Analyzing and understanding Notre Dame’s early spot in the 2023 On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking
Notre Dame went a couple of months without a new commitment in the 2023 class — and even lost a verbal from cornerback Justyn Rhett — but the Irish added a new pledge on Tuesday from four-star wide receiver Braylon James.
The Irish are back to nine commitments, which is headlined by defensive talent. Five-star EDGE Keon Keeley is Notre Dame’s highest ranked commitment to this point, and the next three highest-ranked prospects on the commit list also play on defense. Ranked as the nation’s No. 107 overall prospect and No. 19 wide receiver, James is the top offensive commitment thus far.
According to the 2023 On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking, Notre Dame’s 2023 class ranks second nationally behind USC, a program that only has four commitments. How can this be?
First, one needs to understand how the On3 ranking works. It is different than what our readers who came over from Rivals are used to.
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.
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 six. This means that of Notre Dame’s nine commitments, only the six highest-ranked players are used for the rankings score.
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.
The On3 Consensus recruit rankings creates a specific rating. For example, the aforementioned Keon Keeley has an On3 Consensus rating score of 96.97. When averaging Notre Dame’s entire 2023 class of nine verbals, the score comes out to 92.12.
But when taking just the rolling average of six, the Irish’s Team Ranking average is 93.496. This is the score used for the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking, which can be seen in the image below.
There’s no perfect rankings system this early on, and it’s also a bit futile to put a whole lot of stock into what class rankings look like eight months before National Signing Day. Still, it’s fun to discuss and we find it important for Fighting Irish fans to get familiar with the On3 team ranking system.
For more details on the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking, click here.
Notre Dame 2023 recruiting class info
Here is the Fighting Irish’s class sorted by commitment timeline:
June 28, 2021 — Four-star DE Keon Keeley, Tampa (Fla.) Berkeley Prep
June 29, 2021 — Four-star DE Brenan Vernon, Mentor (Ohio) High
Aug. 15, 2021 — Four-star S Adon Shuler, Irvington (N.J.) High
Sept. 1, 2021 — Four-star TE Cooper Flanagan, Concord (Calif.) De La Salle
Sept. 22, 2021 — Four-star RB Sedrick Irvin Jr., Miami Gulliver Prep
Nov. 3, 2021 — Four-star LB Drayk Bowen, Merrillville (Ind.) Andrean
Jan. 1, 2022 — Four-star S Peyton Bowen, Denton (Texas) Guyer
Feb. 11, 2022 — Three-star ATH/LB Preston Zinter, Lawrence (Mass.) Central Catholic
April 19, 2022 — Four-star WR Braylon James, Round Rock (Texas) Stony Point
