five schools.

The current average number of commits in the 2026 class used in the rankings score is 18. This means that of Notre Dame’s 27 commitments, only the 18 highest-ranked players are used for the rankings score.

To further explain: Notre Dame’s 27 commits have an average recruit rating of 91.60, but that is not the score used in the team ranking. From the group of 17, the Irish’s score is 93.217 — the number used for the class ranking, as seen in the image above.

With this model, there are no bonus points for having more commitments than other teams, and only small deductions occur when a team has fewer commitments than the rolling average. Unlike distribution (bell) curves, this model doesn’t disproportionately weight a team’s top three or four highest-rated commits and is a more accurate representation of an entire class.