FCS RECRUITING: Top 40 HBCU Recruits

We’re nearly one week removed from the late national signing period opening up, and the recruiting classes of the MEAC and SWAC have come into better focus. So we decided to group the HBCUs together and give a ranking a shot below.

MORE: Compare Any Two FCS Players or Any Two FCS Teams

2018 FCS RECRUITING: HERO Sports ranked the Top 25 recruits

2017 FCS RECRUITING: HERO Sports ranked the Top 250 recruits

2017 FCS RECRUITING: HERO Sports ranked the Top 50 teams

Here are a couple of things to know:

• HERO Sports will publish an FCS national Top 50 classes piece and a FCS Top 250 incoming freshmen piece on Feb. 21. Leading up to that, we’ll be breaking down each conference — all 13 — from an individual standpoint.
• How did we come up with our ranking list below? Simple — it’s subjective, but all recruiting rankings are that way. We combined 247Sports, Rivals, their offer lists and our own thoughts to come up with our version of the FCS recruiting rankings. We provide some of their other top offers in the charts. This is our third year doing this.
• We don’t include junior college or 4-year school transfers in this. This is strictly incoming high school graduates.

So below are the rankings for the MEAC and SWAC.

[divider]

QUICK THOUGHTS ON THE HBCUs: If I had to pick a team winner from the HBCUs (note we will rank Tennessee State with the Ohio Valley Conference and Hampton has moved on to the Big South), I would give the trophy to Prairie View A&M, with schools like Howard, Grambling, Bethune-Cookman and South Carolina State also having top collections. But it was Prairie View that really had the nicest recruiting haul, with new coach Eric Dooley and his staff deserving a ton of credit after the coaching change.

While other programs may have grabbed a better individual here and there, the Panthers signed a loaded class — and we’ll see those dividends in the next few years. The real strength of the Panthers’ class comes on the defensive side of the ball. If we were to choose a MEAC winner, we have to go with Howard. Things are really rocking with the Bison right now coming off a 7-4 season with a young and talented lineup, and it will continue with this recruiting class.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A couple of HBCU programs have not gone public with their signing classes yet.

Swipe left to right on mobile devices to see “other offers”:

THE HBCU TOP 40