The FCS recruiting picture is going from foggy to a tad bit more in focus, and we at HERO Sports figured we'd begin taking a look at the classes around the leagues. Some of the Ivy League schools receive their high school commitments later, as a collective, but others have already been very active. Every program is different in its recruiting philosophy.
Below, we have team rankings based on we've seen as of Nov. 7, and a Top 35 ranking of the Ivy League recruits. Next up? Other conferences, and then the national rankings before/around the week of Nov. 18 … oh, and the six conferences we've already published? They're linked below the Ivy League's rankings.
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Ah yes, the team rankings. So what is this "top half of the Ivy League" team ranking based on so far? First, the numbers of recruits on board, plus … collectively … what other offers did these recruits have before they committed? Now … this is still early in the process, and there are several programs that recruit "later" in the cycle because their hotbeds are a bit different. Also, with the Ivy League being officially "non-scholarship" there are different factors in how a player pledges to a program. In effect, these young men commit to going through the academic admissions process … but they've been offered a spot at making the team if they're admitted academically.
As of right now? Princeton is ahead of Harvard by a sliver. Literally one more key recruit coming aboard could change this order and put Harvard on top, so keep an eye on that dynamic as we go through the next several months. Yale is a pretty distant third behind the first two, but is firmly in third by itself, ahead of Penn, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth and Brown are continuing to build out their classes. Dartmouth's group is small so far, Columbia's is small but there are some quality recruits. Cornell has a larger group and Brown has a group similar to Dartmouth's.
IVY LEAGUE TEAM RANKING (as of Nov. 7)
1. Princeton
2. Harvard
3. Yale
4. Penn[divider]
IVY LEAGUE TOP 35 RECRUITS (as of Nov. 7)
NOTE: These high school recruits are ranked by how many other college options these commitments had, and who those offers came from. This is NOT using the star system from any of the recruiting services (never will).
| RK | FCS TEAM | POS | PROSPECT | HOMETOWN | OTHER D-1 OPTIONS |
| 1 | COLUMBIA | TE | Dominic Busby | West Orange, NJ | Rutgers, Maryland, 12 G5s, 12 FCS |
| 2 | YALE | OL | Michael Leone | Princeton, NJ | Maryland, Kansas, 8 G5, 18 FCS |
| 3 | HARVARD | TE | Tyler Neville | Williamsburg, VA | 9 FBS offers, 18 FCS |
| 4 | PRINCETON | TE | Tyler Picinic | New Milford, NJ | 6 FBS, 20 FCS |
| 5 | PRINCETON | OL | Mac Duda | Jefferson Hills, PA | 6 FBS, 20 FCS |
| 6 | HARVARD | DE | Tyler Huenemann | Mount Pleasant, MI | 11 FBS offers, 9 FCS offers |
| 7 | PRINCETON | QB | Blaine McAllister | Atlanta, GA | N.C. State, 11 FBS offers, 5 Ivys |
| 8 | PRINCETON | LB | Austin Nicholas | Encinitas, CA | 4 P5, 7 G5, 5 Ivys |
| 9 | YALE | ATH | Zion Dayne | Lorton, VA | 3 FBS, 19 FCS |
| 10 | HARVARD | OL | Logan Bednar | Bellflower, CA | Kansas, Air Force, 18 total offers |
| 11 | PENN | DB | Shiloh Means | Indianapolis, IN | 9 FBS, 6 FCS offers |
| 12 | YALE | OL | Bennie Anderson | St. Louis, MO | 5 FBS offers, 14 FCS offers |
| 13 | HARVARD | OL | Jake Rizy | Westport, CT | BostColl., 4 G5, 8 FCS |
| 14 | YALE | DL | Mitchell Tyler | McKinney, TX | Baylor, Kansas, 5 G5, 2 FCS |
| 15 | HARVARD | OL | Jake Lugg | Wexford, PA | Nebraska, 6 G5 offers, 6 FCS |
| 16 | PENN | DL | Henry Iloanya | Washington, DC | Rutgers, 4 G5, 10 FCS |
| 17 | PENN | DB | Henry Blackburn | Boulder, CO | 5 FBS, 11 FCS |
| 18 | PRINCETON | WR | JoJo Hawkins | Orange, CA | 6 FBS, 9 FCS |
| 19 | HARVARD | RB | Israel Benjamin | Scottsdale, AZ | BYU, Navy, Army, 14 FCS |
| 20 | HARVARD | DL | Micaiah Bell | Acworth, GA | 2 FBS, 16 FCS |
| 21 | PENN | WR | Josh Casilli | McMurray, PA | 2 FBS, 16 FCS |
| 22 | COLUMBIA | TE | Stephen Brooks | Brookline, MA | 3 FBS, 13 FCS |
| 23 | HARVARD | QB | Caleb Holstein | Lafayette, LA | Mizzou, B.C., 8 G5, 3 FCS offers |
| 24 | HARVARD | LB | Brock Locnikar | Scottsdale, AZ | Rice, Army, New Mex St., 12 FCS |
| 25 | PRINCETON | LB | Caleb Coleman | Wellesley, MA | Rutgers, UMass, Navy, 10 FCS |
| 26 | PRINCETON | DL | Chase Robertson | Nashville, TN | 2 FBS, 14 FCS |
| 27 | PRINCETON | TE | Simon Brackin | Jacksonvile, FL | 4 FBS, 10 FCS |
| 28 | HARVARD | DB | Phillip Smitherman | Oklahoma City, OK | 2 FBS, 13 FCS |
| 29 | HARVARD | OL | Brian Burns | Mission, KS | Kent St., 6 Ivys, 7 MVFCs |
| 30 | PRINCETON | RB | Mike Maessner | Kearney, NE | Iowa State, 3 FBS, 6 total |
| 31 | PRINCETON | RB | Ashton Stredick | Needville, TX | Baylor, AF, SoMiss, TexSt, Army, UIW |
| 32 | COLUMBIA | OG | Braeden Bellmer | Puyallup, WA | Rice, 10 FCS offers |
| 33 | PENN | OL | Callum Abernethy | Greenwich, CT | Army, 10 FCS |
| 34 | PRINCETON | WR | Luke Colella | Wexford, PA | Cent. Mich., 9 FCS teams |
| 35 | PRINCETON | ATH | Niko Vangarelli | Kennesaw, GA | 2 FBS, 6 FCS offers |
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- RANKINGS: MVFC Recruiting Rankings (Sept. 2019)
- RANKINGS: CAA Recruiing Rankings (Sept. 2019)
- RANKINGS: OVC Recruiting Rankings (Oct. 2019)
- RANKINGS: Big Sky Recruiing Rankings (Oct. 2019)
- RANKINGS: SoCon Recruiting Rankings (Oct. 2019)
- RANKINGS: Patriot League Recruiting Rankings (Nov. 2019)
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