We're one week removed from the late national signing period opening up, and the recruiting classes of the Ivy League have come into better focus. The Ivy League is unique in that its teams routinely beat out Power Five conference programs, obviously because of the academic reputation.
[divider]MORE: Compare Any Two FCS Players or Any Two FCS Teams[divider]
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 "top individuals" 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, the players' 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 any of this work. This is strictly incoming high school graduates.
So below are the rankings for the Ivy League.
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QUICK THOUGHTS ON THE IVY LEAGUE: These recruiting classes are just flat out incredible, topped by Princeton and Yale — who I'd call 1A and 1B in that order — when it comes to their recruiting classes. Last year, Harvard was our "mythical" national FCS recruiting champion, and two years ago Yale was No. 2. These programs continue to impress and it once again begs the question — what would these programs do if they made themselves eligible for the FCS playoffs? Yale's team last year would have gone several rounds, at least. And the talent listed below proves it. Every single kid below is a 3-star prospect with at least one recruiting service, and Brevin White at the top is the FCS' lone 4-star prospect. This is an incredible list, and while this is only a Top 25 list, one can be certain more than 25 Ivy League recruits will make our final national Top 250 next Wednesday (Feb. 21).
[divider]Swipe left to right on mobile devices to see "other offers":
THE IVY LEAGUE TOP 25
RK | FCS CHOICE | POS | PROSPECT | HOMETOWN | HGT | WGT | OTHER OFFERS |
1 | PRINCETON | QB | Brevin White | Lancaster, CA | 6'2" | 185 | Tennessee, Five Pac 12 offers |
2 | YALE | RB | Trenton Charles | Baton Rouge, LA | 5'9" | 165 | Arizona, Arizona State, TCU- 14 offers |
3 | PRINCETON | DT | Tola Banjoko | Alexandria, VA | 6'5" | 245 | Georgia, Missouri, Wisc. – 10 offers |
4 | PENN | OL | Travis Spreen | Portland, OR | 6'4" | 290 | Academies, Ivys, Montana St. |
5 | HARVARD | DT | Justin Kakala | Manteca, CA | 6'4" | 270 | Cal decommit; Colorado |
6 | PRINCETON | OL | Zack Zambrano | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 6'3" | 290 | Maryland, Marshall, Tulane – 16 total |
7 | HARVARD | WR | Kym Wimberly | New Orleans, LA | 5'11" | 185 | 20 total, many Group 5s and FCS |
8 | PRINCETON | LB | Isaac Hall | San Diego, CA | 6'2" | 210 | San Jose St, New Mex, UNLV, Utah St |
9 | YALE | OG | Tate Goodyear | Cincinnati, OH | 6'4" | 275 | Iowa State, MAC – 19 offers |
10 | HARVARD | RB | DeMarkes Stradford | Charlotte, NC | 5'10" | 165 | Virginia – 19 total offers |
11 | PENN | WR | Rory Starkey | Atlanta, GA | 6'1" | 195 | Illinois – 8 offers |
12 | YALE | QB | Nick Henkel | Greenwich, CT | 6'4" | 180 | Rutgers, Uconn, Holy Cross |
13 | COLUMBIA | CB | Derric Lee | Aurora, IL | 6'0" | 170 | Harvard decommit, Academies, MAC, Valley, Ivys |
14 | PRINCETON | DE | Michael Azevedo | San Diego, CA | 6'4" | 250 | Cal, Air Force, Montana -13 offers |
15 | YALE | S | Brian Abraham | Brockton, MA | 6'4" | 190 | Army, Rhode Island |
16 | YALE | FB | Elliott McElwain | Trussville, AL | 6'0" | 205 | Army decommit; Citadel, Furman, Columbia |
17 | COLUMBIA | WR | Trajen Johnson | Little Rock, AR | 6'2" | 185 | Academies – 13 offers |
18 | YALE | DB | Miles Oldacre | Spring, TX | 5'10" | 185 | Tennessee, Vandy – 24 offers |
19 | PRINCETON | OL | Emmett McNamara | Red Bank, NJ | 6'6" | 250 | Virginia decommit – 10 offers |
20 | COLUMBIA | WR | Mozes Mooney | La Jolla, CA | 6'1" | 180 | Bost. College – 15 total offers |
21 | YALE | QB | Griffin O'Connor | Huntington Beach, CA | 6'3" | 195 | UNLV decommit – 7 offers |
22 | PRINCETON | OT | Jack Carter | Davidson, NC | 6'5" | 270 | App State, Ga. Southern, Brown |
23 | PRINCETON | ATH | Trey Gray | Piedmont, SC | 5'11" | 170 | 7 FCS offers |
24 | HARVARD | QB | Patrick Holly | Princeton, NJ | 6'4" | 200 | Delaware, Holy Cross, Cornell, Lafayette |
25 | YALE | OL | Nicholas Sligh | Athens, GA | 6'3" | 310 | 5 FBS offers – 22 total offers |