Where Notre Dame stands in 2023 On3 Consensus rankings after new commitments
In the past week, Notre Dame has added a pair of new commitments for its 2023 recruiting class. On Sunday, Glen Ellyn (Ill.) Glenbard West offensive lineman Chris Terek flipped his commitment from Wisconsin to Notre Dame. And the big news on Thursday was that Frisco (Texas) Reedy wide receiver Kaleb Smith, a one-time Texas Tech pledge, committed to the Fighting Irish.
Both players rank as three-star prospects, and them being added to Notre Dame’s 26-man recruiting class did not change where the Fighting Irish stand in the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Rankings. Notre Dame’s class ranks No. 3 in the country.
The Irish trail Alabama and Georgia, the schools at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and are ahead of Ohio State and Texas, in that order, to round out the top five. There’s not much separating Notre Dame and the Buckeyes. The Irish have a “score” of 93.288 compared to OSU’s 93.127. Meanwhile, Georgia’s score sits at 93.557.
It’ll be difficult for Notre Dame to hold on to the No. 3 spot when it’s all said and done, but a top-five position at the end of the cycle still seem very obtainable. Notre Dame doesn’t have too much room to add many more prospects, though.
If the Irish sign a top-five class, it would be the first time Notre Dame has done so since the 2013 class that finished No. 4.
The Irish have 26 commitments, which includes one On3 Consensus five-star recruit (safety Peyton Bowen) and 21 four-star prospects. Thirteen of Notre Dame’s commits rank inside of the On3 Consensus top-200.
Below is a look at the top seven schools according to the 2023 On3 Consensus Football Team Recruiting Rankings, as of Saturday morning.
Understanding On3’s team rankings system
The On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking is the only ranking that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies: On3, 247Sports, Rivals and ESPN. It equally weighs the four media companies at 25 percent.
Instead of a total points system like at Rivals, the On3 Consensus ranking uses a score average of the player rankings, and it 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 used in the rankings score is 18. This means that of Notre Dame’s 26 commitments, only the 18 highest-ranked players are used for the rankings score.
To further explain that point: Notre Dame’s 26 commits have an average recruit rating of 91.63, but that is not the score used in the team ranking. With Notre Dame’s top 18 commits only being used in the On3 Consensus Team Ranking, and the Irish’s score with that group is 93.288 — and this is 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 weigh a team’s top three or four highest rated commits and is a more accurate representation of an entire class.
