Gophers 2026 class remains in the top 20 nationally, will it stay there?


Without a five star you pretty much need at least six 4 stars to sniff the top 25. We have 2 right now, if we can land Voss and Petersohn and maybe one surprise we’d be hovering pretty close. Might be a player or two that gets a reevaluation bump to a four star as well. So top 20, no, but top 30 is still in play with a strong finish. Becomes tough if we lose Voss or Petersohn.
 

Without a five star you pretty much need at least six 4 stars to sniff the top 25. We have 2 right now, if we can land Voss and Petersohn and maybe one surprise we’d be hovering pretty close. Might be a player or two that gets a reevaluation bump to a four star as well. So top 20, no, but top 30 is still in play with a strong finish. Becomes tough if we lose Voss or Petersohn.
Thanks for making this so simple on team rankings.
 


Without a five star you pretty much need at least six 4 stars to sniff the top 25. We have 2 right now, if we can land Voss and Petersohn and maybe one surprise we’d be hovering pretty close. Might be a player or two that gets a reevaluation bump to a four star as well. So top 20, no, but top 30 is still in play with a strong finish. Becomes tough if we lose Voss or Petersohn.
By "reevaluation bump", do you mean an offer from OSU or Georgia?
 





Probably not. But if we get Voss and Petersohn, we'll certainly be much higher than last year. But we take some mid to lower three stars as develpopment projects--wise policy, but pretty much guarantees, math-wise, no top 25 class.
 




Can't have guys rated 84 and expect a top 30 class unless your equall them.oit with some mid to high 90s... im guessing at the end of thebday 37-45 is where we will rank.. regardless of we get Voss and or petersonen
 

Look at Alabama right now, they have 6 commitments, 1 5-star and 4 4-stars. Gopher have never had that. Plus you know Alabama will get more 5 and 4 star recuits before its over.
 






this happens every season. Fleck gets early commits but the Gophers are seldom in the mix for many of the guys who decide close to NSD. Usually drifts back from the top 20 to somewhere in the 30s or 40s
 


I haven't seen Voss or Petersohn play, so I'll reserve comment on them.

The dude I'd really want is Estrada. Don't know how many "stars" he has and I don't really care.

He will be a star, and something the Gophers haven't had in a while, i.e., a back that is both a one-cut-and-go reliable base-your-offense-around-him back that is also truly explosive. We must land him.
 

There is an article about Fleck's classes being in the Top 25 every year in June, seemingly, but we've never achieved that ranking at the end of the process..

Given our type of program, I've always been more interested in how we rank relative to the rest of the B1G. Recruiting is still very subjective, and outside of the top 50 prospects (maybe), an accurate ranking of players doesn't exist. That said, recruiting today is much closer to correct than when Glen Mason brought in a 2* recruit named Greg Eslinger, who turned out to be pretty good. Looking from year to year doesn't work, but the bias and errors are consistent within each year, so you have at least a relative sense of what's happening.

The results under Fleck have averaged 10th in the BIG. We've finished in the top half of the B1G exactly once - in 2018, we had the 7th-ranked class in the B1G.

Results by Year:
2017: 12th
2018: 7th
2019: 10th
2020: 9th
2021: 8th
2022: 12th (aggregate of HS and Portal results - HS rank 14th)
2023: 10th (aggregate of HS and Portal results - HS rank 9th)
2024: 11th (aggregate of HS and Portal results - HS rank 10th)
2025*: 15th (aggregate of HS and Portal results - HS rank 15th)

*First year of 18 teams in the B1G.
Source: 247Sports Recruiting Rankings https://247sports.com/season/2026-football/compositeteamrankings/

Based on this, I'd say that it's unlikely we'll end up in the top 25.
 

There is an article about Fleck's classes being in the Top 25 every year in June, seemingly, but we've never achieved that ranking at the end of the process..

Given our type of program, I've always been more interested in how we rank relative to the rest of the B1G. Recruiting is still very subjective, and outside of the top 50 prospects (maybe), an accurate ranking of players doesn't exist. That said, recruiting today is much closer to correct than when Glen Mason brought in a 2* recruit named Greg Eslinger, who turned out to be pretty good. Looking from year to year doesn't work, but the bias and errors are consistent within each year, so you have at least a relative sense of what's happening.

The results under Fleck have averaged 10th in the BIG. We've finished in the top half of the B1G exactly once - in 2018, we had the 7th-ranked class in the B1G.

Results by Year:
2017: 12th
2018: 7th
2019: 10th
2020: 9th
2021: 8th
2022: 12th (aggregate of HS and Portal results - HS rank 14th)
2023: 10th (aggregate of HS and Portal results - HS rank 9th)
2024: 11th (aggregate of HS and Portal results - HS rank 10th)
2025*: 15th (aggregate of HS and Portal results - HS rank 15th)

*First year of 18 teams in the B1G.
Source: 247Sports Recruiting Rankings https://247sports.com/season/2026-football/compositeteamrankings/

Based on this, I'd say that it's unlikely we'll end up in the top 25.

When you put it this way, the fact that the Gophers have finished in the top of half of the Big Ten standings in 4 of the last 5 regularly scheduled seasons (ex 2023) is more impressive.
 



I haven't seen Voss or Petersohn play, so I'll reserve comment on them.

The dude I'd really want is Estrada. Don't know how many "stars" he has and I don't really care.

He will be a star, and something the Gophers haven't had in a while, i.e., a back that is both a one-cut-and-go reliable base-your-offense-around-him back that is also truly explosive. We must land him.
How prophetic!?! Let’s go!
 



Probably closer to 40.
I think you're pretty close. Right now we sit at 209.20 pts in the 247 rankings. Using last year's rankings as a measuring stick. If we didn't add another point, that 209.20 would have put us in 38th place in last year's rankings.
 

Right now MN is 36 in per player average. Finish will be around 40-45 as usual. It would be interesting to know which B10 teams keep their players longest. Having guys stay that extra year instead of opting for draft or transfer would be interesting study, I would think MN would be pretty high on that list.
 


Right now MN is 36 in per player average. Finish will be around 40-45 as usual. It would be interesting to know which B10 teams keep their players longest. Having guys stay that extra year instead of opting for draft or transfer would be interesting study, I would think MN would be pretty high on that list.
This begs the question, at any particular position and with both players having played the same amount to to this point, would you rather have an average production three star guy with four years in your program or a sometimes boom sometimes bust four star guy transferring in for one season? I think you get more production from your three star guy who knows the system in and out. Maybe at QB you roll with the four star but at every other position I think you stick with your long term dudes.
 

I would say 40-50... Their per recruit rank is 87.02, which puts them 16th of 18 in the B1G (Purdue and NW are lower).
12 of the 18 teams in the conference have an average recruit ranking between 86-88. If you want to pretend like there is a massive difference in player quality among those classes feel free but trying to frame the talent we are bringing in as 16th in the conference is a joke, especially when you consider the teams results which are clearly far better then 16th in the conference on the field.

We go through this every year with the team recruiting rankings which are in my opinion one of the most flawed rankings out there. There are the handful of teams that are clearly bringing in elite talent, then there is a massive jumble of teams all bringing in various levels of talent on paper that are all really comparable to each other.

No recruiting class should truly be evaluated until the guys have been in college for 2-3 years and you find out who actually can play and who can't. Add in this transfer portal era where guys are moving all over the place and it lessens the value of recruiting rankings even more because a big chunk of the players you bring in will never play for your team anyway.

In the end it looks like this class is going to be very comparable to most of the classes Fleck has brought in. Won't compare with the classes of teams like Ohio State, USC, Penn State but will be right in line with what the bulk of the conference is bringing in on paper.
 




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