Where Notre Dame stands in Rivals Industry Team Rankings after National Signing Day

As of today, Notre Dame has the No. 2 class in America according to the 2026 Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Rankings. But that’s not set in stone.

Notre Dame could still add another player to the 2026 class (more details here). Other programs have today and tomorrow in the early signing period — as well as the February signing period — and there is still one final rankings update which could see movement.

But at the very least, Notre Dame is in prime position to sign its first top-five recruiting class since 2013, per the Industry Ranking. But if the Irish’s No. 2 position holds, it would be Notre Dame’s best class in the internet era, which dates back to 2004.

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 had never signed more than three Industry Ranking five-star prospects before the 2026 class. Notre Dame did so in the 2011 class (Aaron Lynch, Ishaq Williams and Stephon Tuitt), but on Wednesday, Notre Dame broke 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, Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama, Tennessee, Miami, LSU and Texas, 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 leading up to 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 Thursday morning.

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 19. This means that of Notre Dame’s 27 commitments, only the 19 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 19, the Irish’s score is 93.013 — 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.